Hi ELL
No I have not seen the actual register for the baptism of Margaret Ellen on 11th March 1854. What I have seen in just from the IGI. It is so much later than her birth and has the added "Ellen" that at first I was inclined to ignore it though it showed no father. But then the marriage of Margaret Ellen shows that she is indeed part of the family.
For the other two daughters Hannah and Isabella I have not found their baptisms even on the IGI. Not surprising at that late date.
As you say it could be that William's mother was against the marriage. Though the marriage was at Tynemouth the family may have already moved to Sunderland and so maybe William had moved away from his mother who seems to have been set up with a lodging house by 1861.
Incidently most of Williams brothers also moved down to Sunderland and later to Ryhope. So they were not just moving to get away from the people who knew of Margaret's background though it may have had some bearing on the move.
As regards the class thing I've always thought that this side of my family were all much of a muchness as coal miners but you could be right. William's father was a Mariner / Sailer, probably from Berwick, and it is possible that the mother thought herself better than the THOMPSON family. The Margaret THOMPSON who eventually married William LILLEY seems herself to have been illegitimate judging by the lack of mention of any father when she got married.
It's a shame that the first three children were all girls. If one of them had been a boy then a YDNA test of descendents in the male line could have given me the evidence to prove that William was the father.
Bryan
In a rather white Dursley, GLS, UK