Reverend Thomas Norton

[Beaujolaiswine]

Hi Folks

I am trying to find information concerning Sarah Garrett who was born in Winchester abt. 1795 (dau. of John Garrett and Ann Wooldridge) who I believe married Thomas Norton.

I have found a marriage for a Reverend Thomas Norton to a Sarah Garrett as follows:-

Name: Reverend Thomas Norton occupation Clerk widower
Spouse Name: Sarah Garrett spinster
Record Type: Marriage
Event Date: 20 Mar 1827
Parish: St James, Clerkenwell
County: Middlesex
Borough: Islington
Ages not given
Witnesses Richard Garrett, Charles Garrett, Jane Rivington, Mary Amelia Heseltine

Sarah Garrett had brothers Richard and Charles as well as William Garrett (my great great grandfather) who worked for Winchester Cathedral all his life and had 2 sons and one grandson who were all ordained clergymen.

Any help to find out more about Reverend Thomas Norton would be gratefully appreciated.

Many thanks

Richard 

[AMBLY]

Hi Richard
 

He was a widower...so

If he was the same Rev Thomas NORTON, Missionary of Travancore, Quilon, Cottayam near Allepie/Allepey (Alappuzha),  (referred to as "Venice of the East" in http://www.alappuzha.com/)

He may have been married 3 times - and Sarah GARRET may have been the 3rd.

Googling and following through, : Reverend Thomas NORTON, English missionary in India:-
Married 1) Unknown, sometime before 1822 and she died of a Liver ailment in Feb 1822 in Quilon (Kollam) India
Married 2) 1 Oct 1824 in Colombo, Ceylon, to Miss Lee (1794-1826), she died 15 Jan 1826 of tropical dysentry
Arrived back in England with 2 sons  in abt March? 1826, having departed Colchin (Travancore) India on 16 February 1826.
Died at Alappuzha (Allepie) 1840

Question being: after he arrived back in England 1826, did he then choose a new  and 3rd wife, she of a suitabley strong pious & clerical background.... ie: Sarah GARRETT in 1827, and they went back to Allepie?

http://shrinkalink.com/35988
In a letter 1822 to the Church Missionary Society about the death of Mrs Norton, wife of the Reverend Thomas Norton, Missionary in Travancore, who died at Quilon on Wednesday, Feb 20 1822... The letter supposes she died of a liver complaint and had been weakening for some time, though had at times seemed also to be recovering from her ailments

http://school.steci-alleppey.org/
"The first Anglican Missionary to arrive in Travancore was the Rev. Thomas Norton who settled at Alappuzha in 1816 ......."

http://school.steci-alleppey.org/
"About 15 years after his (Rev Norton's) arrival, there were eleven schools with 301 boys and 57 girls. Two of them were boarding schools, one for boys and the other for girls under the supervision of Mrs. Norton."
Other data says Rev Norton arrived in Allepie 1816, so 15 years onward is circa 1831. It's not clear if the reference to Mrs Norton is to her endeavours circa 1831, or simply refers to a Mrs Norton supervising the schools during those 15 years. However if the reference is to ~1831, it could well be Sarah Garret (that's if this Revd is the same one who married Sarah Garrett).

http://indicatorloops.com/caldecott.htm
The minister at Cottayam (near Alleppey) Rev. Thomas Norton

http://csistandrewschurch.com/our_story.php
Church Missionary Society of the Anglican Church sent missionaries as ‘mission of help’ to revive the Jacobite church. The first missionary Thomas Norton arrived at Alappuzha, Kerala in 1816. .........). Norton stationed at Alappuzha and worked there until his death in 1840

http://shrinkalink.com/35989
Missionary register, Volume 14, 1826 -  By Church Missionary Society
Page 352
The Rev Thomas NORTON has returned home from Allepie, with his two sons. They embarked at Colchin on 16 February in the "Lonach" (ship)....Mrs Norton, who was Rev Norton's second wife and to whom he was married only in October 1824, had been indisposed for a considerable time; latterley she has suffered  much from ill health and on the 15 January at the age of 31, she was called away from her labours, her disease was tropical dysentry.
Page 116
Survey of Missionary Stations
Allepie, Rev Thomas Norton 1817....but he twice visited Ceylon and on the last occasion was married on the 1 Oct 1894 at Colombo (Ceylon) to Miss LEE who went out from England with.....His wife helped run the schools.

