Born into a working class family in Dorset during the closing years of the 18th century meant there was little prospect of Thomas Stovey becoming anything other than an agricultural labourer who would marry a local girl and have a large family to support on meagre wages.
Thomas was baptised at Hazelbury Bryan on the 30th of July 1797, the son of John and Sarah Stovey. For reasons that are not clear he was, like his siblings, baptised with the surname Stubbey. In 1840 he was described as being 5’7” tall with brown hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion.
The Hazelbury Bryan burial register records the passing of two-year-old Charlotte Elsworth: “the natural daughter of Priscilla Elsworth and Thomas Stovey.” Charlotte was buried on the 17th of December 1818. Thomas and Priscilla’s affair, if indeed it was an affair, didn’t last. Seventeen months later, on the 24th of May 1820, in the 14th century parish church dedicated to St. Mary and St. James and where he was baptised 23-years earlier, Thomas married Sarah, the eldest daughter of Thomas and Leah White.
The marriage was witnessed by his sister Charlotte who married John Hutchins, also a witness to the marriage, a couple of years later. The other witness was John Gillingham.
Thomas and Sarah had twelve children. Baptised at Fifehead Neville, this is about two miles from Thomas’ birthplace, were: Edmund (1821); Robert (1822); Mary (1824); Henry (1825); Charlotte (1827); James (1829); Susan (1830); Jane (1832); Sarah Ann (1834); Christopher (1835); George (1836.) Then there was Sarah (1838); she was baptised at Hazelbury Bryan. Her mother died giving birth to her; Thomas, who already had a daughter named Sarah Ann, undoubtedly named his last child after his wife.
Two years after the death of his wife, Thomas was charged with committing a misdemeanour. The Quarter Sessions record states that with Thomas Holt and Henry Bushrod – “let them be severally imprisoned in the House of Correction to hard labour for two years” and on the 14th of September 1840 Thomas found himself in Dorchester Gaol, while his children were sent to the Workhouse at Sturminster.
We know from the Dorchester Gaol records that he had a cut above the bottom joint of his right finger on his left hand and another cut just below the middle joint of the middle finger. Work injuries perhaps? But what are we to make of the fact that he had a cut to the left side of his throat? The Gaol records report he was a disorderly prisoner.
It seems likely that on his release from jail Thomas was reunited with his children and they returned to Fifehead Neville. His 10-year-old-daughter, Sarah Ann, died and was buried there on the 18th of June 1843, just two months before Thomas himself passed away. He was buried on the 17th of August 1843 aged just 46 years in the same churchyard as his daughter. His mother was buried at Hazelbury Bryan on the 12th of October 1834 aged 80 years.
