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Previous Chapter 24.C : Samuel of Harrow

Section 24 : The children of William of Inglesham 1777-18??

Chapter 24.D

Thomas 'the much married'
1777-1864

If ever there was a life crowded with incident it was the life of Thomas (D67), 4th child of William of Inglesham and my 4G-Grandfather. Thomas was baptised at Inglesham in Wiltshire on 8 August 1779 but we know nothing of his life there. If his age at death (71) is correct then he was born in 1776/7 but the 1841 census gives a spread from 1780-1786.

Like each of his brothers he makes the move from Wiltshire to London in the early years of the 19th century. Unlike anyone else in this whole story he marries four times. As Samuel Johnson wrote (and Oscar Wilde repeated), "the triumph of hope over experience". He (Thomas, not Samuel Johnson) has six sons. One dies as an infant but the others all survive and marry.

He appears for the first time in the London records in 1808 when he makes his first marriage to Sarah TAYLOR, spinster, at Christ Church Newgate.

Both are recorded as 'of the parish' but there seem to be an awful lot of marriages there. Was this another marriage factory? Thomas also appears as a witness to the immediately preceding marriage on the same day.

How can we be confident that Thomas who marries in 1808 in London is the Thomas who was born in Wiltshire in 1779? There is no direct proof but his life seems to keep bumping up against that of other family members. There was at least one other Thomas Brush in London at the time. Thomas and Jane Brush baptise son Thomas (born 12 October 1809) at Saint Giles, Camberwell on 5 November 1809. He is discussed in chapter nn.x . Another suggestion (made by Ray Ensten of Australia several years ago) was that the Thomas who married Amey Goulding was Thomas born 1788 , son of Thomas BRUSH and Elizabeth Parker married in Worcester 11 April 1785.

Their first son, Samuel, is born on 18th April 1809 and baptised on 14 May 1809 at St Lawrence Church, Little Stanmore some 12 miles north of the City but just 3 miles east of his uncle Samuel's home at Greenhill, Harrow. Samuel is my 3G-Grandfather and his story continues n chapter 29.A.

No record has been found of the death of Sarah (which is a weakness in the evidence at this point) but in 1811 a Thomas, who we believe to be the same man , marries again to Amey Goulding at St George the Martyr in Southwark. Both are identified, both in the marriage and banns register as being of that parish and Thomas is identified as a widower.

The following year their son William Morris Brush, born 17 Jul 1812, is baptised at the same church on 01 Nov 1812.

An 1813 Sun Insurance Office Ltd policy register (Metropolitan Archives - Reference Code: CLC/B/192/F/001/MS11936/465/889006) shows a Thomas Brush of Strewens Place, Kings Road Chelsea, chandler, as insured with them. Strewen Place was also the address for his brother William, who is the subject of chapter 24.E. This appears to be 'our' Thomas as he and Amey appear later in Chelsea baptism records, in 1817.

But the move is staggered in some way. In 1814 there is a further baptism at St George the Martyr, Southwark of George Thomas. Thomas and Amy's address is given as Belvedere Place, St George's {something} and his occupation as Cheesemonger. Belvedere Place is just off Borough Road half way between Blackfriars Bridge and Elephant & Castle. Were they living in Southwark and working in Chelsea?

Thomas and Amy have another son, Henry Charles on 2 February 1817 but he is not baptised until 1821. The baptism at St Luke's Chelsea on 3 June 1821 records Amey as his mother, though she had by then already died. Thomas's address is given as Kings Road and his occupation as Shopkeeper.

The move from Southwark to Chelsea is supported by the death of Amy in 1818, with her burial recorded as St Luke's church in Chelsea showing her abode as Kings Road.

Thomas's third marriage is to Sarah Martin on 11 April 1819, just seven months later. This time at St Martin in the Fields, Westminster. This is one of the fragile links to the Inglesham BRUSH family. Isaac also married a Martin - Elizabeth - and at their wedding in 1810 Sarah Martin was a witness.

On November 9 1819 Isaac James is born ( which indicates conception in February). He is baptised at St Lukes, Chelsea on 3 June 1821 - on the same day as his half brother Henry Charles.

On 4 August 1822 Alfred Martin the son of Thomas, shopkeeper of Strewan Place Chelsea, and Sarah is baptised. He is buried shortly afterwards on December 6th, age 4 months. The address is shown (incorrectly?) as Strathaven Place.

There are a series of Land Tax records placing Thomas in Chelsea during this period, though they tell us little. At 1832 he is recorded as an occupier of a property at Kings Road Chelsea.

The number 26 is in a column headed 'rentals' - which could be the property number, though the sequence is strange. I imagine that Lord and Cap Cadogan, named in the proprietor column owns not just the property occupied by Edw Hall but also those following - including Thomas Brush's. The figure 13 in the middle of the three columns 'Sums assessed and exonerated' means 13 shillings. The record is kept for the purpose of imposing taxes. The refefence to exonerated According to Cambridgeshire archives site, in 1798 the option of securing exemption from annual payments by a one-off payment equivalent to 15 years tax was introduced.

