Thomas Wouldhave - Emigrants to Massachusetts

Thomas (TH102) was born in 1817.  His father John (JO101) was recorded as a Dyer and later as a Weaver.  His mother Margaret (MA104), a widow formerly Mason, was John’s second wife (his first wife, Mary (MA094) had died in 1813).  John was listed in Pigot’s directory in 1828 and 1830 as a Dyer in Bridgegate, Barnard Castle. Bridgegate is one of the oldest parts of Barnard Castle, close to the river and the castle, and was also one of the poorest.  It is now a pleasant riverside residential area but in the nineteenth century there was a surge of industrial development and a report in The Times in 1850 indicated that typhus and cholera were common.  There were no surviving children from John Wouldhave’s first marriage but Thomas had several siblings from the second marriage.

Thomas married Anne Race in June 1839 at Barnard Castle.  In the 1841 census Thomas is living with his father and his wife, Ann, in Thorngate, Gainford, which is a few miles east of Barnard Castle (see map).  Undoubtedly times were difficult for the family and Thomas’ brother William was arrested on more than one occasion for larceny and was transported to Australia in 1843 (see blog from August).  Thomas’s sister Margaret was also arrested on a number of occasions and charges ranged from being drunk and disorderly to larceny; she also served time in prison having been sentenced to hard labour. 

Thomas had one child before emigrating, John (JO108) baptised 15th March 1840. The family emigrated in 1842 (according to the 1900 Federal census for John, although we can find no other information on this).  In November 1853 John appears in the US naturalisation records.

According to information from the Maynard Historical Commission, Massachusetts, Thomas was one of the early mill men and ran the first drug store in Maynard in 1865 at 40-44 Main St, Somerset Hotel.  He was a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association from 1859-1867.  In the Maynard Illustrated Almanac (Maynard Historical Society Website) he is listed as a taxpayer in 1878 and was listed in the Maynard and Stow Directory as residing in 1887-8 in Summer St.

Ann died in 1858 and Thomas in 1899.

Thomas’ son John (JO108) was a shoemaker and a volunteer in the American Civil War; he married Abbie Reed in 1866.  Other children of John and Ann include Elizabeth (b. 1844), Hannah(B.1849), Thomas (B.1850), Maria J (or Mary) (b.1855) and Robert (b.1857).  We are still researching information about the family and hope to add further information at a later date.