Introduction
Tom spent his childhood and early adulthood in Wiltshire, living in several small villages east of Warminster, including Norton Bavant, Codford St Mary and Boyton. After the death of his father, he moved to Hardington, where he almost married Emma Marsh but ultimately ended up marrying his landlady a year later. Following his marriage, Tom worked as a railway platelayer for at least eighteen years before transitioning to factory work in Yeovil.
Birth at Norton Bavant
Tom was born at Norton Bavant in 1857, the second of two children born to James and Elizabeth Woodland. His birth was registered under the name “Tom,” and he was baptised with the same name. Both Tom’s and his brother John’s births were recorded under the surname “Woodline.”
His father, James, was a farm labourer originally from Stocklinch Ottersey in Somerset. After both of his parents died in the early 1840s, he moved to Wiltshire, altered his age by four years, and made a new life for himself, including marrying a woman twelve years his junior.
Codford St Mary
By April 1871, James, Elizabeth and their two sons, John and Tom, lived in Chitterne Road, Codford St Mary.
Boyton
By April 1881, the family had moved to Boyton, where they lived near to a 150-acre farm occupied by a farmer named Stephen Smith.
Death of father
Tom’s father, James, died in 1885. This event may have prompted Tom to leave home and migrate thirty-three miles west to Hardington.
A lodger at Hardington
By April 1891, Thomas was a carter lodging in the household of Samuel Gilliam, a labourer, at Towns End, Hardington.
A cancelled wedding
Starting on September 27, 1891, Rev. Cleife announced the banns for the upcoming marriage of Tom and Emma Marsh for three consecutive Sundays; however, the wedding did not take place. This may have been due to Emma being pregnant with another man’s child; the child was born on March 4, 1892, which would have made Emma four and a half months pregnant when the banns were called for the third time on October 11. Alternatively, the cancellation may have arisen from changes in Tom’s circumstances at home.
A new beginning
On 13 October 1891, Tom’s landlord, Samuel Gilliam, died from a strangulated hernia, leaving his wife, Harriet, with sole charge of four children aged between eight and eighteen.[1]
Ten months later, on 22 August 1892, Harriet married Tom at Yeovil Wesleyan Chapel.[2] Tom was 34, and Harriet was 49.
Married life
Two or three years after getting married, Tom secured a job as a platelayer on the railway. Tom, Harriet, and her youngest child, Florence, moved into a house at Hardington Marsh near the railway line.[3]
In 1904, Florence married Alfred Burt, also a railway platelayer of Hardington.
Between 1911 and 1915, Tom and Harriet left Hardington Marsh and moved to the High Street. The estate sale catalogue of October 1920 shows them occupying a cottage north of Bishops Lane.
In his fifties, Tom left the railway and found employment in Yeovil. In June 1921, he worked as a general labourer for the Wessex Flax Company at Bunford, Yeovil.
Death
Tom died in 1930 at the age of 72, while Harriet died in 1936 at the age of 92.
References
[1] Death certificate of Samuel Gilliam.
[2] Western Chronicle, 26 August 1892, p.5.
[3] Hardington voters’ lists.
