Elizabeth (Mountjoy) Thomas, dc1838 Westbury-on-Severn (General)

by sechelt @, Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 05:07 (4950 days ago)

Elizabeth was born in Westbury-on-Severn c1769. She doesn't seem to have lived anywhere else. FreeBMD gives W-on-S as her place of death in 1838. I would like to locate the cemetery she's in. Family records indicate she and husband John Thomas born c1760, dc1816, were Dissenters. Perhaps this influenced where they could be buried.

Elizabeth (Mountjoy) Thomas, dc1838 Westbury-on-Severn

by Jefff @, West London, Middlesex, Sunday, May 15, 2011, 14:23 (4945 days ago) @ sechelt

Welcome to this wonderfull forum ! Out of curiosity where are you from and what do you know of this area ?. I ask as although Westbury On Severn is still quite a small village, up until 1937 it was also the name of the Registration District which incorporated a much larger area of South West Gloucestershire including the FoDean. Hence she may have lived anywhere in this large area, so anywhere within the huge database of Parish Records on this site.
If you search this site's Parish Records there are numerous Mountjoys & Thomas's.

eg quick search for all the Mountjoys on the database between 1740 - 1780, say, gives 28 records. 26 of these are at Littledean, a village on the edge of the Forest and only a few miles out of Westbury on the main road. Most appear to be the same family including Elizabeth Baptized Christmas Day 1768, her parents Anthony & Elizabeth and several siblings. Hopefully these names match your findings ! If so you have extensive records to peruse and hopefully enjoy !. In this respect I consider you lucky that your family's records go so far back, perhaps as Littledean is one of the area's oldest villages by far with a Parish Church dating to the 12th Century !. (This site lists 95 Mountjoy PRs from Littledean alone, earliest 1711 and 42 Thomas PRs, earliest 1702).
These further Records include her Marriage to John Thomas at Littledean Chapel, and her Burial. Despite there being Burial Records of 141 Elizabeth Thomas's on this site, plus probably many more with name variations (Eliza etc), there are only 5 between 1837 - 1839.

Yours is probably one of two recorded as buried in 1837, the most likely being

Record_ID: 236046
Entry_Number:
Year: 1837
Month: Feb
Day: 24
Surname: THOMAS
Forenames: Elizabeth
Residence:
Age_at_death: 64
Officiating_Minister:
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda: wid[ow] of John
Notes:
Register_Reference: RG4/766
Page_No:
Parish_Chapel: Littledean Independent
Soundex: T520

A quick Google shows apart from the main Parish CoE Church which does have a Cemetery (see Bigland Transcripts on this site, sorry but I can't access it today) there's also the United Reform Chapel, which I presume may be "yours" ?

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/741237

The photo shows some Graves so you may be lucky.

For info see
http://www.british-genealogy.com/local-studies/littledean-village-gloucestershire.html
This excellent site also refers to the nearby hamlet of Greenbottom, and it's Baptist Chapel. It also contains 1851 Census extracts, so well worth a look.
I'm sorry but my knowledge of the various local religions is poor, no doubt other's wiser than me will know exactly which Chapel is "yours" !
Sincerly hope this helps, please take the time to study & enjoy the Parish Records here.

Finally;
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Littledean like this:

"DEAN (Little), a village and a parish in Westbury-on-Severn district, Gloucester. The village stands on the east verge of Dean Forest, near the South Wales railway, 2 miles NW of Newnham; has a post office under Newnham, a curious ancient cross, and fairs on Whit-Monday and 26 Nov.; and was once a market-town. The parish comprises 510 acres. Real property, £2, 320. Pop., 887. Houses, 165. The property is much subdivided. Coal and iron ore are worked. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £200.* Patrons, the Corporation of Gloucester. The church is later English. There are an Independent chapel, a national school, and charities £25."

Elizabeth (Mountjoy) Thomas, dc1838 Westbury-on-Severn

by Jefff @, West London, Middlesex, Sunday, May 15, 2011, 17:05 (4945 days ago) @ Jefff

Just looked up the Bigland Transcripts of Littledean CoE Church St Elthelbert from this site, only relevant Graves may be:

"JOHN THOMAS 13 Oct. 1757 aged 47.
ESTHER, Daughter of JOHN and ELIZABETH THOMAS 22 Jan. 1766 aged 22."

and

"BEATA MOUNTJOY 19 Nov. 1745 aged 80."

