I have found one or probably two other branches of the Bray clan that held its baptisms at St. Michael, Stoke, with parents also named Thomas and Elizabeth Bray.
There is a record for a Thomas Bray, with parents T&EB, who was baptised on 15 July 1756, and a likely burial record in Bedworth in 1840, for a TB aged 86. Since the daughters of the TB who married Elizabeth Olson lived at Bedworth, I think this is probably the one who married Elizabeth Olson in 1784.
There were 9 Bray children baptised at Stoke between 1760 (Elizabeth) and 1776 (Lydia) with parents named T&EB. Sadly, one of those, baptised in 1766 was also named Thomas, and in my search that baptism was somehow linked to a burial of a TB in 1767. That may be an error, since another TB was buried that year, but it is hard to imagine that that this T&EB named another child Thomas if they were also the parents of the one born in 1756 and still living.
Without the extra TB baptised in 1766, I would have concluded that the TB born in 1730 (son of TB the butcher and Elizabeth Green) married another Elizabeth and was the father of all those children. That would easily bridge the 57 year gap.
But that extra record for the 1766 baptism casts doubt that line of argument, and suggests that there were two couples with the same names having the children baptised in the same church.
I realize this is a particularly circuitous rabbit hole, and that chasing down the TB connections does nothing to advance my main goal of tracing ancestors. But the lack of clarity is frustrating. However, maybe we should let it go for now.
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