Where was John Wilkey born?

My 3x great grandfather John Wilkey died in August 1877 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, aged 65. He was a tobacco pipe maker. He married Elizabeth Bath at St John the Baptist, Bedminster on 11 March 1833. 

My biggest question is where John was born. 

The 1841 Census has him living in Great George Street, Bristol, with his family and two other families, including his in-laws. It gives his age as 25, though the 1841 Census ages for adults are rounded to the nearest 5 or 10. It says he is from Out of County - therefore he was not born in Gloucestershire.

In 1851 the Census lists John and his family living at New Street, Bristol. His age is given as 38 and he was supposedly born in Bath, Somerset. The rest of his family are all listed as born in Bristol, Gloucestershire.

The 1861 Census has John, his wife Elizabeth, son John, and grandson James living in Prospect Place, Bristol. John is aged 48, and his birthplace is given as Bath, Somerset.

The 1871 Census has John and his wife Elizabeth living together, gives John's age as 58, and once again his birthplace is listed as Bath, Somerset.

One would think this is all pretty compelling evidence that John Wilkey was born in Bath, Somerset in about 1813. Unfortunately, I cannot find any record for a John Wilkey born around 1813 in Bath. 

Searching using FreeReg, I widened the search to the whole of Somerset, in 1813, which produced one record - a baptism for John Wilkey in 1813 in Taunton, Somerset, to Joseph and Susanna Wilkey. Widening the search further, for Somerset between 1810 to 1815 found three baptism records, John Wilkey (as above), William Wilkey, in 1811 in Wilton (part of Taunton), who was John's brother, and Mary Wilkey, in 1814, to William and Diana Wilkey, in Templecombe. The distance as the crow flies from Bath to Taunton is about 65km, and from Bath to Templecombe is about 40km - neither place being particularly close to Bath.

For good measure, I searched all counties in England on FreeReg between 1810 and 1815 for Wilkey baptisms. This produced eight records, from Devon, Somerset and Cornwall. The only John Wilkey was the one from Taunton, Somerset in 1813.

I changed the setting to names that might sound like John Wilkey and it produced the following:

Name	Baptism	Place
John WALLIS	20 Feb 1813	Frome
John WELCH	18 Apr 1813	Kilmington
John WELLS	12 Jun 1813	Shepton Mallet
John WILLS	27 Jun 1813	West Chinnock
John WILKEY	25 Dec 1813	Taunton

The fact that there is only one John Wilkey makes me choose him as the most likely option.

I realise that FreeReg doesn't have a comprehensive record of all parish record baptisms in England, so I searched FamilySearch for a John Wilkey baptised in 1813 in England. Once again, the only John Wilkey baptised in 1813 in the whole of England in their records was the one baptised in Taunton to Joseph and Susanna Wilkey.

So we could assume from all this that our John Wilkey was born in Taunton, baptised at Taunton St James on 25 December 1813, born to parents Joseph and Susanna Wilkey. However, there is still the chance that our John Wilkey's baptism hasn't yet been transcribed, or even that he was never baptised, hence no record of his baptism in Bath. I haven't found any evidence of a Wilkey family living in Bath at that time, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one.

For now, though I have decided to assume that our John Wilkey was born in Taunton to Joseph and Susanna Wilkey, and will continue to wonder whether it is actually correct or not. I guess the only way to definitely know might be through DNA, which so far, I haven't delved into.

And then, of course, we wonder what made John Wilkey move to Bristol and settle there...