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Thomas Moles
chr.13 Apr 1781 Stotfold, Bedfordshire, England
d.18 Nov 1853 Willian, Hertfordshire, England
Family tree▼ (edit)
m. 19 Nov 1778
(edit)
m. 10 Sep 1803
Facts and Events
[edit] ChildhoodThomas Moles was baptised on 13th April 1781 at Stotfold in Bedfordshire, son of Mary Moles, formerly Langham, and her husband Thomas Moles, an agricultural labourer. Thomas was the second of the couple's five children. When Thomas was about eleven years old his mother died. Two years later his father married again, to a Mary Horsley. That marriage produced a half-sister, Ann, for Thomas. In 1800, when Thomas was nineteen, his step-mother Mary Horsley died, leaving Thomas's father a widower twice over. [edit] MarriageFrom Thomas's baptism up until his step-mother's death in 1800, all sightings of his immediate family come from Stotfold, with the exception of his father's second marriage, which was in the neighbouring parish of Radwell. Some time between 1800 and 1803, Thomas left Stotfold and moved 20 miles to the south, to the market town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire. It was there that Thomas was married on 10th September 1803, aged 22, to a Mary Ann Best. She had also moved away from her birthplace, but rather more significantly than Thomas had; she was originally from Exeter in Devon, nearly 200 miles from Hatfield. What drew them both to Hatfield is not clear, although Hatfield House, then home of the 1st Marquess of Salisbury, was a major employer for domestic servants. One of the witnesses to their marriage, Grace Strode, later had her own marriage witnessed by Lord Salisbury, suggesting a link to the Hatfield House estate. Also, whilst it is 20 miles from Stotfold to Hatfield, both lie on the Great North Road, which was the main stagecoach route from London to the north. Thomas and Mary were both described as living in the parish of Hatfield at the time of their marriage. After their marriage, Thomas and Mary returned to Stotfold, where they had their first son, William, baptised on 20th May 1804. [edit] WillianThomas and Mary did not stay long in Stotfold this time. Their next sighting is in 1807, at Willian in Hertfordshire, about five miles south of Stotfold. They settled in Willian, where they had another nine children between 1807 and 1829. By the time their youngest child was born, their eldest son was married and had his first child; Thomas had become a grandfather in 1828. Thomas's father and his sisters Ann and Susan also left Stotfold, moving to Norton, which is immediately north of Willian and immediately south of Stotfold. Thomas's father died at Norton in 1838, aged 86. Thomas was one of three beneficiaries of his father's will, alongside his sisters Ann and Susan. The 1841 census finds Thomas living in Willian with Mary and their two youngest children, but next door to their eldest son William and his family. Some of their other children were still in the village too. Their daughter Elizabeth married a John King, who ran the Dimsdale Arms in the village in the late 1830s and early 1840s, and by 1851 was the publican running the Three Horseshoes, the village's other public house. Thomas's daughter Mary Ann died in 1846, aged 29, and his daughter Sarah died in 1852, aged 45. Thomas died at Willian on 18th November 1853 from asthma, which he had suffered for many years, and anasarca, a form of dropsy, which he had for two months leading up to his death. He was 72 years old. He had lived to see 48 grandchildren born in his lifetime, although some of these had died young. Mary outlived him by eight years, in which time she left Willian and went to live six miles west of Willian at Offley, where two of her daughters had settled, although she was buried back at Willian when she died. References
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