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Facts and Events
Thomas Tuff was baptised on 22nd November 1741 at Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, son of Martha Tuff, formerly Squire, and her husband Edward Tuff, a gardener.
Thomas’s next sighting is on 24th August 1771, aged 29, when he married Elizabeth Little at Wootton Bassett. Thomas and Elizabeth settled in Wootton Bassett after their marriage, having thirteen children baptised there between 1772 and 1791. Three of their children died as infants, and another died aged twelve in 1786.
Thomas’s father died in 1777. He left a will, in which he left various properties to Thomas’s mother for her lifetime, after which they were to be distributed to relatives. Under his father’s will, Thomas was to receive a house on the street called Buthay in Wootton Bassett after his mother’s death.
Thomas had a brother called Richard who joined the army and travelled to the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius, presumably as part of the short-lived British capture of the island from the Dutch in 1781, during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Richard was believed to have been killed at Sint Eustatius.
Thomas’s mother died in 1786. She left a will, the purpose of which appears to have been partly to distribute the share of her late husband’s estate that was otherwise supposed to have gone to her son Richard, which she chose to leave to Thomas.
Thomas’s eldest daughter married in 1790, and Thomas’s first grandchild was born later that year. Thomas lived to see at least 62 grandchildren born in his lifetime, although some of them died young.
Thomas’s son Thomas died in 1825, aged 49, leaving a widow and several children, the youngest of whom was just a baby.
Elizabeth died in 1828, being buried at Wootton Bassett on 8th April 1828. She was said to be 79 years old. She and Thomas had been married for 56 years. Thomas survived her by three years. He wrote his will the year after Elizabeth’s death, at which time he was described as a gardener and owned two houses on Buthay. Having presumably inherited the house his father used to own on Buthay after his mother’s death in 1786, it seems likely that Thomas and Elizabeth had probably lived on Buthay themselves during their marriage. Thomas left his property amongst his various children and grandchildren, and made a particular bequest to his late son Thomas’s widow too.
Thomas died aged 89 and was buried at Wootton Bassett on 9th June 1831.
References
- ↑ Church of England. Wootton Bassett Parish Registers, 1584-1938. (Chippenham: Wiltshire Record Office).
No explicit baptism record for Thomas has been found. However, he can be linked to his parents Edward Tuff and Martha Squire on the basis of their wills, which both name Thomas as their son. Thomas’s own will (written in 1829) describes him as a gardener and makes clear he owned property on the street called Buthay in Wootton Bassett. Edward’s will of 1777 left property on Buthay to his son Thomas and describes Edward as also being a gardener. When Thomas married Elizabeth Little in 1771, one of the witnesses was Martha Tuff, who was presumably therefore his mother.
The age given when Thomas died suggests that he was born around 1739/40. Edward Tuff and Martha Squire married in 1739. They had a daughter called Jane in 1740, less than a year after their marriage. There does not appear to be a baptism for either a Thomas Tuff or Thomas Squire in the couple of years prior to Edward and Martha’s marriage at Wootton Bassett.
The parish registers for Wootton Bassett through the 1740s are in a poor condition, with many pages of baptisms from the mid 1740s only surviving as fragments with some sections apparently missing. However, amongst the surviving baptism entries, Edward and Martha had two sons baptised at Wootton Bassett in the 1740s, both called William, one in 1741 and the other in 1745, yet there are no burial records at Wootton Bassett for the William baptised in 1741 prior to the baptism of the next William in 1745, and the burials section of the register appears to be completely intact.
It is therefore considered likely that one of the baptisms recorded as being William Tuff was in error and should actually have given the child’s name as Thomas. Given the age quoted for Thomas when he died, it would seem likely to be the 1741 baptism which is in error:
Baptiz[e]d 1741 / Nov[embe]r 22 Will[ia]m son of Edw[ar]d Tuff
Alternatively, it could be that Thomas’s baptism is one of those which is lost from the mid 1740s.
- ↑ Burials register, in Church of England. Wootton Bassett Parish Registers, 1584-1938. (Chippenham: Wiltshire Record Office).
| BURIALS in the Parish of Wootton Bassett in the County of Wilts in the Year 1831 | | No | Name | Abode | When buried | Age | By whom the Ceremony was performed | | 619 | Thomas Tuff | Wootton Bassett | June 9th | 91 [1739/40] | Tho[ma]s H. Ripley
Vicar |
- Probate Records of the Archdeaconry of Wiltshire (Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, Chippenham)
P3/1831/37.
