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/35988In 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.htmThe minister at Cottayam (near Alleppey) Rev. Thomas Norton
http://csistandrewschurch.com/our_story.phpChurch 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/35989Missionary 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.txtMrs. 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-CochinTravancore-Cochin or Thiru-Kochi is a former state of India.
http://shrinkalink.com/35991Rev Norton's account of Allepie
Cheers
AMBLY