occupation

Pastry cook, fruiterer & confectioner
of High Street, Oxford; later farm
bailiff and farmer

dates

Baptised: 30 May 1803 at St Mary the
Virgin, Oxford

Married: 1) 12 Jan 1826 at St Peter East, Oxford to Charlotte MORRIS
2) 6 April 1848 at St Clements, Oxford to Anne SEARGEANT

Died: 7 Feb 1897, Ridout, Langham, Norfolk

residence

Oxford; Shabbington, Bucks; Kingham, Oxon; Wheatley; Langham, Norfolk

submitted by

Mary RATHBONE, née PYLE
(great-great-granddaughter)

related faces

Charlotte MORRIS (wife)

William Thomas MORRIS (grandson)

Kezia BELCHER (mother of grandson’s wife)

Esther Mary WEBB (grandson’s wife)

Background information

Thomas William MORRIS was born in 1803 and baptised 30 May at St Mary the Virgin, Oxford. He was the eldest son of Thomas MORRIS, gent and Eleanor his wife, née SYRRAT.

Thomas William married first Charlotte MORRIS, his first cousin and the daughter of William MORRIS and Sarah, née SAVAGE. This was on 12 February 1826 at St Peter East, Oxford. They had four children: Sarah Elinor (bp. 1827), Thomas William (bp. and bur. 1829), Augustus Frederick (bp.1830) and William Syratt (bp.1833). All were baptised at St Peter East, Oxford.

Thomas William was widowed 6 March 1847 and on 6 April 1848 he married Anne SEARGEANT of Brill, Bucks, born 1825. He was a farm bailiff at Long Crendon. They had seven children: Thomas Seargeant (bp. 24 February 1849, Long Crendon, Bucks), Laura Louise (bp. 5 June 1851, Long Crendon, Bucks), Emma Frances (bp. 19 February 1856, Shabbington, Bucks), Frederick George (bp. 16 April 1858, Shabbington, Bucks), Henry Plater (bp. 8 August 1861, Kingham, Oxon), Charlotte Anne (bp. 17 April 1863, Kingham, Oxon), Helen Caroline (bp.1 February 1865, Kingham, Oxon). Helen Caroline was buried with her mother on 15 February 1865 in Kingham churchyard.

Between 1854 and 1860 Thomas William inherited and lost through poor husbandry the 260 acre Lower Farm at Shabbington, Bucks. He then moved to Kingham, Oxon to be near his wife’s sister Caroline, wife of Joseph WAKEFIELD, butler, steward and heir to Sir John READE at Shipton Court (documented in The Folk Lore of the Cotswolds).

Following the death of Anne, his wife, Thomas William moved once more with his young family to Wheatley, Oxon and retired from farming. For more than 10 years the family was supported by Thomas’s eldest and unmarried son Augustus Frederick. In 1879, Augustus, then 49 years old, decided to marry. Thomas William disowned Augustus for this rebellious act and moved to live with his youngest surviving daughter Emma Frances RIDOUT in Buckingham. For the last 15 years of his life, he lived with Emma in Langham, Norfolk. He died at there on 7 February 1897 at the age of 94.