Charles Smith, Rebecca Salter and Esther Salter

Great Yarmouth St. Nicholas Minster
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Adrian S Pye - geograph.org.uk/p/5816819

Charles Smith and Esther Salter married, on 1 Nov 1791, at St Marylebone Parish Church, Marylebone Road, London. This was not the current St Marylebone Parish Church, but the third church, opened in 1742, where Lord Byron was baptised in 1788; Admiral Horatio Nelson was a worshipper there and his daughter Horatia was baptised there. This is also the church in which the diplomat Sir William Hamilton married Emma Hart, later Nelson's lover. The old church was closed in 1926, but not demolished until 1949, following WWII bomb damage. Its site, Old Church Garden, is now that of a Garden of Rest, created in 1951. 

Charles Smith was marrying his late wife's sister. This was forbidden under ecclesiastical law (but not illegal until the passing of the Marriage Act in 1835). However, in 1791, the marriage between a widower and his wife’s sister, was valid but voidable. It could be voided or annulled if successfully challenged by any interested party. Charles Smith (b. 1762) of the parish of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Mariner, had previously married Rebecca Salter, in Great Yarmouth, on 9 Sep 1783. Both Rebecca and Esther were the daughters of Farrow Salter and Esther Mason. Perhaps there was less chance of them being challenged in London.

Charles and Rebecca Smith had three daughters, all baptised at Great Yarmouth, St Nicholas with St Peter, St John, St Andrew, St James, St Paul & St Luke:

1. Rebecca Smith b. 19 May 1785, bap. 24 May 1785
2. Margaret Smith b. 15 Aug 1786, bap. 20 Aug 1786
3. Esther Salter Smith b. 20 Feb 1789, bap. 4 Mar 1789. Buried 24 Oct 1790

Rebecca Salter Smith, wife of Charles Smith died aged 27 and was buried at Great Yarmouth, St Nicholas, on 27 Apr 1790.

I've found records for four children to Charles and Esther Smith:

1. Charles Smith b. 19 Aug 1793, bap. 22 Aug 1793 at St. Nicholas, now Great Yarmouth Minster. Died, at 5, and was buried on 22 Aug 1798.
2. Ann Smith b. 29 Mar 1801, bap. 24 Apr 1801 at Saint Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, London.
3. Christiana Smith b. 1 Jan 1803, bap. 28 Jan 1803 at Saint Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey. Died, aged 4, and was buried on 7 Nov 1806 at Southwark, St John, the Parish Church of Horsleydown, Horsleydown, Surrey, described as being 'from the Parish of St Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey'.
4. Mary Smith b. 10 Dec 1805, bap. 2 Feb 1806 at Saint Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey.

St. Nicholas, Great Yarmouth, being such a large church, seems to have been a very busy place in the 1790s. There were, for example, several lads called Charles Smith baptised there in 1793, but enormous thanks to the clerks there, who had clearly foreseen the potential for confusion and listed the mother's full name, with maiden name, on all the baptisms, as well as specifying that detail on the 1798 burial.

There are no records of further children baptised to this couple in Great Yarmouth, nor in Bermondsey that I can find. That's not to say there weren't any. It's clear they were still in the parish of St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey at least until 1806, but I'm less confident of being able to follow their story further.

Charles Smith will inevitably be more difficult to pin down. That I've got this far with a Smith is close to miraculous. It was only by working down the children of William Arthur Sawyer and Ann Smith (they named their first Ann Salter Sawyer, so I was sure that Salter was Ann's mother's maiden name), that revealed the aunt, Ann's sister, Mary Smith, who, in turn, named her father on her marriage in 1856 as Charles Smith that then allowed me to find the girls' baptisms with common parents and that led to finding the marriage. This is a lesson in why it's a huge mistake to concentrate only on direct ancestors: they may be hiding in collateral lines.