Family history information becomes less certain when it comes to a birth date for Benjamin Brettell, there are a number of candidate Benjamin Brettells born between 1779 and 1802 but I believe at the Benjamin Brettell christened in 1782 in Halesowen is the most likely candidate; this is based on feasible ages when he married his first wife, Elizabeth Price in 1806 when he would have been 24, with Elizabeth being 23, and his second wife, Nancy when he was 31 and Nancy only 17. If this is the correct Benjamin his parents were John and Joan Brettell and Benjamin had four brothers and two sisters, interestingly with the name varying between Brettell and Brettle apparently depending on the choice of the recording cleric at the time. The family history before John and Joan becomes yet more uncertain.
Returning to the marriage of Benjamin to Elizabeth: the witnesses were Sarah Brettell (Benjamin had a sister Sarah 2 yrs younger) and Edward Price (who may have been a brother to Elizabeth), all “made their mark” so I assume that they were illiterate, which would be expected of working people at that date. They had two daughters, Mary in 1809 and Sarah, in 1811, both christened at the Unitarian nonconformist Park Lane Chapel, Cradley, Mary married John Faulkner in 1829 and went on to have five children. I think it probable that Sarah married a Edward Newey in 1826, her age on the marriage record would make her 19 but this may be to cover the fact that she was really only 14 or 15 when they had their first child Elijah, out of wedlock in 1826. During the 19th century the minimum age for marriage with parental consent was only 12 for a girl and 14 for a boy so teenage marriages would not have been uncommon.
Benjamin’s wife Elizabeth died sometime after 1811, and in 1818 Benjamin was remarried to Nancy Hardman when he was a 31 year old widower. Their first son John followed in 1819 with a further 7 children thereafter, Nancy, Hannah, Lucy, Maria, Mary Ann, Benjamin and Josiah. Benjamin Brettell was shown as "labourer, dead" on the marriage certificate of his son, Benjamin in 1853. Benjamin (senior) had died from asthma in 1839 at Lawrence Lane, Old Hill and was buried in St. Giles church Rowley Regis. The children of Benjamin and Nancy went on to have their own families but the most significant child of Benjamin and Nancy for my own family tree was Maria Brettell, born in 1829. More information on Nancy and her daughter Maria is given on the Maria Brettell page.
(1) https://www.worcesteranddudleyhistoricchurches.org.uk/...cradley/cradley-unitarian-church. Cradley Unitarian Church History Worcester and Dudley Historic Churches Trust