Thomas is then widowed for a third time. At Sarah's death, "accidentally burnt", in 1837 her age is given as 59, which puts her birth c. 1778 within a year of Thomas. Thomas is described then as a Gardener.

He is also identifed as a gardener at the marriage of his son William Morris in 1837.

On 10 May 1840 Thomas marries, for the final time, to widow Elizabeth CAVE (nee FORRESTER). At this time he is again identifed as a fishmonger. The certificate identifies his father as William, a farmer, and Isaac Brush (his brother?) was a witness. Whch fits our thesis. Also in 1840 he is identified as a fishmonger when his son Henry Charles marries.

The 1841 census shows Thomas living at Commercial Road and working as a Fishmonger. The address is shown only as "Road - Commercial" which may be what is now Commercial Way SE15. It is a good illustration of how locations are difficult to specify. The census sheet shows the Borough to be Lambeth, the Hundred to be Brixton, the Parish to be Camberwell , and the location within the parish to be "hamlet of Peckham". From two entries down on the census sheet the next houses are shown as Eden Place and as Kent Road Eden Place and modern Commercial Way certainly joins the Old Kent Road.

The age given for Thomas in the census was 55, which means a dob 1780-1786. Rather than the 1779 date we would expect. Which is a counterweight to the assumption that Thomas was one of the Inglesham brothers.

But the same census entry does link him neatly back to the husband of Sarah as Isaac James, the son of Thomas and his second wife Amey, is living with him - identifed as a gardener. Also living with him is Sidney CAVE age 14, an apprentice, presumably the son of Elizabeth. Elizabeth however is not there on census night. His occupation as fishmonger also matches the occuation given for the father of Henry ( a son from the second marriage) at his 1840 marriage

I have been unable to find any Elizabeth BRUSH in the cenus index. However, there is an Elizabeth CAVE staying that night at the King Harry Inn on the outskirts of St Albans - only some 2½ miles from Leavesden Farm where Thomas's brother Isaac was living. A pub I know and have drunk and eaten in. Elizabeth CAVE is described as being of independent means. The coincidence is reinforced by the fact that she is later (much later - 1863) buried at All Saints Leavesden. However why she should have chosen to use her name from before marrying Thomas is unclear. Maybe the landlord, who gave the census information, knew her from before her marriage to Thomas.

There is a Cave family in the Kings Langley/Abbots Langley area around the period. William CAVE (born c. 1814 St Albans) a show maker journeyman is living at Waterside, Kings Langley with his young family in 1851. The family is there in In 1871 William CAVE age 32 - a fishmonger (?!) is living at Hunton Bridge - just a mile from Leavesden Farm. In 1861 Nat CAVE also born at St Albans is an Ag Lab at Abbots Langley. In the 1841 census there is a John CAVE, Wharfinger at Hemel Hempstead with daughter but no wife. There were also some rather grand Forresters in the St Albans area but Elizabeth Forrester's father William is shown on her marriage certificate as (having been?) a gardener.

There is a marriage of a John Cave (of Swinford) to an Elizabeth Forester in 1822 at Stamford in Northamptonshire, which is a reasonable possibility. One of the witnesses was William Cave. There are various deaths of men called John Cave in the period between 1822 and 1840 but none which jump out as being linked to the particular man we are looking for. There are several possible baptisms around 1800 in Northamptonshire. Searching for Cave births in Northamptonshire in the period 1822 to 1832 gives dozens of possibilities, several with father John or mother Elizabeth but none with both. In 1832 a John Cave and wife Elizabeth baptised Jane Sarah Cave at the Abbey in St Albans. In the 1841 census, a Jane Cave aged 9 is living at Hemel Hempstead (by the canal) with a John Cave "Wharfinger" aged 50. This seems to fit really well but it requires Elizabeth to have remarried bigamously to Thomas. At 1851 Jane, born St Albans age 19 is living-in as a servant to a farmer in Flamstead near St Albans. And in 1861 a servant living at Fishpool Street St Albans. I cannot find he rfurther after that.

Thomas's son Isaac James marries on Christmas day 1845 and both Thomas and Elizabeth are witnesses.

At Thomas's death in 1848 age 71 they were living at Milford Grove, Commercial Road in Peckham. Where does Milford Road come from? (death cert?) He was buried at the Stafford Street Wesleyan Chapel in Peckham on 23rd January.

In the 1851 and 1861 census Elizabeth BRUSH, widow, appears at Watford as a house servant. In 1851 to Jesse HANDS a widower and gamekeeper and in 1861 to Sarah Deacon at Carey Place. Her birthplace is shown as Wiltshire but two different villages. Since Thomas had died in 1848 this is quite possible and places her near her stepson Isaac at Leavesden. She is recorded as aged 60 at 1851 and 69 in 1861, so born around 1890. Her birthplace is given as B???ford (beckford according to Ancestry) and Downton in Wiltshire - villages either side of Salisbury. But a search for her there as Forrester shows nothing.

Next Sections
Chapter 29C: The younger children of Samuel and Sarah and
Chapter 29D: The children of John and Mary and