I Thomas Tuff of Wootton Bassett in the County of Wilts Gardener do make publish and declare this to be my last Will and Testament - I direct that all my just Debts and Funeral and Testamentary Expences and the Charges of obtaining Probate of this my Will be first paid and discharged out of personal Estate Also I give and devise All that my Messuage or Tenement with the Garden and other Appurtenances thereto belonging situate in the Buthay in Wootton Bassett aforesaid in the Occupation of myself and Thomas Mann unto my Son Richard Tuff his heirs and Assigns for ever – Also I give and devise All that my Messuage or Tenement with the Garden Stable and other appurtenances thereto adjoining and belonging situate in the Buthay aforesaid lately purchased by me of William Knighton and lately in the Occupation of William Rowles and now of Joseph Mapson unto and to the use of my said Son Richard Tuff his heirs and Assigns for ever Also I give and bequeath unto my two Sons Richard Tuff and William Tuff their Executors and Administrators all my Household Goods and Furniture Implements of household Stock and Crops of Business which I shall be possessed of at the time of my Decease In trust to apply and dispose thereof as follows; My Clock and Chest of Drawers to my Son William to and for his own use and benefit And all other the said last mentioned personal Effects and Property unto my said sons Richard and William in equal shares and Proportions for their own respective use and benefit Also I give unto my said sons Richard and William their Executors and Administrators the Principal and Interest money due and secured to me by the note of hand of my Son in Law Thomas Teagle and all other money Securities for money Property and Effects whatsoever which I shall be possessed of or entitled to at the time of my Decease in trust to call in and to pay and dispose thereof as follows To my Daughter Ann the Wife of Benjamin Spackman fifteen Pounds to Elizabeth Tuff the Widow of my late Son Thomas Tuff five Pounds, To my Daughter Martha Wife of John Phipps fifteen pounds, To my Daughter Mary the Wife of William Clark twenty pounds, To my Daughter Jane the Wife of the said Thomas Teagle twenty Pounds, to my said Son William twenty Pounds, To my Grandson Henry the Son of my said Son Richard Tuff the sum of five Pounds To my Grandson Thomas the Son of my said Daughter Jane Teagle the sum of five pounds and to my Daughter Elizabeth the Wife of John Richens the sum of fifteen Pounds and I direct the same to be paid to my said Daughter Elizabeth for her own use and benefit independent of her present or any future husband to whose Debts Controul or Engagement the same shall not be subject and I declare that the receipt of my said Daughter Elizabeth Richens shall be a sufficient Discharge And all the residue and remainder of the said monies and other residuary Property to and between my said Sons Richard and William in equal shares and Proportions for their own respective use and benefit – And it is my desire that my said Executors shall pay off and Discharge the sum incurred by way of mortgage on the House of my said Son in Law William Clark out of his share of the Principal and Interest money due on said note of hand of my Son in Law Thomas Teagle and all other money Securities for money Property and Effects whatsoever which I shall be possessed of or entitled to at the time of my decease and the residue thereof to be paid by him the said William Clark by my said Executors Provided and I declare that in case my said residuary Personal Estate shall by my Expenditure or other unavoidable means fall short and be insufficient to discharge the said several Legacies to my said Sons and Daughters according to this my Will shall shall [sic] severally abate in proportion the amount of their respective Legacies and I hereby nominate and appoint my said Sons Richard and William joint Executors of this my Will and hereby revoking every other Will and Testamentary Disposition by me at any time heretofore made do declare this only to be my last Will and Testament – In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the fifteenth day of December In the Year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine
The mark and Seal X of Thomas Tuff
Signed sealed published and declared by the said Thomas Tuff the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the Presence of us who in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses there to}
Tho[ma]s Riddy Wootton Bassett
John Priddy
William Priddy
At Chippenham on the 15th July 1831 Rich[ar]d Tuff lawful Son of the said dece[as]ed & one of the joint Ex[ecut]ors within name (the like power being reserved to William Tuff the other Ex[ecut]or) was duly sworn before me W. Macdonald Arch[deaco]n Wilts
under £200
- Swindon Advertiser and North Wilts Chronicle, in United Kingdom. The British Newspaper Archive
20 Mar 1886.
SOME OTHER RELICS, NOTES, AND REMINISCENCES.
IN the series of papers we have published, it is doubtful whether there is one more interesting to the old residents in Wootton Bassett, or those whose families were there in 1793, than that which we now give. It would appear that the census was then taken at irregular intervals. The ratable value, then the actual rent, is given here in a few instances, where the property was about as it is at present. The increase in value will be seen to be almost incredible. The list commences at the house which stood where the Wilts and Dorset Bank is now built:-
A list of persons, names, and families resident within the Borough and Parish of Wootton Bassett, in the County of Wilts, 1793:-
BOROUGH.
...
Thomas Tuff, his wife, and six children, gardener.
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