Samuel RUDGE

I'm assuming that "Sutton, Warwickshire", which is where Samuel says he was born in the 1851 census - his one and only appearance in any official document that I have yet found - refers to Sutton Coldfield. If that is the case, then there was only one Rudge family in Sutton Coldfield at the time, and that was the one of Edward Rudge and Mary Ellis, who married there in 1778. And although Samuel is not listed as being baptised there, for the moment I will take it that Edward and Mary are his parents. There is an Edward Rudge baptised in 1788 and, as they had already had another Edward Rudge who definitely survived, it's very likely that this is Samuel's baptism and that someone made a mistake. Given the confusion over his wife Mary's surname, it's not surprising that it's taken me so long to unravel this bit of the tree!