EDDY Family of Cornwall

I couldn't find a marriage record for a John EDDY and Susanna, however there is a burial record for a John EDDY / KEAR in 1770, St Just. There is also a marriage record for a John KEARE to Susanna TRESISE 1744 in St Just. It is almost certain that this is the same person. Quite why he used the two surnames is not known. Could he have been an illegitimate child? I cannot find a baptism record in either surname.

I've seen the KEIR records in St Hilary, and also noticed that there are many occurrences of KEARN - maybe the N could have been lost by a registrar when the name was given verbally? Still no baptisms to match.

There is a good match for a baptism for Susanna: dau of Henry TRESISE and Mary (nee TRESISE). This would explain why John and Susanna have a son named Henry. I have their first son as Richard, but he might not be their son (baptism only recorded father's name) - see below for more on this. His baptism was 11 Aug 1744 and the marriage for John and Susanna was 20 Apr 1744, but I still think Richard could be their child - I've heard that back then it was common to conceive before marriage (to ensure the female could have children). So IF Richard is their first child, the logical conclusion for his name would be from John's father.

I've looked through all John K... baptisms from 1700-1729 on Cornwall OPC, as well as John son of Richard, but nothing obvious jumps out. There's a John KERKEAK (probably a variation of current day CARGEEG), son of Richard and Eliz baptised in Sancreed 15 Nov 1730, but this would seem too late for John to then be married in 1744. So after all that, I've drawn a blank.

Looking at John's children, the St Just baptism register entries for Mary (17 Feb 1753), and 3x Susanna (11 Jul 1747, 01 Jan 1751 and 07 Nov 1761) are all recorded as daughters of John EDDY but no mother's name is recorded. This is why these children have also been recorded as children of John EDDY and Mary MATTHEWS in some family trees I have seen. I have assumed the 3x Susanna are children of John EDDY and Susanna - burial registers were checked and 2x Susanna were buried shortly after their baptism, suggesting all 3 may have been from the same family, most logically with the mother of the same name. Unfortunately it is harder to work out Mary's parents, so at the moment she is recorded in both families.

Also, other children recorded in the St Just baptism register as children of "John EDDY" are: Mary, 27 Apr 1734 John, 09 May 1739 Richard, 11 Aug 1744 Peter, 29 Jul 1759 James, 05 Nov 1763 Mary, 30 Oct 1774

There is a baptism for a Susanna, 1 Dec 1782 in St Just, with parents Richard and Jane. It is possible that Richard could be the one above baptised 11 Aug 1744, giving his mother's name to his daughter, and although this is speculative I have attributed Richard to this couple. There is a similar case for James baptised 05 Nov 1763, who married Honour GRENFELL and had a daughter Susanna.

However, there is a spanner in the works regarding the name Susanna being passed down to subsequent generations - John's wife is not the only Susanna in the EDDY family, and more importantly she's not the first. The couple mentioned previously, John and Mary, could still be parents of Susannas whose baptisms only mentioned their father, John. The problem is that that John's mother could have been Susanna GENDALL. Need to investigate this further.