Introduction
Thomas Gill Cox experienced an unsettled childhood. His mother passed away when he was about two years old, leaving him to be raised by his father and stepmother. He eventually found some stability, owning his own house near Cold Harbour from his early thirties and becoming a small-scale farmer and shopkeeper. However, his life became increasingly difficult in his mid-fifties, as he had to endure a scandal involving his youngest son, as well as the deaths of his wife and two children. Despite these hardships, he remarried in 1869 and lived for another nine years.
Childhood
Thomas was born in Axminster around 1808 and was baptised there on 7 July 1811. He was the son of Thomas Cox and his wife, Mary. His middle name, “Gill”, was derived from his mother’s maiden name. His parents had married at Chard, which was Mary’s home parish, on 1 April 1805. They lived at Axminster for a short time before moving to Hardington.
Mary, Thomas’s mother, died at Hardington in June 1810. On 2 February 1818, his father married Mary Eastment at Hardington.[1]
Marriage
On 1 November 1831, Thomas married Joanna Cleal at Hardington. At the time, Thomas was about 23 years old, while Joanna was 27. Both signed the marriage register, and Thomas Cox, probably a cousin of Thomas Gill Cox, was one of the witnesses.
Joanna was the daughter of William and Mary Cleal, and the sister of Ann Cleal, who married Thomas Cox a few months earlier.
Property
From 1840 until his death, Thomas Gill Cox occupied a freehold cottage at Hill End. Owning this property gave him the right to vote.[2]
The 1843 tithe apportionment shows him occupying two allotments in Coldharbour (474 and 481), a house and garden (485) and a house and plot (492). Lord Ilchester owned all these plots. However, Thomas may have held the houses on long leases.
Occupations
When Thomas registered the birth of his son, Reuben, on 19 June 1839, he gave his occupation as a weaver. By June 1841, he was a labourer, and in the 1861 census, he was listed as a “farmer and small shop keeper.”
On 5 September 1860, the Yeovil magistrates fined him £1 and costs for possessing an illegal weighing machine and an unjust beam and scales used to weigh coal.[3] This is the earliest evidence of him keeping a shop.
Defending his son
In 1863, Thomas’s son, Reuben, found himself in serious trouble for his involvement in an assault on a nineteen-year-old servant girl, Charlotte Frampton. The incident occurred outside Prospect Farmhouse on the evening of Sunday, 15 February 1863, after Reuben and several other young men had attended a Bible Christian prayer meeting. The next day, Thomas visited Charlotte to offer her money in exchange for dropping the charges, but she refused. When the case was brought before the Yeovil Petty Sessions on 4 March 1863, Thomas provided evidence, blaming the corrupting influence of the Bible Christians on his son and urging the magistrates to take action against this “evil.” Both Reuben and another young man, Simeon Abbott, were fined 40 shillings each.[4]
Boundary dispute
In May 1864, Thomas Gill Cox and Thomas Cox were involved in a dispute over a garden boundary. Thomas Cox accused Thomas Gill Cox of willfully causing damage. The magistrates stated they could not adjudicate the matter as it involved an ownership issue and advised the parties to appoint an arbiter. The newspaper report of the case described them as relatives.[5]
A bleak time
The mid-1860s were particularly difficult for the family, marked by three deaths. In July 1864, Reuben ruptured a blood vessel, leading to tuberculosis, and he died on 5 April 1865 at the age of 26.[6] Joanna developed a stomach tumour and passed away on 3 October 1865 at the age of 61.[7] The following year, on 30 December 1866, her daughter Maria died of “decline” at the age of 31.[8]
Second marriage
In 1869, Thomas married Elizabeth Mitchell, a widow whose first husband had been transported for theft in 1844.[9]
At about the same time, his son Alfred married and left home, as did his daughter, Letitia.
Death
Thomas died intestate on 19 April 1878, at the age of 70, leaving an estate valued at “under £200.”[10]
Elizabeth’s later life
Elizabeth was a shopkeeper at Hill End in April 1881. In April 1891, she was staying with her only son in Cardiff. She died in the Yeovil area in 1900 at the age of 84.
Children
Thomas Gill Cox and his first wife had five children:
Circa 1833- Alfred (married Ann Swaffield Hansford in 1869; resided at Hardington, Montacute and West Coker, where he worked as a shoemaker; died in 1913);
Circa 1835- Maria (worked as a glover; never married; died from “decline” in 1866);
Circa 1838- Reuben (died in infancy);
Circa 1839- Reuben (became a blacksmith; never married; died from tuberculosis in 1865);
1844-Letitia (married Henry John Hooper, a shoemaker, at West Coker in 1869; resided at Hardington; died in 1871 from tuberculosis).
References
[1] The marriage record does not state that Thomas was a widower.
[2] Hardington voters’ lists.
[3] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 12 September 1860, p.6.
[4] Western Gazette 7 March 1863 p. 2; Sherborne Mercury 10 March 1863 p. 2.
[5] Sherborne Mercury, 10 May 1864, p.3.
[6] Death certificate of Reuben Cox.
[7] Death certificate of Joanna Cox.
[8] Death certificate of Maria Cox.
[9] Sherborne Mercury 6 April 1844 p.4. Name recorded as “Henry Mitchell” instead of Daniel Mitchell.
[10] National Probate Calendar.
