Thanks to the internet and a lot of hard work by an army of photographers and indexers, it became possible in the early 21st century to search the 19th century census records for England and Wales. The records clarified much but also showed a lot of enigmas. At that time the focus of the search for Inksons was on Kings Lynn in Norfolk.
The 1861 census showed [after THI was eventually found indexed as Thomas H 'Iwkson' with a 'w' not an 'n'] three Thomas Inksons in Kings Lynn [one of them being foreshortened as 'Thos']. THI was living in Exton's Road with his young family, working as a Railway Clerk. Poor young Thos, 8 years old, was an inmate at the Union Workhouse. The third, 4 years old, was living with Henry Garner and his family at the 'Three Tuns' pub and was described as his grandson. Garner was the maiden name of THI's wife Martha!
There seemed three possibilities : either young Thomas is the son of THI and Martha [but his name had not come down the generations] or another Garner girl had married another Inkson or he wasn't really a grandson.
It was time to apply for a copy of young Thomas' Birth Certificate. The opportunity was taken to also apply for the Marriage Certificate of THI and Martha :
Thomas Harborow Inkson, aged 21, married Martha Garner, aged 18, on the 16th of March 1856. The marriage took place in the church at Islington, Norfolk [now called Tilney cum Islington and apparently without a church of its own] even though bride and groom give Kings Lynn as their residence. The marriage was by licence, not by banns. Thomas Henry was born 28 days later :
So Thomas Henry is the first son of THI and Martha, conceived out of wedlock and possibly his true origins were concealed from people. He was born in his paternal grandparent's house : 43 High Street. Was he brought up by his maternal grandparents or was he just visiting that night when the census fell? Why was his name not handed down through the rest of the family? By 1871 he is boarding in Holt, about 20 miles away from the family in Burnham Sutton and is a scholar [life cannot have been that bad : his landlady was a confectioner!]. By 1881 he is in Norwich, has a family of his own and is on the way to establishing his own omnibus company.
However, these new records throw up other questions which now have to be answered*. On the marriage certificate, THI's father is given as William, a butcher. There is no trace of a William Inkson, Butcher in Kings Lynn by the 1861 census although there is a William Inkson, Butcher in Chichester in 1861 but he is recorded as having been born there. Did THI's father not survive to see his son married? There are two William Inkson deaths in Kings Lynn in the few years before the wedding and the witness is Sarah Ann, presumably THI's mother, rather than William.
* When the 1851 census became easily accessible it became clear that there was a William Inkson who was a butcher in King's Lynn and that he was indeed the father of THI. His death certificate has also been obtained : he died on December 12 1852.