I’m going to have a week of sharing past posts, and this one is about a man who I found out about, having seen his gravestone in the cemetery of our local church, in Uphill. The church on the hill has no roof, but part of it is still consecrated and services are held there from time to time.:
30th September 2014
I began my search for the person behind the name on a gravestone in our local churchyard, Edward Thrisselldew, for whom I could find no records at all, no birth, marriage, or even death although there was a gravestone commemorating him. I started in the normal way by looking at rercords on a genealogical site.
I had no luck Goggling Thrisselldew either… however when I made it a double barrelled name, Thrissell Dew and Googled again I found the following notice in the London Gazette archives:
EDWARD THRISSELL DEW, Deceased. – Pursuant to Statute 22 & 23 Vic., c. 35.
NOTICE is hereby given, that all creditors and others having any claims against the estate of Edward Thrissell Dew, late of South Haven, Clarence-road, Weston-super-Mare, in the county of Somerset, deceased (who died on the 30th day of December, 1924, and whose will was proved by Charles Edward Dew and Edward Coster Dew, the executors therein named, in the District Probate Registry of His Majesty’s High Court of Justice at Wells, on the 8th day of April, 1925), are hereby required to send particulars of their claims to us, on behalf of the said executors, on or before the 2nd day of November, 1925, as after that day the said executors will proceed to distribute the assets of the said deceased amongst the persons entitled thereto, having regard only to the claims of which they shall then have had notice.—Dated this 14th day of September, 1925. BAKER and CO., 19, Waterloo-street, Weston-super-Mare, Solicitors for the said (119) Executors.
I guessed that Edward Coster Dew might be his son, and since his name was more unusual than the other executor, Charles Edward Dew, I searched for him and came up with him on a census in 1881, here in my town, not far from where my bank is now… in fact it might even be my bank… if I could work out which direction the numbering of the houses went in 1881!
In 1881, Edward Coster was living with his father, a dental surgeon, later Edward Thrissell Dew, and his mother Jane, and a number of siblings, visitors and servants. His brothers and sisters were Charles, Harry, Fannie, Florrie, Katie, and George, with ages ranging from sixteen to five. The visitors to the house were two little children Ever and Eaton Baines, and a woman who might be connected to them as she was also from Middlesex, Emily Freeman who was the manageress of a hotel. There are a number of servants in the house, so Mr Dew must have been quite wealthy, Fanny Harris a cook, Jane Wilkins a chambermaid, Anne Bulpin a house maid and her sister Ellen who was another cook and servant, Frank Bowen from St Johns in Newfoundland who was a servant but by occupation a billiards marker, and Bessie Abberfield, also a servant but by occupation a barmaid.
By 1891 the family had moved and some of the children had left home; Charles and Henry were now an assistant dental surgeons, no doubt to their father. Their younger brother Edward was studying to be an engineer. In the 1901 census, only Fannie and Katie are still at home with their parents, and ten years later, only Fannie is with them.
Over the different census records, Edward only shows the name Thrissell Dew in the last one… so where did the Thrissell come from? He was born in Warwick… is there a clue there? Maybe he did not join the two names together, maybe it was the stone mason who engraved the commemorative stone.
I can find him in earlier censuses, and his mother was Sophia… but as to his father, I have drawn a blank… more research on another day, and maybe I will pin down the Thrissell connection.
Lois Elsden 