From http://www.forest-of-dean.net/downloads/index.php?path=Bigland_Transcripts/

Hope this all helps, looking forward to your comments.

Elizabeth (Mountjoy) Thomas, dc1838 Westbury-on-Severn

by sechelt @, Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 04:53 (4943 days ago) @ Jefff

Jeff, thanks so much for all you help on this. Firstly, I'm from Canada - never been to W-on-S, but hope to be in the neighbourhood around Sept. and thought I'd like to look for some gravestones, if they exist. I'm still working on all the info you gave me in the first email. As for the second, I don't think that's 'my' John Thomas because he had two sons, John and Joseph and he died at age 56, according to family records. I expected a lot of Thomases, but didn't expect so many Mountjoys!

Sechelt

Elizabeth (Mountjoy) Thomas, dc1838 Westbury-on-Severn

by Jefff @, West London, Middlesex, Friday, May 20, 2011, 23:13 (4940 days ago) @ sechelt

Hi Sechelt,
thanks so much for your reply, while reading this Forum (a great resource on it’s own) over the last six months since discovering this great website, I've been disappointed that many Original Posters appear to forget to acknowledge the efforts of Slowhands and the other major players(no NOT me!) for their research.
I’m glad you may be visiting the Forest in the early Autumn time, given some good weather it's a truly beautiful place !. It should only take a day to search the various Littledean Graveyards, although you may require advance permission to visit the Chapels and possibly even inside the Church. I strongly suspect the names from the Bigland Transcripts are relations of yours, just a little further back in time.

Not that I’m suggesting you have family links there, but the Prison is probably worth a visit too. I’ve not been yet, but having driven past it hundreds of times (I hail from Cinderford, the next town up the road) it’s always been the most impressive building in the village.
http://www.littledeanjail.com/default.asp

Good luck with your research, please feel free to email me direct with any queries at all.
Jeff.

Elizabeth (Mountjoy) Thomas, dc1838 Westbury-on-Severn

by sechelt @, Friday, May 20, 2011, 23:55 (4940 days ago) @ Jefff

Hi Jeff

Firstly, I'm glad you mentioned emailing you directly, but how do I do that?

Secondly, I meant to ask what the Bigland Transcripts are. I'm a real newbie to all this.

Thirdly, can you tell me about how long it would take to drive from Bristol to Littledean.

The information you gave me about Elizabeth's death seems to be correct, but earlier in your first correspondence you'd mentioned an Elizabeth born in 1768. Her death age was 64, so it seems as though she must have been born in 1773, barring the possibility of an error on the death record.

Thanks for alerting me to the issue of getting inside churches. I'm not sure I'll be so concerned about that, but the cemeteries are my main interest.

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go along and you're the only responder so far, so I would like to contact you again.

Katherine

How do I do that?

by admin ⌂, Forest of Dean, Saturday, May 21, 2011, 02:35 (4940 days ago) @ sechelt


Firstly, I'm glad you mentioned emailing you directly, but how do I do that?

Secondly, I meant to ask what the Bigland Transcripts are. I'm a real newbie to all this.

Thirdly, can you tell me about how long it would take to drive from Bristol to Littledean.

How to send an e-mail to other members
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/?Help_FAQ_General_FAQ#faq6
--
Bigland Transcripts
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/?Memorial_Inscriptions_Bigland_Transcripts
--
Bristol to Littledean - About an hour

Directions and Distance - Type in the locations in the to and from boxes at the bottom left hand side of the page
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?mode=page&id=41

How do I do that?

by Jefff @, West London, Middlesex, Sunday, May 22, 2011, 17:48 (4938 days ago) @ admin

Hi again Katherine,
further to the above please lookout on your email for a direct email from me that I hope you will find very helpful.
Take care and good luck with your research.

Thomas Mountjoy 1703-1769

by cchuggins @, Wednesday, August 31, 2011, 18:04 (4837 days ago) @ Jefff

Hi Katherine,

I am also a descendent of the Littledean Mountjoys although our common ancestor would be Thomas Mountjoy 1703-1769 (my 6th great grandfather). I think that you may be on ancestry so have sent you an invite to view my family tree. I would be really interested to hear from you.

Cerys

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