Hello Jill,
That's the one, thanks. It's always a pleasant surprise when the BMD site is updated and another link in the chain is uncovered.
I've drawn a blank on his birth certificate but have a suspicion that his surname at birth was not piears - this may be tricky to prove or disprove beyond reasonable doubt but I'll keep plugging away at it.
At least getting a copy of his death cert disproved a family rumour about his uncommon cause of death - I still find in this genealogical delving that, contrary to the well known phrase, fiction is quite often stranger than fact.
Thanks for your prompt on James - I'm still no further towards gathering documentation on the 18th C Piears connections other than the stuff available through the National Archives.
If anyone else out there researching Piears wants to contact me direct I can be found with my username (matpiears) @hotmail.com
Regards, Mat.