The relationship with the people given as his brothers and sisters is currently unprovable, except perhaps by the wills of Sir Charles Wager or his sister Prudence; the church of Charles the Martyr in Plymouth did not record parents in baptismal entries. Those given as his brothers and sisters (with the exception of Jane Carter) were also baptised in Charles the Martyr.

The "London Magazine, or Gentleman's Intelligencer" for 1734, in recording his marriage, says he is the nephew of Admiral Sir Charles Wager, who had only one sister, Prudence, who however married a Mr Bolton. He may however have been the son of a half-sister; Sir Charles Wager was born after his father's death and clearly regarded his half-siblings as being his family. And Martha Goldsworthy's two marriages were to people closely associated with Sir Charles Wager. (Charles Bolton is supposed to have been a nephew).

Since he seems to have come from an obscure background, it is otherwise difficult to account for how he got a middle-ranking post, for which he would have needed "interest", i.e. family connections, and married very well, for which he would have needed interest and perhaps the prospect of money. (Sir Charles Wager died without children).