In March 1851, Thomas Gillingham, aged 15, was an apprentice blacksmith living in Job Taylor‘s household.

Thomas was born at Haselbury in about 1803. He was the youngest child of Thomas Gillingham, an innkeeper, and his wife, Mary (nee Genge). Mary came from Hardington, which may explain why Thomas obtained an apprenticeship at Hardington.

Both Thomas’s parents died young: his father in 1842, aged 38 and his mother in 1846, aged 47.

When his mother died, Thomas (if still alive) inherited one-fifth of his father’s estate.

It is not known what happened to Thomas after 1851.