ARRRGHH! Return Look at 7th Great Grandfather William Portas

I don't know what to do now. I'm at a loss. This is the time of the year when I should be working on my genealogy/family history and forging ahead, but my gumption is as dreary as it is outside. I come upstairs to my main computer and can't get started. I look at my tree program and there is so much that has to be filled in, I don't know where to start.

As you know, my priority surname is PORTAS and all its variations. I am a hunter-gatherer. My research has primarily been in Lincolnshire, England. I have many many PORTAS families put together and have joined many of those with my family. I am back to mid 1600s with my 7x great grandparents William and Syllina (BIRKET) m. 26 Jan 1679, Wold Newton, Lincs. Both William and Syllina are buried in Tetney parish church: William 1716 and Syllina 1720.

Previous posts on William and Syllina:

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2013    SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 2014    TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2014    

SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2016    SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 2017    SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2018

I've come to a screeching halt! I should have paid more attention years ago to William's baptism date. I could go further back like I thought I had done. I have unsubstantiated parent names well into the 1500s, but I'm not sure they belong to my line! ARRRGHH!

WHERE DID I GET THE 1660 BAPTISM DATE?
Well, someone gave me William's baptism date as "about 1660" and I have also seen it on Ancestry.com Family Trees. The date is suspect (no source), but does seem feasible because the parents I have for William were married about 1660. 

If William was born 1660, that made him 19 when he married Syllina in 1679. Age 19 is feasible since they did marry young back then. Yet, the odd thing is Syllina was baptized 1648 which means she was 31 years old or 12 years older than William. To me that age difference is odd and a little suspect. I'm not saying what I have is wrong, but it is something to have a serious think about.

WAS WILLIAM BORN IN1660? 
I have a feeling his birth was somewhere between 1640-1650? My cousin Margaret has William's father as a Thomas bp. abt 1640 as do others. Could this Thomas be William's brother given the oddity of William's 1660 date and Syllina's 1648? I think that is more plausible. Thomas' father is also Thomas. 

I haven't been able to find William's baptism in parish records or the Bishop Transcripts, presuming he was baptized in Wold Newton. I've looked in several other possible parishes to no avail. That far back, a lot of parish record pages aren't readable or non-existent. William could have been baptized as an adult, too, meaning he and Syllina could be about the same age.

Syllina was baptized 20 Dec 1648, Ludborough, Lincs, about five miles away. She probably was "in service" at Wold Newton and met William there. Wold Newton was an estate-town owned by the Welfitt family with less than 70 residents around 1675.

DO I HAVE THE RIGHT PARENTS FOR WILLIAM? 
In William's Last Will & Testament, he names his brothers John and George, giving each five shillings. That means both were alive at the time of the 1716 writing. In my database, under William's parents, are brothers John and George, but John died in 1686 - 30 years prior; George was still around? ARRRGHH!

SOMETHING ELSE FOR ME TO LOOK AT
The naming pattern of William and Syllina's children might give me an idea of a father's name. William and Syllina had seven (known) children: William 1679, Mary 1681, John (died some time before 1689) and Thomas 1683 (twins?), Jane 1685, Elizabeth 1688, John 1689. There aren't any big gaps in the birth dates, so I don't think there are any other children.

Usually the first son is named after his paternal grandfather, second son after maternal grandfather, third son after father, fourth son after father's oldest brother.

First born is William, then John who passed away early (his name was recycled with seventh child). Third born son is named Thomas. Following common naming patterns, you would think William's father should be William not Thomas. Thomas (bp. 1640) is my guess for William's "potential" brother. ARRRGHH!

I don't know if I'm right or not. All I know is I really have to get to a family history center to go through their images. Why oh why did I take that second look at William and Syllina?

ARRRGHH!