However, I think the 1894 marriage date on page 116 is an error........, the following from her funeral sermon delivered by the Rev. Joseph Fenn, one of the Church Missionaries in Travancore says the marriage was 1824, and she was born 1794:
http://www.archive.org/stream/memoirsofbritish00timp/memoirsofbritish00timp_djvu.txt
Mrs. Norton's name before her marriage was Lee.  She was born in the parish of Salcombe, Devonshire, in December 1794, so that she had but just completed her thirty-first year, and had thus reached the most useful
period of life.........Miss Lee had been at Ceylon about two years,  when God was pleased to crown her wishes of being  employed in His service, by uniting her in marriage to the Rev. Thomas Norton ; an event which took place
at Ceylon, October 1, 1824. ......She arrived at Allepie, in company with her  husband, toward the latter end of October (1824)..........At Ceylon, our dear sister had enjoyed nearly uninterrupted health : but, just previously to her marriage, indications of a liver complaint appeared, and those spasms in her chest began, to which she continued subject till within a month of her decease.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travancore-Cochin
Travancore-Cochin or Thiru-Kochi is a former state of India.

http://shrinkalink.com/35991
Rev Norton's account of Allepie

Cheers
AMBLY

[Beaujolaiswine]

Hi Ambly

Amazing reply. Thanks so much.

On digging a little deeper with the Church Missionary Society records I found confirmation that he married Sarah Garrett

(1827 Edition of Missionary register, Volume 15 By Church Missionary Society page 181).
On Tuesday 6th March at a meeting of the Committee of Correspondence, the following persons were dismissed to their labours: Rev. T Norton and Miss Sarah Garrett his intended wife, on Mr. Norton's return to Allepie.

I also discovered that he had 2 sons from one of his previous marriages Thomas and Benjamin, but I am not sure which wife or when and where they were born. I am not certain in fact when the Rev. Thomas Norton was born, but I also discovered through Google Books searching of the Missionary records that his wife Sarah died on 25 Aug 1837 at Allepie and that Rev. Thomas Norton died 11 Aug 1840 (having married for a 4th time to Miss S. C. Saulfelt of Negapatam on 9th Jan 1839).

Others researching my Garrett ancestors seem to think that Rev. Thomas Norton and his wife Sarah who was 32 when she married had 3 children Sarah, Eliza and William Garrett Norton before she died aged 42. None of the missionary records mention these children unfortunately.

Thanks again for your help.

Regards

Richard

[AMBLY]

Hi Richard

Great stuff 

A little more I had found in the interim.....

http://www.kuwaitmarthoma.com/links/pam.pdf
http://www.kuwaitmarthoma.com/links/CHMAY.pdf
Rev Thomas NORTON arrives 8 May 1816  at Cochin with wife and 2 year old son.

The report of Sarah's death:
http://shrinkalink.com/35992
Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the ..., 1837.....Volume 8 - By Church Missionary Society
" South India Mission - A letter from the Reverend J TUCKER dated September 8th, 1837, brings the painful tidings of the death of Mrs Norton, wife of the Rev. T. NORTON.
Mrs Norton died on the 8th August last, after a short illness. Mr Tucker remarks:
The loss of Mrs Norton will be severely felt at the Allepie mission, as well as by her affected husband. In the mission she was a help-meet to her husband...but it was especially in her Female School tht her usefulness was most eminently seen.

and his death:
http://shrinkalink.com/35994
The Church missionary record, Volume 11 - 1840 - By Church Missionary Society
We have just received the painful intelligence of the death of the Rev THomas NORTON, who died at Allepie, of Dysentry, on 11th August last.
http://shrinkalink.com/35993
An 1842 paper: At the time of his death (1840)  Rev Thomas Norton had been in  Allepie for 25 Years (since abt 1815/1816).

