Morning Roger,
It was John Barson, son of Richard, I think married Eliz Bennet. He appeared to have been widowed quite soon and moved back to the pub.
My assumption of my John Barson dying at Shardlow now looks wrong too. I have found another family living there with John a "labourer" - unless he was a bigamist! Now looks he died at Exhall which is a bit more likely. It is funny that you can search one day and get different results another.
I am still missing him on 1841 & 1851 censuses when Ann Orton seems to be home alone with the children.
Looking at criminal records, I found 3 possible cases against Thomas Barson. He got off the 1st 2 for larceny (2nd one sheep stealing) but got imprisoned for the 3rd case.

Oooh, we come from smart stock. Never mind, the brother of my husband's GGGrandfather got deported to NSW for sheep stealing, so it could have been worse.

Jane