As indicated in my last post the recent work I have done on the Thomas families of Zennor has led me to conclusions which I believe solve, or at least partly solve, the problem of the ancestors of Thomas Thomas and Sarah Jane Lodge.
For a long time the focus fell on the marriage at Ludgvan in 1774 between Thomas Thomas and Elizabeth Quick with this couple thought to be the probable ancestors of Thomas Thomas.
I now know that this is not the case so the first part of this post will deal with what I have been able to find out about this family.
Over the last couple of months or so I have been focusing on events involving the Thomas family at Zennor but I have also been looking elsewhere for members of this family who were born at Zennor but no longer living in that Parish. Of those there was one man living just about as far away as possible while still actually living in Cornwall.
In the 1851 Census there was a William Thomas living at Poundstock which is on the far north coast of Cornwall between St Gennys and Marhamchurch. William's stated birthplace was Zennor and his age suggest he was born about 1779. It transpires that this William Thomas was the son of Thomas Thomas and Elizabeth Quick who had married at Ludgvan in 1774!
William Thomas was a road labourer and he married Maria Dawe at Poundstock on 9th September 1819.
I am aware of four children from this marriage but the important point about them at the moment is the residence of the family when these children were born. At the time of baptism of the first two children in 1820 and 1822 William and Maria were living at Treskinnet but by 1824 they had relocated to
Penfound, also in the parish of Poundstock, I have not yet put in much work to trace them further as it was more important to confirm the links of William to the family of Thomas Thomas and Elizabeth Quick. The hope was that this would lead me to further information about Thomas and Elizabeth also and in that I have been successful!
Another link in this puzzle was found when I discovered a Richard Thomas living at Lewannick in 1851. This Richard had been born at St Hilary about 1781 so it was likely he also was a son of Thomas and Elizabeth. I have not yet found the marriage for Richard and all I know of his wife is that her name was Elizabeth and that she was born about 1788. Elizabeth Thomas was buried at Lewannick in 1835 at the age of 47 just two years after the baptism of her seventh child. The first six children were all baptised at Poundstock and, notably, the residence at the time of baptism of the first three in 1815, 1818 and 1820 was
Penfound.
I don't know how much of the Poundstock records have been transcribed but the OPC site shows just 14 Thomas baptisms with 13 of those from 1815 to 1866. Of these there are 11 baptisms between 1815 and 1830 with all being for the families of William and Maria and of Richard and Elizabeth. This seems to confirm that William and Richard were probably brothers and it also confirms our early conclusions about the family of Thomas Thomas and Elizabeth Quick.
The only other son of Thomas and Elizabeth that I have found so far is Nicholas who was also discussed in those early posts. Nicholas now appears to have been married twice with the first marriage possibly being at St Gluvias in 1799. He later moved to Kea where he appears to have married Mary Behenna in 1826.
Noting that William Thomas and Richard Thomas were both at Penfound I was most interested when I found the following in my search of the Poundstock burials:-
Elizabeth Thomas of
Penfound age 81 buried 12th March 1826 at Poundstock
Thomas Thomas of Heel, Week St Mary age 85 buried 18th April 1830 at Poundstock
Her age and the fact she was residing at Penfound at the time of her death links Elizabeth to William and Richard and it also confirms she was Elizabeth daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Quick baptised at Ludgvan 26th January 1745.
And that he was brought back to Poundstock for burial suggests Thomas Thomas was most likely the husband of Elizabeth. His age suggests he was born about 1745 but I suspect it is a little inaccurate. In my opinion he is the following:-
Thomas son of Thomas Thomas baptised 7th March 1749 at Ludgvan
He was the son of Thomas Thomas and Avice Burch who married at Ludgvan 29th September 1743 and he was also the second son of that name. The first Thomas was baptised at Ludgvan 13th July 1744 and buried 2nd November of that same year.
This all proves that the William Thomas who married Catherine Stevens at Zennor in 1801 was not the son of Thomas Thomas and Elizabeth Quick. In the second part of this post I will solve that problem for you.
We now return to William Thomas and Catherine Stevens whose grandson Thomas married Sarah Lodge at Stawell, Victoria, in 1881.
On reading through the original posts from 2010 when you were known as 'Staplehouse' I noticed that we had leaned towards the parents of Catherine Stevens as being Andrew and Jane. While working through the Thomas families at Zennor I found something in the Census that tends to change that opinion and I now believe Catherine's parents were Matthew Stevens and Christian Williams.