http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofthechur015639mbp/historyofthechur015639mbp_djvu.txt
The First Missionaries - Tells  more of the beginnings of Reverend Thomas Norton
He was a married Shoemaker (had studied Greek when he had time) in 1809, when he was accepted for (ministry) training.
After he received his Holy Orders, Norton was (eventually) stationed at Allepie

Cheers
AMBLY

[AMBLY]

Gosh, just re-read yours - he married 4 times! Well that's assuming the wife he was already married to in 1809 was the mother of the 2 year old in 1816 and wife who died 1822!

Cheers
AMBLY

[Beaujolaiswine]

Hi Ambly

Thanks again for your fantastic help. How did you discover that he had a 2 year old child in 1816? Was this child Thomas or his younger brother Benjamin or some else?

For some reason I thought Rev. Thomas Norton was born abt. 1790. I am now thinking that it must have been earlier as he was already married by 1809.

Also it seem a long gap between 1809 and 1814 with no children born for a shoemaker living somewhere in England.

Best wishes

Richard 

[Travancore]

Four wives - two children from first (Ann/Hannah?); two from the next two wives, died as babies; one from Sophia Saalfelte (last wife who outlived him). Went back and forth to UK in between. Was in Ceylon as well. Local church in Allepie has the plaques on the wall of the church for some wives and children. Confirm was shoemaker before becoming missionary. Probably went out there with Ann/Hannah. There are bonds to indicate so on the East India records. Was well received in India, local queen/princess/Rani granted land to build house/school and materials. Organised educational facilities. Worked later with the poorer members of society. Wives played important, pivotal role. His memory still lives on. Recent Anglican Bi-centennial celebrations there featured large images/pictures of him displayed from the stadium. Was part of CMS missionary venture patronised by William Wilbeforce. Had inaugural meeting/send-off St. Ann's, Clapham. I believe he also might have frequented/been married at, or had some connection to the Church that now sits in the middle of the Barbican. That area also had shoemakers, and leatherworkers close by. May have been religiously tutoured at York. Hope this helps in some way?

[Beaujolaiswine]

Hi Travancore

Thanks for your reply to my post with interesting information. Thomas Norton's 3rd wife was Sarah Garrett a younger sister of my 2nd great grandfather William Garrett master to the choristers of Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. William's grandson my maternal grandfather was I believe named after Thomas Norton as he was christened Alfred Norton Garrett. He also became a missionary, in the outback and other places in in Australia between 1895 and 1910 and in 1915 he took up the role of chaplain to the British forces in Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Regards

Richard

[Travancore]

I will have to fluff up my research with your information.  Thanks very much indeed.  The Rev. was a 5 times great grandparent of mine. I am through the Benjamin Lyons Walcott Norton lineage, then Charles Benjamin Spragge Norton, then George Spragge Norton (who married Eliza Jane Slater) and begat Alice Maud Norton (later Thresher - who was my grandmother). Forgot to mention that somewhere, in my previous research years ago, I read his two sons were at some time looked after/tutored by a colleague of his (if I can remember his name will write again) and, also, spent some time at Nilgherry Hills. The obituary of one of his wives was heart-breaking. People sometimes died in transit on the ships and I think his wife  ministered to others aboard who either had dystentry/typhoid or something similar. I know one journey they had was very rough and had to stop for repairs (can't remember the ship/captain's name now) which delay their journey. Have a recollection that one wife was ostracised from polite society for becoming a christian and lost many friends as a result. Her mother was also cool to begin with but later also became a christian.
You probably know more than me, but did you know that at one time the school house burned down and was later rebuilt? A distant third cousin of mine (a Norton) went to Allepie to do family research where the local press were interested in his connection to the Rev. - which is how I learned of the church plaques. I think the house he lived in is/was currently used by local army or police (not sure why) and possibly due for demolition which would be a shame. The church itself still stands.  Do you know anything about the family name of Walcott (Benjamin Lyons Walcott Norton)?