Two ladies, two transported husbands – so who fathered their later children?

I have two particular female ancestors that each found themselves on their own after their husbands were transported for being a bit naughty!  One was transported for life and the other for ten years.

Each of these ladies continued on with their lives and then I discovered that at some stage while their husbands were transported, they each had a child.  Obviously the fathers were not their husbands, which means that these ladies were “involved” shall we say with other gentlemen! 

The lady whose husband was away for ten years would have expected him to come back so I wonder how she would explain this extra child that appeared while he was away.  The other lady whose husband was transported for life quite obviously knew she would never see him again – I doubt she could have afforded to make the trip to Australia all those many years ago.  But then everyone in the town/village where she lived would also have known that her husband was transported for life, so I wonder what they thought of this extra child.

As to discovering who the new fathers were, I think there are some clues to follow up!  The daughter who was born to the lady with the transported for life husband has a surname as a middle name.  I have not found this surname within the family, so think her Mother has let everyone know who the father could be.  All I need to do now is search the town/village where they live to see who is about at the same time with that particular surname.  Hopefully I will discover more from there.

As to the lady with the husband transported for ten years, she had a son and his first name is very unusual (for that time).  I have come across two people with that first name in the vicinity and about the same time.  So, I am wondering if one of these could be the father?  I shall need to get my Sherlock Holmes outfit on, deerstalker hat, pipe and magnifying glass (my partner Paul said he would buy me one to suit the Sherlock Holmes image – I wonder if that is why last week he bought me an A4 size magnifying sheet)??  I have a lot of detective work to do.  I will add my discoveries to this, so I can move it out of the “Coming Soon …” section.