Is this a wrongly recorded entry in a parish register?
There is an entry in the West Barkwith, Lincolnshire parish register for the baptism of Elizabeth Clipsham on the 20 October 1799.
Note that Clipsham and Clipson were used almost interchangeably for their family name. The parents are shown as Richard and Ann Clipsham.
This appears to me to have been wrongly recorded in the register and it should be Richard and Mary (Garratt).
Reasons:
Richard married Mary in 1797 and their eldest daughter Mary was baptised a year later. Following her is Elizabeth and then continuing fairly regularly through to 1812. There were no other Clipsham families in the parish at this time.
No suitable Richard Clipsham marriage has been found to an Ann.
There were relatively few Elizabeth’s baptised in a suitable time-frame. There was one in Nettleham in 1804 to Antony and Elizabeth, and others in Scamblesby and Harmston.
In 1822 at the marriage of Mary Ann Clipson to John Allis, Elizabeth Clipson was a witness.
In 1824 at the marriage of Elizabeth Clipson to John Fewster, Mary Ann Allis was a witness (as was her husband John).
Taking all into account this seems to have been a slip of the pen by whoever recorded the baptism, but as it is in the transcribed records for the parish may be causing some problems in tracing back on the Fewster line.
As an update to this, after viewing a number of parish registers in Essex a few cases of mis-recording have been seen. As an example at Romford for an entry for John and Elizabeth Frost in 1731 - a note at the bottom of the page dated 1762 notes that John searched the rgister and stated that that the entry was incorrect and his wife's name was Mary.
The Clipsons appeared in West Barkwith around 1722.
There is an interesting note against the burial of Nicholas Vicars on 24 December 1719: In all probability more than ninety years of age as he himselfe said, he guided Oliver Cromwell over Market Raisin moor in his return from the battle of Winceby (as best as I can read from the register)
