Ancestors of Cley

Computerised genealogy programs conveniently make timelines of the events we document in our ancestors' lives. It's up to us to read between those lines and consider what those times were really like for that person.

The image below is a timeline of the all the events in Jemima Jary Dew's life which we have been able to document to date. Seventeen events. That's not much to go on in trying to reconstruct a lifetime.

Documented events in Jemima Jary's life

Still, these seventeen lines give us a glimpse of Jemima's life. She was thirty-three when she married Thomas Dew, who was 41 at the time. According to their marriage certificate, Thomas was a bachelor, and Jemima was a spinster. Thomas's occupation was given as "Mariner" and there was a ditto mark below that for Jemima's occupation. Presumably, then, they were both mariners when they got married. (Image excerpt & discussion of Jemima's occupation here.)

There are so many questions hidden in these seventeen lines.

Why hadn't either of them married earlier? There could have been any number of reasons. I like to think it was because they were waiting for each other.*

What caused the deaths of their infant sons? They were both buried on the same day; did they both die on the same day? What happened? Was it illness? A fire? Were both Thomas and Jemima there when they died, or was Thomas at sea and did Jemima have to endure it alone, then break the horrible news to Thomas when he came back into port?

It appears that Jemima and Thomas moved to Blakeney between the time of the 1861 census and the birth of their son, Jacob Jary Dew, in 1864. Her mother died in 1863 in Cley-next-the-Sea, so the move could have been after that. What prompted the move?

Jemima died when their son was only five years old. The cause of death was tuberculosis, so she was most likely ill for some time before her death. What must that time have been like for the family? Who took care of her? Did she know she was probably going to die and leave a young son? Was she part of the decision that Jacob should live with his aunt, Mary Taylor Dew Irland, or did Thomas decide that after her death?

And what became of Thomas after Jemima's death? Did he remarry? We have been unable to find him so far  in documents between Jemima's death in 1869 and his own death in late December 1880 at the Union Workhouse and burial at Blakeney in January 1881.

Jemima and Thomas had about eleven years of marriage together before her death. It's probably safe to assume that for at least part of that time, Thomas was at sea, hence Jemima's enumeration in the 1861 census in her mother's household. Presumably, then, there were some lonely days and nights for both Jemima and Thomas. In that respect, their lives probably weren't much different from those of their neighbours.

We know they endured tragedy with the deaths of their sons, and there had to have been sadness and fear as Jemima fell ill and it became evident that she was going to die.  I hope they had times of great joy during those eleven years as well.

Sources:

• 1851 England Census. The National Archives, Kew. District 5b, Cley-next-the-Sea. Household 52.  [Class:  HO107; Piece: 1809; Folio: 709; Page: 13; GSU roll: 207461-207462.] (Image from Ancestry.com)
• 1861 England Census. The National Archives, Kew. District 12, Cley-next-the-Sea. Household 156. [RG9; Piece:  1203; Folio:  166; Page:  22; GSU roll:  542774.] (Image from Ancestry.com)
• 1871 England Census The National Archives, Kew. [Class: RG10; Piece: 1854; Folio: 23; Page: 20; GSU roll: 838814.] (Image from Ancestry.com)
• Marriage certificate: Thomas Dew & Jemima Jary. GRO. 1858 Mar Erpingham. Vol 4b, Page 85, Entry no. 127.
• Marriage certificate: Samuel Jarvis & Adelaide Jary. GRO. 1854 Mar Erpingham Vol 4b, Page 97
• Cley Next the Sea Parish Registers: Burials 1855–1908. PD270 MF695/5. P10: No 80 & P11: No 81
• Death certificate: Jemima Dew. GRO. 1869 Dec Walsingham. Vol 4b, Page 197.
• Cley Next the Sea Parish Registers: Burials 1855–1908. NRO PD270 MF695/5 P 20, No 159
• Death certficate: Thomas Dew. GRO. 1881 Mar Walsingham. Vol 4b, Page 211.
• Blakeney Parish Register: Burials 1855 - 1900. NRO. PD619 MF692/7. Page 41 and Page 67; 1880-1.

*(It should probably be noted that the engineer half of this blog - the direct descendant of Thomas and Jemima - cringed at the mushiness of that sentence. But it's staying.)

Related Posts

1. What was Jemima Dew’s occupation? (Updated)
2. Jacob Jary Dew (1864-1947)
3. The children of Thomas and Ann (Stirges) Newbegin
4. A look at the 1841 Blakeney Census
5. More on the 1841 Blakeney Census – Susan Starling