© 2016 David E. Spencer
Thomas was born in Broadclyst in 1830 and was christened there on the 30th June 1830. In the 1861 he was a corn merchant living in West Teignmouth, Devon with his widowed mother and two eldest sisters (Mary and Frances).By the time of his marriage on the 5th November 1870 at Heigh Harrogate Parish Church in Yorkshire he was a County Court bailiff living in Batley. His bride was Ellen Maddison, born in Durham City but living in Harrogate. Ellen was the daughter of George Maddison and Jane Wortley. Ellen had been living in Yorkshire for some time - in the 1861 census she was a servant in Leeds in the household of William Blanchard, barrister and Recorder of Doncaster.
I have never found out why Thomas left the pleasant seaside town of Teignmouth to become a bailiff in Batley. I have also wondered how conversations went in the Trood household at a time when regional accents and dialects were much more pronounced than they are now. His Devon accent and Ellen's Durham accent may well have been a fascinating mix especially when used in a household in West Yorkshire.
In the 1871 census Thomas is living at 2 Victoria Terrace, Batley Carr, Batley. Their first child Mary Jane was born in 1872. Another four children followed - Isabella (1874), Matthias (1875), George William (1878) and Charlotte Elizabeth (1882).
By the 1871 census the family had moved to Bilton-cum-Harrogate where Thomas worked as a railway porter. Ellen died in 1890 and Thomas in 1895.
Mary Jane (1872 - 1937), my wife's great grandmother married Claude Percy Buckroyd in the church of St. Clement, Sheepscar, Leeds on the 1st June 1895. The bride and groom both lived locally in Roscoe Road.
To read about the family of Claude Percy and Mary Jane BuckroydClick here
To read about the Maddison family Click here