We had already established that it was Catherine daughter of William and Catherine (Stevens) Thomas who married George Thomas at Zennor in 1825 but at that time I did not have access to the Zennor Marriage Register for that period. All I had was the CFHS Marriage Index which supplied only the names of those married and the date of marriage. The two witnesses to the marriage of George Thomas and Catherine Thomas were
Richard Thomas and
Matthew Stevens.
I have not found a baptism for George Thomas but I suspect he was probably a son of Richard Thomas and Ann Thomas who married at Zennor 1st December 1800. Richard was baptised at Morvah in 1778 son of George Thomas and Elizabeth Stevens and is the most likely to have been the witness. But the second witness is of most interest at the moment as, combined with the 1841 Census, it helps identify Catherine Stevens.
In the 1841 Census the following family can be found at Zennor Church Village:-
Matthew Stevens, 60, shoemaker
Catherine Stevens, 90
George Thomas, 35, accountant
Catherine Thomas, 35
George Thomas, 15
William Thomas, 10
Frederick Thomas, 8
n.k. Thomas, 3 months (this was Louisa Ann who was born in 1841 but baptised at Zennor in 1842)
We know that Catherine Thomas' mother was Catherine Stevens so this family group suggests the possibility of a relationship with Matthew and Catherine Stevens.
Matthew Stevens of Church Town age 67 was buried 28th December 1846 at Zennor. He was baptised at Zennor 1st January 1779 son of Matthew and Christian Stevens.
I have pointed out on many occasions that the names Christian and Catherine are often interchanged and examples can be found with the family of William Thomas and his two wives Christian Eddy and Christiana Michell who were both recorded as 'Catherine' when buried.
So the Census record above shows us Matthew Stevens, unmarried shoemaker, with his mother Christian (nee Williams) age 90. Catherine Thomas would therefore logically be Matthew's niece and Catherine's grandaughter which means that the Catherine Stevens who married William Thomas must have been the daughter of Matthew and Christian Stevens.
This quote from above now becomes significant as I turn my attention to the identity of William Thomas. The Ann Thomas who married Richard Thomas in 1800 was, I believe, baptised at Zennor 13th December 1788 daughter of Thomas Thomas and Mary (nee Richards)and I believe she was the sister to William Thomas who married Catherine Stevens.
My research indicates that Catherine (Stevens) Thomas was widowed in 1815 and that her last child was baptised six weeks after his father died. To help explain my conclusion I need to repeat some information from other correspondence regarding three men named William Thomas whose wife was either Catherine or Christian.
1. William Thomas of Morvah and Catherine Phillips who married at Zennor in 1790
2. William Thomas and Christian Eddy who married at Zennor in 1800
3. William Thomas and Catherine Stevens who married at Zennor in 1801
1. William Thomas of Penzance age 56 was buried at Zennor 11th March 1824 so was born sometime around 1768. He was 'of Morvah' when married so is most likely the William Thomas baptised at Morvah 17th July 1768 son of George Thomas and Elizabeth Stevens.
2. William Thomas of Boswednack age 76 was buried at Zennor 5th October 1852 after two marriages and 23 children. He was baptised at Zennor 4th August 1776 son of John Thomas and Mary Thomas.
3. Catherine (Stevens) of Sennen age 84 was buried at Zennor 18th March 1861. That she was 'of Sennen' indicates she had probably been living with her daughter Mary Hollow who was at Sennen at the time. In 1841 Catherine was at Zennor Church Town with her 12 year-old grandaughter Catherine Thomas. Catherine was widowed by 1841 and from 1814 to 1841 there are just two William Thomas burials at Zennor who might possibly have been her husband. One of those burials was in 1824 which, as above, was the husband of Catherine Phillips.
Therefore the husband of Catherine Stevens was:-
William Thomas age 39 buried 29th August 1815 at Zennor
William son of Thomas Thomas baptised 10th March 1776 Zennor
This Thomas Thomas was the man who married Mary Richards at Zennor in 1772 making him the brother of Ann Thomas above who married Richard Thomas in 1800.
Thomas Thomas was the son of George Thomas and Phillipa Quick and either his father or his brother George was one of the witnesses when Thomas married Mary Richards.
The one thing I need to do now is to identify Mary Richards but after several attempts I have still not been able to find out exactly who she was.
It is 4 years since you first came to us with this problem but I hope now that I have been able to help you find the most of the answers you were looking for.
CT