Who-all were the Charters anyway?

I have been working on identifying a list of people with the surname Charters in Toronto at the time, and trying to figure out who is family and who is not.

William Charters is the earliest Charters family member we know about. He married Mary Blashford sometime on or around 1869--at least this is my best guess, since his first son, William Chesteain Charters, was born in 1870. I haven't found a marriage record yet, though I did go to the Ontario Archives trying to find it.

William Charters is in Canada in the 1871 census, living with his wife Mary in one of William Captain's houses. Before that I don't have a sure-fire census record for him. Pretty much all we know about him is that he was an Irish Baptist.

However there were some other Charters in town whom I suspect were relatives, with no evidence yet.
They are -
Charles Charters
Thomas Charters
John Charters
There was also an Alexander Charters who was a milkman; he had sons named John, Thomas, and Charles but lived in the St James Ward - I'm not yet sure if he was related.

Judging from the city directories, Charles and John and Thomas Charters all lived together in 1866 at 11 Beverley St, so they were family. This would have been St Patrick’s ward in 1866, bounded by Queen and University on the south and West. Thomas Charters also lived at 193 Elizabeth Street and 229 Elizabeth Street. This part of Elizabeth Street runs north-south in the St John’s Ward, two or three blocks north of Edward Street and west of Bay (Terauley).

The connection I've got between them and William Charters is tenuous for now. The city directories show William Blashford listed as a machinist at 22 Beverley in 1866 at the same time that Thomas Charters, a moulder, was working there. William Blashford's sister Mary married William Charters; so--IF Thomas was a relation--perhaps this is how the Blashfords and the Charters met. In the 1860s we don't know where William Charters was exactly. By 1868-9 he is living at 28 Edward Street, and so, already married presumably. In 1862-3 there is also a directory listing for a William Charters working as a gardener in Sydenham, Yorkville. This seems possible.

Thomas Charters was a similar age to William Blashford and William Charters. He would have been born in 1842; William Charters was born in 1848. Perhaps ... he was a younger brother or cousin of Thomas. ???

I know Thomas's age because I found him in the census in 1871. He is listed as a moulder, age 29, in the census in the St Johns Ward. This makes his birth year around 1842. (The census has been mistranscribed; his last name is indexed as Charles.) The census says he was born in Ontario and is English; his wife Elizabeth is Irish, however, born around 1846. The religion is given as Wesleyan Methodist. Their daughter Maria is 6, and their son, Thomas, is 4, born in Ontario. Their ethnicity is given as English. A father, John Charters, is living with them too; he is 75, so, he was born around 1795. His ethnicity is given as English too. (Why would an "English" man [Thomas] be related to an "Irish" one [William]? Well, it's possible it was a mistake. Also people sometimes purposely misrepresented themselves. I'm still not sure either way.)

I've also found them in the 1861 census. Jno (John) Charters, is a carpenter listed as being from England, Episcopalian, age 65. He is living with Tho (Thomas) Charters, Moulder, born Upper Canada, also Episcopalian. He has two sisters, Ann (age 17, born c1844) and Maria (age 13, born c1847). The change from Wesleyan to Episcopalian makes sense in that the Methodists and Episcopalians merged in the 1880s - they were already fairly close. Since the family was Wesleyan I might be able to find more about them at St James Cathedral that holds the Wesleyan Methodist fonds.

Now my own family stories include the firm-held belief that William Charters was a Baptist. So why would he be related to Methodists? I don't know. But he seems to have known a lot of methodists... he married a Methodist. His wife Mary was listed as "English Church" in the 1861 census. Her mother Lucy White / Blashford was listed as a Methodist in 1891. Lucy and Richard Blashford were married at St James Cathedral (methodists were predecessors of the Anglican church in Canada). Their son William Blashford meanwhile was listed as a Baptist in 1881 and a Methodist in 1891. So perhaps there was some overlap. Just because Thomas Charters was a Methodist doesn't mean he was related to William-Baptist-Charters.