Re: Charles William Adair, bc. 1776, commissioned aged 6yrs

I'm afraid my family was responsible for suggesting that the parents of Captain (later Rear-Admiral) William Prowse of HMS Sirius were Richard and Sarah (nee Serjeant) Prowse. It was a persistent family belief of my grandfather and father (Richard and Sarah were my grandfather's great-grandparents). Information in the Society of Genealogists and the Dorset record office (and Susan Tako's Prowse book) needs to be updated and corrected. Generations of my Prowse family were in the Royal Navy both before, during and after the service of Captain William Prowse, and my grandfather was given a chest of drawers by the descendants of Captain Blackwood that had belonged to Captain Prowse, reinforcing the supposed connection, and baptism dates fitted, so a not unnatural assumption.

In fact, William Prowse's parents were John and Dorothy Prowse, their children's baptisms in East Stonehouse. This may now be clear to those who posted messages in 2008, but I thought I would clarify this.

Here is an Adair puzzle though:
The microfiche for Plymouth St Andrew baptisms (in West Devon Record Office)shows the following:

8 August 1785
Adair, Ann Jane Melicent, dau of Benjamin and Susanna, Major Royal Marines
Adair, Thomas Benjamin, son of Benjamin and Mary, Major Royal Marines

(I don't vouch for the exact order of words - I made my notes years ago, but the content is as I saw it).

Was Thomas Benjamin not the son of Susanna Adair, nee Prowse? If so, who was Mary? It seems an odd mistake to make for an entry made on the same day.