Thomas Cross

LIFE GOES ON: AN INTRODUCTION

MY GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

THE SIXTEEN FAMILIES

KNOTT - I - BOWLES - I - WATERS - I - HARRALL - I - PAGE - I - WISEMAN - I - CROSS - I - CARTER

CORNWELL - I - HUCKLE - I - MORTLOCK - I - MANSFIELD - I - REYNOLDS - I - CARTER - I - ANABLE - I - STEARN

CHRONOLOGY - I - DRAMATIS PERSONAE - I - WHERE PEOPLE CAME FROM - I - CALENDAR

MAP OF ELY - I - MAP OF MEDWAY
MAP OF CAMBRIDGE AND DISTRICT

THE WORKHOUSE

WORLD WAR I - I - WORLD WAR II

simonknott.co.uk I home I e-mail

LIFE GOES ON

Thomas Cross
born Ely, Cambridgeshire, 1828
died Ely, Cambridgeshire, 1909

on the Page family tree
part of the Cross family story

married to Mary Ann Chapman

father of Thomas Chapman Cross

son of
Thomas Cross
and Mary Butty

Thomas Cross (1828-1909). My Father's Mother's Mother's Father's Father. My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather.

Thomas was in a long line of Thomas Crosses, sharing the name with both his father and with his son. The Cross surname is the most common of all in the Waterside area of Ely in the 19th Century, but the family are fairly easy to trace thanks to the meticulously-kept Ely Holy Trinity parish registers of the time. Even so, the 1861 census for Ely is lost, and at other census times Thomas seems to have had a somewhat wayward attitude to the ages of himself, his wife and his children. Generally, my ancestral Ely families stayed very close to Holy Trinity parish, but Thomas presents us with the intriguing detail that two of his children appear to have been born in London in the 1860s. Did he go there to seek a new life? The family were certainly back in Ely by 1871, and did not apparently leave it again.

The Crosses tended to live long lives by 19th Century working class standards, and Thomas was 80 when he died in the Ely workhouse in 1909.

1828: Thomas was born in Holy Trinity parish, Ely. He was baptised on 26th August in Ely Cathedral, the son of Thomas and Mary.

1841 census:

Thomas was thirteen years old at the time of the 1841 census. He gave his occupation as Agricultural Labourer. The Cross family were living in Broad Street, Ely.

Thomas's father Thomas Cross was 38 years old. He also gave his occupation as Agricultural Labourer. Thomas's mother Mary was 35 years old.

There were five other children in the house on the night of the census. Martha was 11, Mary was 8, Robert was 5 and Elizabeth was 1. Also in the household was Hugh Butty, 15 years old, who gave his occupation as agricultural labourer. He was probably a nephew of Thomas's mother, whose maiden name was Butty. Everyone in the household was born in Cambridgeshire.

1851 census:

Thomas was twenty two years old at the time of the 1851 census. No occupation was recorded. The Cross family were living in Potters Lane, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Thomas's father Thomas was 46 years old. He is shown as a Porter. Thomas's mother was shown as 50 years old.

Thomas was the oldest of five children at home on the night of the 1851 census. Mary was 17, Robert was 15, Elizabeth was 11 and William was 9.

Everyone in the household was born in the Ely Trinity parish.

1854: on 20th January, Thomas married Mary Ann Chapman in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral.

1861 census:

The 1861 census returns for Ely are lost. Thomas would have been about thirty-three years old at the time of the 1861 census. Intriguingly, his son Richard, who would be ten years old on the 1871 census, was born in London, as was 6 year old Alice. If Thomas was in London for the 1861 census though, I have not found him.

1871 census:

Thomas was forty-three years old at the time of the 1871 census. He gave his occupation as Labourer (Water). The Cross family were living in Water Side, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

His wife Mary (recorded as Mary Ann) was 42. There were seven children in the houshold on the night of the census.Thomas was 19, Martha was 19 (were she and Thomas twins? but it is only 17 years since Thomas and Mary Ann were married, so these and subsequent ages may not be correct - see entry for 1881), Mary Ann was 16, Emily was 14, Richard was 10, Alais (Alice?) was 6 and Harriett was 4.

Thomas is shown as born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, as were his wife and all his children except for Richard and Alais, who were born in London. The transcript for their entry is here. Interestingly, the Carter family lived next door, and in 1881 the younger Thomas would marry Sarah Carter, who was 11 at the time of the 1871 census.

1877: There is an intriguing mention in the Cambridge Independent Press of a Thomas Cross, a gas house labourer of Ely, who had appeared before Ely bench charged with disobeying an order for the payment of 6d a week towards the support of his daughter now in Sunderland reformatory school. He was ordered to pay the arrears or be imprisoned for 28 days. The name Thomas Cross was not unique in Ely, but it might be worth investigating if this is our Thomas!

1881 census:

The Cross family were living at New Barnes Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire at the time of the 1881 census, and their entry is most curious.

Thomas is shown as a labourer. Thomas and Ann (not Mary Ann) give their ages as forty - that is to say, younger than they were in 1871! And yet it is clearly the same family, because the children have the names in the right order and with the right birth places - but their ages are equally odd. Martha is 23 (19 in 1871) Richard is 16 (10 in 1871) Alice is 14 (6 in 1881) and Harriet is 12 (4 in 1871). There is another child, Robert, aged 7.

All the family were born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, except for Richard and Alice who are born in London. This matches the places given in 1871. The transcript for their entry is here.

1891 census:

Thomas was sixty years old at the 1891 census. He was an agricultural labourer. The Cross family were living in a cottage on Newnham Street, Ely, Cambridgeshire.

His wife Mary Ann (Ann on the census) was also 60. Two of Thomas and Mary Ann's children were in the house on the night of the census, Martha aged 34 and Robert 17. There is also a grandchild, William Cross aged 16.

Everyone in the household was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

1901 census:

Thomas was seventy-six years old at the time of the 1901 census. He was a gasworks labourer, living in Broad Street, Ely.

Thomas was a widower. No one else was living in the household.

1909: In January, Thomas died in the Ely Workhouse at the age of 80. He was buried in Ely cemetery on 31st January in plot G631. His age was given as 77.