JOSEPH GILBERT (b1800) is the third of the four sons and eighth child of ROBERT GILBERT (1766-1840) and Mary KENT. According to the Banham baptismal register, he was born on 11th December 1800 and baptised five days later.
JOSEPH (b.1800) married three months before his 17th birthday on the 22nd September 1817 in the nearby village of Kenninghall, his bride's home. The marriage is witnessed by Charles Bailey and Jemima West (probably Mary Ann's sister or mother?) two references I haven't pursued.
It doesn't seem odd to me that JOSEPH (b1800) becomes an Engineer. His brother and father (ROBERT (1766-1840 and ROBERT b 1791) are successful Millwrights and his other brother GEORGE (1797-1876) is a brickmaker. They are all farming at the same time. JOSEPH (b1800) would be surrounded by early manufacture, presses, new agricultural machinery, mills and forging. This was the time of industrial revolution and if he showed any aptitude in mechanics, it would be natural to follow a trade so in demand at the time.
Within 9 years JOSEPH (b1800) was heading south. One assumes, like many young people at the time, following the draw of the opportunities and wages of the developing towns and cities of the Industrial Revolution.
JOSEPH (b1800) went first to Bury St Edmunds, where Greene King ale has been brewed and it is conceivable that his engineering knowledge is linked with brewing from the cider presses and pressure vats being used in Banham. I have contacted the Greene King factory but there are no records to prove this.
This may also have brought him to London, though at the time of the industrial revolution, with much being driven by steam, his engineering knowledge would have been adaptable to any 'manufactory'.
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