Any help with my elusive Charlton ancestors would be received with pathetic gratitude! They are:-
(1) Robert Charlton, b 1800-1825, presumed in Northumberland (poss Bellingham area?) or Nonn Tyne. Had son JAMES b1844/5 & MARY A. b1850, both in N-on-Tyne. Can find no census record of him or the children in Newsactle & district 1851. Robert was still alive in 1872, when he was described as a gardener. There was a family myth, put about by my g'mother, that he had been the son of a Noble House up in the Charlton enclave n. of Hexham, & had been disowned for falling in love below stairs... but then she started to say that about most of our ancestors before completely losing her marbles.

(2) JAMES Charlton, son of Robert, b 1844/5 in N-on-Tyne according to the 1881 census. He was a coachman for a wealthy family who had a house called Brynkinallt, Chirk, Denbighshire, as well as houses in Brighton & London. James married on 20.3.1872 at Chirk AMELIA PRYCE /PRICE (bc1853 Llandinam, Montgomery) & had 3 sons:- JAMES (bc1872, Chirk), later Canadian Mounted Police; ROBERT (bc1874 London, Middx), later S.African Mounted Police; & ALBERT EDWARD (b17.2.1876 Brighton), later 17th Lancers in 2nd Boer War & then S.Wales; m 31.3.1902 at Hereford to EMILY JANE RAYMOND (b27.1.1872 Yeovil, Sm'set). James Snr died before Albert's wedding in 1902. Can find no trace of his birth, death or whereabouts after 1881, when he was in Brighton.

(3) MARY A. CHARLTON (bc1850 N-on-Tyne), sister of James, who in the 1881 census was a 31 yr old unmarried dressmaker, living with her brother & his family in Brighton. I have found the birth cert of a Mary Ann Charlton, F Robert (gardener) & M Ann (ex-Anderson), b17.3.1850 at Brandling Place, Jesmond. Sounds good, but can't be sure it's the right Mary A., & whether it is or not, there's no sign of her or her parents on the 1851 censuses of N-on-Tyne & district!

Any help out there? Or does anyone think we're connected? Make an old woman very happy....