Typical Joneses, there are that many of the buggers you don’t know who’s who. That being the case, after a period of rabbit hole wandering, more questions are found instead of answered and at this time the research is unable to head as far back in time as other family lines in an attempt to uncover any long forgotten secrets.
But. Yes, there is a ‘but’ here. What has been uncovered is interesting.
From a young struggling family living close to the Welsh border in western England, to a Chelsea Pensioner who married a woman who truly is an internet mystery, to a son convicted of Larceny (stealing brass mills) and sentenced with seven years transportation, who started a family when gaining freedom, then dying on the way towards the Ballarat goldfields. His story is now part of what we know today as the Thomas & Anne Story (courtesy of Margaret Babbini).
So we won’t concern ourselves with Thomas and Anne and instead will begin with Thomas’ grandfather, you guessed it, Thomas.
Not a lot is known to be honest. Born around 1770 and married Elizabeth Knight (b about 1775) on 30 October 1796 at the St Nicholas Church, Gloucester England.
Kind of makes it interesting, as their son William was born in 1791, Christened at St Chads Church, Shrewsbury. Anyhoo, being Joneses, and living not that far from Wales, maybe that is where our first Thomas originated. The death details of both of William’s parents are to this day unknown.
Early in 1811, William volunteered/was volunteered for military service, ending up with the 22nd Regiment of the Light Dragoons (.pdf), and served in India for the majority of his service. He may have participated in the Regiment’s invasion of Java later in 1811. William was eventually medically discharged at the Army Depot on Isle of Wight on 24 July 1817 and then becoming a “Chelsea Pensioner” (.pdf) for the remainder of his life. Hi-res copies of his discarge papers can be seen here and here.
At some point he met his ‘first wife’ (no marriage record), Constantine Sophia Porshue (as written on their daughter Sophia’s birth certificate) and could also be Pershaw, Porshe and anything in-between.
Constantine Sophia is our internet mystery. There are no records of her anywhere, except in relation to William. There is an Old Bailey mention of 1 x Sophia Jones dated 22 June 1826 and another of both a William and Sophia getting an earlier mention in the Somerset Criminal Register of 1816, but these may be different persons as William had yet to be discharged from the Army then, although anything is possible. I believe the same William Jones was also involved in petitioning for the repeal of the Malt Duty, also in 1816.
So, Sophia’s (her given name on the Census) birthyear via the 1841 England Census has her age as 45, so the guess is 1796. Before her eventual death from Typhoid Fever in 1849 (age recorded here is 55!), both Sophia and William had at least six children, with most living reasonably lengthy lives for the time. Most kids were born in Wolverhampton; however, Thomas (the convict) was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, about a 35 modern mile walk between the two.
William remarried in 1852 at the age of 61 to Anne Fussell at St Michael’s, the parish church at Stoke St. Michael, which is 119 modern UK car miles away from his last place of residence where he eventually made his/their way back to for William's death on 30 October 1870 (Walsall St, Wolverhampton) and not to far from where he is now buried.
Not a great deal is known about Anne. She was a widow when she married William, so it is uncertain if ‘Fussell’ was her married or maiden name. Her place of birth and date of death is also unknown.
Interesting to note, that on their marriage paper, William’s Rank or Profession is stated as “Marine – Pensioner”.
Wayne Jones
6 September 2021
webpage content © Wayne L Jones 2021 or © Wayne L. Jones/Sportz Fotos 2021 unless otherwise indicated.