FAMILY LIVES
TALES FROM THE CENSUS
& OTHER RECORDS
THOMAS LAKE 1815 - 1874.
My 1st Cousin 4 times removed
On 19th February 1815, Thomas & Catherine Lake, nee Popplestone, gave birth to a baby boy and they baptised him Thomas Lake after his father. In 1817 they had a second child Mary Popplestone Lake, who was baptised on 9 February that year.
Thomas was 2 years old when his father, who was a sawyer (cut wood), died in September 1817 aged just 35. He was buried on 14th September. Shortly after his death, Catherine, who now had no income, along with 2 yr old Thomas and his 8 month old sister Mary, were forced to leave their home in Stoke Damerel and travel to Wembury Devon. This was because under the poor laws of the time, pauper families were forced to return to the parish from where the husband of the family had originally come from.
In 1824 at the age of just 9, Thomas was apprenticed to Martin Wills, his uncle, the husband of Charity Popplestone, his mother’s sister. They lived in Altarnun Cornwall, which is where the Popplestone family lived. Unfortunately we do not know exactly what Martin did for a living as he died in 1836, before the census records gave us that information. We presume it was something in the milling trade as Thomas became a miller as an adult.
On the 6th June 1841 the UK national census was taken and for the first time it listed not only names but also their occupations. Thomas was a servant living at Notter Mills, St Stephen, Cornwall. Living next door is the Menhenett family and on 3 Sep 1841, Thomas Lake married Louisa Jane Menhenett in Stoke Damerel. Quite why they married in Stoke Damerel when they both lived in St Stephen Cornwall is the first of our mysteries. After their marriage then went back to Cornwall because on the 1851 census they were living in St Issey where Thomas was a miller.
St Issey is a village about 2 miles (3km) south of Padstow. The Salt Water Mills, also known as Sea Mills, was a grist mill on the banks of Little Petherick Creek. It was powered by flood tidal water which then turned a water wheel, when the tide was on the ebb. A grist mill is a corn or flour mill which grinds grain into flour.
Thomas must have worked really hard because by 1861 he was farming 6 acres of land at Gwannick Mill, St Allen, as well as still being a miller. St Allen is about 4 miles (6.5km) north of Truro, which is the county town of Cornwall.
Within another ten years they had moved again to Richmond Hill, Kenwyn, a suburb of Truro, about ½ mile from Truro city centre. Thomas was still a miller, now working at the Coosebean Mill, Truro.
Thomas and Louisa had eleven children, 3 boys and 8 girls, with the births ranging from 1842 to 1865. Their eldest son Thomas born in 1842 died at the age of just 4 but the rest of the family grew to adulthood.
In 1874 Thomas made a trip to the town of Marissa, St Clair County, Illinois, USA. The town now known as Marissa consisted of two towns in the 1870’s. Old Marissa & Marissa Stations. Old Marissa was a new community only founded 12 Dec 1867 and by 1881 the population of Old Marissa was just 60 people, with the population of Marissa Stations at 300.
On 17 July 1874 Thomas died of sunstroke in Marissa, Illinois.
The house at Notter Mills where Thomas lived next door to Louisa Jane Menhennet
Wembury Beach & St Werberghs Church
Drawing of the Old Stoke Damerel Church where they got married
Salt Water Mills (Sea Mills) at St Issey
Richmond Hill, Kenwyn, Truru
Marissa, St Clair County, Illinois, USA where Thomas died
On 4th March 1875 probate was granted to his widow Louisa Jane Lake with his effects valued at under £200
(£200 would be worth £16,000 in 2013).
Louisa brought up her 10 children, who grew up and scattered across a wide area including, Cardiff Wales, Wokingham Berkshire, Edmonton London and Queensland Australia. She died in 1911 in Cardiff aged 85.
There are so many unanswered questions that we will never know the answers to.
Why did they marry in Stoke Damerel?
Why had he travelled from Cornwall to this small community in Illinois?
Why that particular community?
How did he find out about it?
What did Louisa know about his death?
How did she find out?
We can only presume that he was looking at starting a new life for him and his family in the USA, a new town may have needed a miller.
If only I could borrow the Tardis from Dr Who!
My grateful thanks to Eric Macke for his wonderful website about Marissa. This link will take you to his site.
Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, where their son: Samuel James Peters Lake emigrated to in 1882 and lived until his death in 1927. His sister Elizabeth Jane Blee (nee Lake) also moved to Queensland and lived in Townsville
Dr Who's Tardis
the time Mmchine
Now if only ...