Introduction

Thomas Perry became a gamekeeper in his twenties. His career as a gamekeeper took him to the Somerset parishes of Kingweston, Wrington, Hardington, as well as to the Gloucestershire parish of Aust. While living in Hardington, he and his family resided at Daisy Down, an isolated keeper’s cottage at the southern end of the parish. After his time in Hardington, Thomas returned to Wrington to work on the same estate as before. He passed away in Bedminster in 1898.

Youth

Thomas was born at Kingsdon, Somerset, around 1827. He was the oldest of three children born to Mary Perry, a single woman who lived in her mother’s household.

In March 1851, Thomas worked as a house servant in the household of Edwin Brown, a butcher and innkeeper at the Market Place, Somerton.

Kingweston

A few years later, Thomas had become a gamekeeper at Kingweston, near Somerton, where he met Amelia Sprake, his future wife. Amelia, the daughter of a farm labourer, had moved from Beaminster to Kingweston to work as a domestic servant.

On 18 March 1855, Thomas and Amelia married at Kingweston. The ceremony took place in the Rectory Barn because the parish church was being rebuilt. At the time, Thomas was about 28 years old, and Amelia was about 22. Both signed the marriage register.

Their first child, George, was born in the Langport registration district in 1855.[1]

Aust, Gloucestershire

From 1856 to 58, Thomas and Amelia lived at Aust, ten miles north of Bristol. During their time there, they had two children.

Wrington

By April 1861, they had moved to Broadfields, a hamlet in the parish of Wrington, where Thomas worked as a gamekeeper for Charles Edwards, a major landowner.[2] In April 1871, they lived at Wrington Hill. During their time at Wrington, they had six children, one of whom died at the age of two.

Thomas’s work required him to patrol at night in search of poachers. On May 2, 1863, while lying under a hedge in Wrington, he observed and heard events that would lead to his appearance at the Somerset Assizes the following August. There, he would testify against two men accused of stealing money from a man as he walked home from a local inn.[3]

Hardington

In 1873 or 1874, Thomas and his family moved to Hardington, where he worked for Henry William Hoskins of North Perrott.[4] Thomas appeared in court several times to prosecute poachers.[5] By April 1881, he and his family lived at Daisy Down Cottage. By that time, their five older children had left home.

While at Hardington, their last child, Frederick Thomas, was born on 14 November 1876, and Amelia was four days late in registering his birth.[6] Additionally, their son, John, married Sarah Sainsbury at Hardington Church in 1879.

Return to Wrington

By March 1889, Thomas had returned to Wrington to work for Charles Lund Fry Edwards, the son of his former employer, Charles Edwards.[7]

Thomas died in April 1898 and was laid to rest at Redhill. At the time of his death, he resided at 98 St Thomas Street, Bedminster.

Amelia’s later life

In March 1901, Amelia and her youngest son, Frederick, resided in a four-room house in the village of Wraxall near Nailsea. Frederick married in 1902 and moved to Nailsea, taking his mother with him.  Amelia died in May 1913 at the age of 79.

References

[1] George’s birth was registered in the fourth quarter of 1855. The 1861 census recorded his place of birth as “Kingston.”

[2] Western Daily Press, 16 January 1864, p.2; Western Gazette, 1 December 1865, p.6; Western Gazette, 22 June 1883, p.6.

[3] Wells Journal, 8 August 1863, p.2.

[4] Western Gazette, 8 May 1874, p.7.

[5] Western Gazette, 8 May 1874, p.7; Southern Times and Dorset County Herald, 27 February 1875, p.7; Dorset County Chronicle, 20 May 1880, p.9.

[6] Birth certificate of Frederick Thomas Perry.

[7] Western Gazette, 3 May 1889, p.6.