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NEW (as at 4th July) Many people in Looe know about Joseph Thomas's Cornish work, but this short article outlines the known facts (in 2007) about his family, which Judy Buckley, his great-great-great niece, has been researching for the last 20 years.
Joseph Thomas (who must here be numbered “2”) was the eldest son of Cornish roads contractor Joseph Thomas “1” (1813-1892) and his wife Harriet (1814-1881). He and his younger brothers Edwin (1840-1873) and Nicholas (1845-?) all went to sea in their teens. Edwin sadly died at sea in 1873 leaving his wife Anne (nee Pengelly) with four young children, but Nicholas captained ships from Plymouth all over the world until he retired to live at Hannafore. Their sisters Emma (1848-1933) and Mary Elizabeth (1854-?) married George Knight (1841-1920) a London Butler and Samuel Pascoe (1850-?) a London Policeman. A third sister Anne (1843-?) cannot be traced after 1861.
Joseph “2” (1838-1901) married Mary Anne Rollings from Pelynt (1841-1903) in 1859 and their children were Philippa Harriett (1859-?) Joseph “3” (1860-?) and Mary Anne (1863-1913). They lived successively in Looe, Plymouth, Camberwell, West Ham and Herne Hill. Philippa married (c.1882) a Mr Scrooby but, in spite of extensive searches, nothing more can be found about either of them. My current hunch is that Philippa married abroad - perhaps a young engineer - and that maybe Joseph “3” who was a Mechanical Engineer (but unknown to the I.Mech.E) went abroad at the same time. They are mentioned in their father's will dated 1887, but not in the Cornish Times report of his funeral in 1901. Their youngest sister Mary Ann married William Tinkham, a London Solicitor's Clerk, in 1886, and their son William (1887-1949) born in his grandparent's house in West Ham, was the only direct descendant we know about today. Bill married Annie Elizabeth Noon (1883-1977) in Dulwich in 1916, and they owned and ran Hannafore Point Hotel 1924-1942. Sadly they had no children, but Betty's nieces and great nieces, including me, were close to them both.
Mariner Edwin Thomas (1840-1873) and his wife Anne had two boys and two girls. Edward (1864-?) and Nicholas Edwin (1873-1954) were brought up by their Thomas grandfather after their father's death. Edward worked as a Stores Clerk in West Ham and married Harriett Kebby. Nicholas became a Boot Salesman and emigrated to Brisbane in 1912, where his wife Rose and family; Joseph “4” (1899-1990) Rose Emma (1901-1975) and Annie (1904-?) followed him in 1913. The daughters, Harriet (1866-?) who married Alexander Ferguson, and Ann (1867-?) who married Edwin Goldsworthy, also emigrated to Australia.
Captain Nicholas Thomas (1845-?) married, first, Mary Jane Battershill (1843-1877) who gave him a daughter, Emma, in 1870, and his second wife Annie Butland (1853-?) seems to have been childless.
Our engineer's brothers-in-law were his executors. George Knight, living in Saltash in 1901, was the active one, probably because Samuel Pascoe was still living in London. Both couples, Knights and Pascoes, seem to have been childless. The Knights retired to Hannafore and shared a house with Captain Nicholas, and their grave and a memorial pew can be seen at St Martin's, where they worshipped regularly.
Family legend says that Bill Tinkham inherited his two houses at Hannafore next to The Headland Hotel in 1924 from “two aunts.” So far I have ruled out his great-aunt Emma Knight who was alive until 1933 and who lived, anyway, at Woodquest, nearer Rock Towers. Leaving out, also, the ladies in Australia, which of the other aunts could it have been? I have searched Liskeard deaths in the early 1920s in vain! Was it Anne Thomas the great-aunt who cannot be traced after 1861? Great-aunt Mary Pascoe? Aunt Philippa Scrooby who is untraceable after 1887? A wife of Uncle Joseph “3” who wasn't mentioned in 1901? Or first-cousin-once-removed, Emma, untraceable after 1881?
Can anyone in Looe supply any information about residents of Hannafore in the 1920s? Or the 1930s? Does anyone have old deeds of houses on the Hannafore Estate? I should welcome any help at all, and you can reach me through LOCS. Alternatively, if you wish to know more, I am very happy to share my knowledge.
 People printed in black are adequately documented, those in blue are known to have emigrated to Australia, but we need to know more about the people printed in red. |
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