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I have this couple in my family tree. However I have significant differences in detail.
The children were baptised at Lane Independent in Holmfirth (available on IGI batch no C086101). This includes their dates of birth as well as baptisms. They are:
i. Heward, Mary. Born 1815-09-10.
ii. Howard, Hannah. Born 1820-02-23.
iii. Howard, Moses. Born 1822-08-14.
iv. Heward, John. Born 1825-04-08.
v. Howard, Caleb. Born 1827-01-14.
vi. Howard, Isaac. Born 1829-05-19.
(Surname spelling is extremely variable.)
This presents a clear problem with the date of marriage as only two of these children were born after 1826. If there was a marriage of this date it must have been a second marriage.
The only plausible marriage I can find on IGI is 1 Apr 1810 at Mottram in Longdendale between Caleb Howard and Elizabeth Birchall. Mottram is not as remote as one might think as the parish bordered Almondbury at the top of Holme Moss and included Woodhead. Nevertheless this IGI entry has its own problems as it's only in a member submission and not in the regular extract batch for Mottram. I was inclined to dismiss it until I discovered that the FamilySearch pilot includes it in the Cheshire parish registers collection but not in the Cheshire bishop's transcripts collection. My suspicion is that it really is in the PR but the IGI extract batch has been made from the BT. I have a placed a query about the sources of this data with the FamilySearch help desk but have not yet had confirmation. Another possibility is that the entry is for banns only and that the marriage might not have taken place in Mottram. There are no indications of any Birchall families in Mottram at this time so it seems likely that Elizabeth had family elsewhere & that the marriage took place there and that there are no IGI records for that location.
As to Caleb's date of birth that also is earlier than given here. The HDFHS index gives 1 Jan 1791 for his baptism.
Added 9 Jan 2011.
This is a copy of my addition to the talk page on Betty's page:
This marriage is becoming a little clearer but still no easier to sort out.
Whilst browsing for likely Birchills on the FamilySearch site I realised that some of the spelling variations were suggestive of Beardsell so I started looking for marriages of Elizabeth or Betty Beardsell and found a possible in the York marriage allegations with the groom's name as Caleb Heywood. As I couldn't find any other reference to such a name I think it must be Caleb Howard that is meant here. See also [1]
I now have a copy of the marriage allegation. It's dated the 10th of March which was a Saturday. It describes him as Caleb Heywood of the Parish of Almondbury, clothier, bachelor, and her as Elizabeth Beardsall of the same parish, spinster. Both are said to be over 21.
The marriage was to be in Almondbury parish but it's not there. The problematic records from Cheshire are on the Sunday 3 weeks after the date of the licence.
The plot thickens.
Firstly Caleb wasn't over 21 unless he was baptised very late; he appears to have been 19. The baptism was 1 Jan 1791.
Secondly the the marriage bond is in the names of Caleb Heywood and Abel Beardsall. The only baptism I can find is Betty Bearsell, daughter of Thomas of Holme (something fits!) bapt 13 Jan 1783, so if this is her, Abel wasn't her father nor was he a brother and she is also somewhat older than her age given in her death certificate. The connection may well be there but I'll have to dive into the Beardsells of Holme.
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