thomas fulcher + mary hunt

Thomas was born in Weybread in 1804, the son of Thomas and Charlotte Fulcher, but his baptism record has not been found. He married Mary Hunt at St Peter Southgate in Norwich on 14 October 1833. Mary was born in Yaxley but it appears her family left the area and later settled in Norwich. After their marriage, Thomas and Mary returned to Yaxley where they had ten children and farmed for the next sixty years.

Four months after their wedding, their first daughter Charlotte was born on 10 February 1834 and baptised two days later. Over the next four years, they had three more daughters: Anne Elizabeth was born on 26 January 1835 and baptised at St Mary on the same day, Hannah was baptised on 29 November 1836 and Mary was born on 28 June 1839 and baptised on 4 August. Their first son, Thomas, was baptised at St Mary on 22 October 1840 but died several weeks later and was buried in the church yard on 11 November.

In 1841, Thomas Fulcher was listed in the census as a Farmer employing one farm labourer and two maids. The name of the farm was not recorded in the census and the Fulchers were one of many families enumerated on Yaxley Street so it is difficult to know exactly which farm they occupied. They likely farmed a small holding as the family only employed one boy and two maids and anything larger would have required more labourers to help with the day to day operations.

They had a second son named Thomas Harley on 6 March 1842 and he was baptised one month later. Henry was born on 22 March 1843 followed by another son, Robert, who was baptised on 8 September 1844 but sadly died two months later. He was buried in the church yard at St Mary on 3 November. Thomas and Mary had two more daughters, Jane was baptised on 26 January 1846 and Sophia Hannah was baptised at St Mary on 11 June 1848.

In 1851, Thomas and his family were still farming in Yaxley but once again, the name of the farm was not listed in the census forms. However, it does note that he was farming 150 acres and employed seven men. Their eight surviving children were all living at home and the household also included one dairy maid and a visitor, Ellen Hunt, who was most likely related to Mary. Their daughter Anne’s occupation was listed as Teacher and she may have been working at the village school.

By 1861, they were recorded at Bridge Farm in Yaxley with Thomas farming 280 acres and employing 13 men and five boys. The Bridge Farm farmhouse was located on Yaxley Street, now the Ipswich Road, that ran through the centre of the village — the Rose Public House was at one end of the street and St Mary’s church at the other with Bridge Farm about midway between the two. Their eldest daughter, Charlotte, was visiting her uncle, Henry Hunt, a Woollen Draper in Norwich when the census was taken but all of their other children were still at home with only Anne, a Governess, and Thomas Harley, a Bank Clerk, working off the farm.

Bridge Farm Farmhouse c. 2005

Thomas and Mary were still at Bridge Farm in 1871 along with four of their daughters, Charlotte, Hannah, Jane and Sophia. They also employed two young house maids, 15 year old Eliza and her sister Alice who was only 10 years old. None of their daughters that remained at home were listed as having an occupation although this was not unusual considering the lack of opportunities for women at the time, particularly in rural areas. Of their six daughters, only one married — Mary married Charles Henry Bullen on 8 October 1868 at St Mary Yaxley before moving with him to Bury St Edmonds.

Henry married Sarah Mallandaine in 1867 and he was working as a steward at Store House Farm. Their daughter, Anne, had taken a position as a Principal at a Ladies Boarding School at 28 Angel Hill in Bury St Edmonds. It must have been a small school as there was only one other teacher listed with her in the census, French teacher Julie Mortimer, and three household staff including a housekeeper, a maid and a cook. Thomas Harley was living in a lodging house in Wixhoe in south western Suffolk in 1871 and working as an Accountant but he had only been in Wixhoe a short time as the 1869 Post Office Directory places him in Yaxley and notes his occupation as an Insurance Agent for City & County.

In Yaxley, Thomas Fulcher leased more and more land over the years and by 1881, he was farming almost 500 acres and employed 25 farm labourers at Valley Farm. Only daughters Hannah and Jane remained at home and they also employed 13 year old Alice Blomfield as a general servant. Anne’s school had grown considerably over the previous ten years and when the census was taken in 1881, she had over 30 pupils, four teachers and five domestic servants; four of her nieces also attended the school and her sister, Charlotte, was listed as a visitor.

By 1881, Thomas Harley was institutionalized at the Hoxton Asylum in Shoreditch and listed in the census as a lunatic. He has not been located in the 1891 Census but there is a possible match in the 1901 Census at the Cheshire County Lunatic Asylum in Upton near Cheshire. Many asylums listed residents by their initials only to protect their privacy and this could explain why he hasn’t been found in the previous census returns.

Sophia Fulcher lived at home with her parents for most of her adult life but in the 1881 Census she appears as a boarder in a house in Holdenhurst, Hampshire. Her occupation was listed as Annuitant so it does not appear that she was there to work. The Fulchers had no family or connections in the area but she may simply have been visiting friends but by 1891, she was back living with her family in Yaxley.

Yaxley

Thomas and Mary Fulcher died within six months of each other; Mary was buried at St Mary on 10 October 1891 and Thomas on 29 March 1892; his burial included the note — ‘three and fifty years without break Church Warden of the Parish.’ Daughters Charlotte, Hannah, Jane and Sophia were still living at Bridge Farm when their parents died but with no one to take over the farm, they likely gave up the leasehold and left the farmhouse. Three of the sisters stayed together and opened a lodging house in Sheringham, Norfolk, a small sea side town on the north coast of Norfolk while Jane Fulcher moved to Bury St Edmonds to live with her brother-in-law, Charles Bullen, and her nieces.

Ten years later, Anne’s school had decreased to 15 pupils and four teachers including Mary Ellen Tillott from Yaxley and Constance Maud Lawson. Anne was still running the school in 1901 but the address in the census was 30 Angel Hill and it is unclear whether she moved to a smaller house next door or the house numbers were simply changed. Several weeks after the census was taken, sixty-six year old Anne died while visiting London and was buried at St Mary in Yaxley on 25 April 1901.

Charlotte died in Bury St Edmunds in 1905 aged 71 years. In 1911, Jane and her sister Sophia were living in a five room house at 2 Suffolk Road in Sudbury and both were listed as living on their own means but Hannah has not been found in the census. Jane died in 1925 and Hannah in 1930 but no further records have been found relating to Thomas Harley.