The family of Thomas and Mary Ann LAWRENCE of Glastonbury

[ian gartlan]

Hi

I am looking for information about the family of Thomas Lawrence and Mary Ann Down of Glastonbury.

Mary Ann Down was the grand daughter of John Down who owned the Abbey in Glastonbury.

Thomas and Mary Ann married in Glastonbury in 1827.  They had two daughters Mary Ann in 1827 and Elizabeth  in 1829.  Then they seem to have left Glastonbury.

I am descended fro Mary Ann's sister Amelia.

regards

[warncoort]

Have you checked census returns?

[ian gartlan]

Hi

Yes I have looked in the censii, but have not been able to locate them, so far

regards

ian

[Jo Harding]

Hello ian gartlan,

I noticed from the details of the baptisms of Mary and Elizabeth which are on Freereg, that Thomas Lawrence was a Carpenter of Magdalen St, Glastonbury.

The marriage entry in the parish registers of Glastonbury, shows that the witnesses were Elizabeth Lawrence and James Down, relations of some sort. The marriage was By Licence, which suggests they were of some status.

I don't know how much of the background you have but it appears that James Down married in Glastonbury in 1825, he is shown as a Widower. Details are on Freereg.

There is a possible burial on Freereg  for Mary Lawrence in Glastonbury on 20 February 1833, shown as aged 37.

I cannot find Thomas in the census either. Do you know where and when he was born for certain? Do you have his baptism?

http://www.freereg.org.uk/

Jo

[ian gartlan]

Hi Jo

Thank you for that rich response.  I had heard of freebdm but not free reg, it looks brilliant!

James Down was a cousin of Mary Ann.  I am descended from Mary Ann's younger sister.
 
The family were Yeomen and former Mayors of Glastonbury.  Mary Ann’s parents were dead by the time of her marriagein 1827: her mother 1820 and father 1826.  She had an uncle and cousins who went to Buffalo in New York, and a neice and cousins later went Australia; I descend from the niece. There were also cousins in London.  Though searches in those areas have not brought them to light so far, they just up and vanish in the 30’s

There is a Mary Lawrence Baptism at St Johns Glastonbury in the 1790’s, which matches with the Death in the 1830’s. I do not have a baptism for Thomas, but I assume that he is part of the family of Lawrences who appear in the parish registers at that period.  Though this may be something of an assumption.

regards

Ian

[Jo Harding]

Hello Ian,

Thank you for the background information in your post.

I am not entirely convinced the burial in 1833 is for your Mary Lawrence. The reason is that there was a couple by the name of Joseph and Mary Lawrence baptising children in Glastonbury at that time. They lived in High St and Joseph was a Land Surveyor. Judging from the names they used for their children, he was a son of John and Eleanor Lawrence. The Mary Lawrence who was buried could have been her.

I noticed that there were two ladies by the name of Mary Lawrence buried in Glastonbury in 1833, one aged 56 and from High St, the other aged 37. They are both shown as living in High St.

Thomas and Mary married in 1827, so I would have expected them to have been born in the early 1800s, up to around 1806. The details on the register do not indicate they were minors, aged under 21 at the time they married. Since the registers for Glastonbury are online, I would have expected to see Thomas's baptism on there. This suggests he was not born in Glastonbury, or that he was baptised in a non conformist chapel.

Looking at searches on Freereg, there seem to have been Lawrence, "colonies" in Somerset. Merriott was one of these.  There were huge numbers of Lawrence baptisms etc there. There are some of Thomas Lawrence in the right period too.

My feeling is that Thomas was not born in Glastonbury but elsewhere. Working as a carpenter, you would expect him to remain in the same area and not travel too far away but you never know.

I will give this some more thought and investigation and see if I can find out more.

Jo

[Jo Harding]

I have come to a blank trying to find the family on the census, the same as you did.

One way to establishing a bit more information would be to look at the Trade and Street Directories for Glastonbury in the 1830s and 1840s. These should show Thomas Lawrence both as resident and in business there. It would reveal whether he ceased to be resident etc as well.

I did a search on A2A and did come up with some results that look promising. There were a number of references to Thomas Lawrence, Carpenter, of Glastonbury. The search was for years 1800-1855 and the possible entries came to a halt in 1837. You might like to repeat this on http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/advanced-search.aspx?tab=1 The search was for Lawrence, place Glastonbury 1800-1855, Somerset Archive and Record Service, South West Region.

Still looking.

Jo.