Hi Abbey,

I’ve been doing some searching for you and I think it’s a bit more complicated than it first looks.

On the marriage certificate of Emily Sarah (Amy) WARREN to Charles Frederick HILL she does indeed give her father’s name as Joseph WARREN, and his occupation as Gardener.
However, if you look at the marriage certificate of her sister, Amy Matilda WARREN to George Henry DARLING (as suggested by Jane and available to view on Ancestry), you’ll see that under the entry for father it says ‘unknown’.

I’ve looked at their ‘Aunt’ Matilda’s family:
Matilda WARREN was born 19 Jan, baptised 19 Feb 1826 in St Marylebone to parents James & Sarah WARREN. James’ occupation is shown as farrier.
I can find baptisms for two sons, James b.1812 & Henry b.1816 where the parents’ names and father’s occupation match this couple but nothing at all for a Joseph WARREN.

Moving onto the census records prior to Matilda WARREN’s marriage to William JONES in 1853.

On the 1851 census Matilda is living in Clapham with her widowed mother, Sarah, whose occupation is shown as an invalid nurse, however, if you look at the family directly above Sarah & Matilda on the page you’ll notice something odd.

Joseph HANCOCK head 32 b.1819 West Ham, Surrey, occupation Well borer
Sarah HANCOCK wife 29 b.1822 Westminster
Anny Mather HANCOCK dau 6 b.1845 Clapham
Emily Sarah HANCOCK dau 3 b.1848 Clapham
Catherine Hannah HANCOCK 4m b.1851 Clapham

Firstly, the eldest daughter’s name has been mistranscribed, it actually says AMY MATILDA.

Checking out the BMD registers there are no birth registrations to match either of the two eldest HANCOCK daughters in Wandsworth (which covers the Clapham area) or anywhere else for that matter, but there is a registration for Catherine Anna HANCOCK Dec 1850 Wandsworth.

I then checked the 1861 census for Joseph HANCOCK and he’s now living in Lambeth, still a well digger, with his wife (for some reason his wife’s name is transcribed as Elizabeth but on later census it reverts to Sarah) and daughter Catherine age 10 and new daughter Mina age 7 (her birth is registered as Annie Mina HANCOCK Jun 1854 Wandsworth).

I’d suggest that the missing elder daughters could actually be your two WARREN girls, and that their mother was most likely Matilda WARREN. It’s even possible that their father could have been Joseph HANCOCK, perhaps memories of a father named Joseph who did some kind of digging for a living prompted the father’s details Emily provided at her marriage.

To confirm this you’d have to obtain copies of the girls’ birth certificates:
Amy Matilda WARREN Oct 1844 Wandsworth v.4 p.528
Emily Sarah WARREN Oct 1847 Wandsworth v.4 p.536

Hope this helps

Regards
Linda