I have at last found some likely baptisms for the family who were listed on that lease / release:
Robert Glass, son of John and Sarah, baptised 30 Aug 1761 Widcombe St Thomas a Becket
John Glass, son of John, baptised 28 Aug 1763 Widcombe St Thomas a Becket
Robert Glass, a child, buried 23 Feb 1766 Widcombe St Mark
Mary Glass, daughter of John and Mary, baptised 17 Oct 1768 St Peter & St Paul, Bath
Robert Glass, son of John and Mary, baptised 29 Dec 1789 Walcot St Swithin, age 5 years.
The leases and releases etc referring to "John Glass, tiler and plasterer" run from 1771 to 1795 and then the one listing "John Glass of Bath, tiler; Isaac Amesbury of Bath and Mary his wife (née Glass); Ann Llewellyn (née Glass) and Robert Glass of Bath" is dated 1812, so it now looks to me likely that the tiler and plasterer is John senior, and the tiler is John junior, and Mary, Ann and Robert are John junior's sisters and brother and listed in order of age. I haven't found a baptism for Ann yet but there must be some baptisms in between Mary and Robert, it's just there are so many possible churches. I also haven't found either of John senior's marriages (to Sarah and to Mary) or Sarah's burial. There is a John Glascadine buried at Walcot St Swithin 11 Jul 1798 who could be John senior (but I think not as I had this one down as a child and the child's parents have another John in 1806). The burial for Mary Amsbury 18 Apr 1827 Walcot St Swithin, age 60, abode Lampard's Buildings, fits with Mary Glass's baptism, and John junior being born about 1763 fits pretty well with his age at death too.
So, I now have to chop off the top few branches of my tree! I feel quite sad to have finally (more or less) proved my Granny's tree wrong. She must have spent ages tracing the wrong family in those pre-internet days. I would like to know whether John Glass senior was actually a Glasscodine but called himself Glass for decades, or if for some reason the family just decided to change their name from Glass to Glasscodine some time in the 1790's. (Since he had a son in 1761, he can't be the John on Granny's tree who was born in 1747 or 1749, so she didn't just miss out a generation.)
It is really weird for this branch of my tree to go from one of the rarest surnames around, easy to search for apart from having to go through all the variations, to such a common word that it is more or less useless to search for unless it is together with a first name (i.e. I have to search for the phrase "John Glass" as just Glass brings back nothing helpful!)
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