The BIGG Family

Thomas Bigg (1811 - 1876)

Thomas was the second son of Thomas (1776) and Ann Catt. He was born on 11 October 1811 at Boxley, Kent and christened there on 10 November. Nothing is known about his childhood, but we do know that on 1 September 1835 at St Dunstan, Stepney he married Sarah Ann Morley, the daughter of Jonathan Morley and Susanna Robinson. Although not much is known for certain about the Morleys, it is apparent that they were pretty well off. The family legend is that Jonathan Morley owned an hotel in Lombard Street, opposite the Mansion House in the City of London. It is also said that Sarah had a brother Henry who left assets when he died, of over £17,600 a great deal of money in those days. (Both these stories came from JBB's letter to his grandchildren). The Morley bible, which has already been mentioned, was printed by Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel, printers to the University of Cambridge, in 1638 just 27 years after the new revision commissioned by King James was completed and is still, some 375 years later, in pretty good condition.

Although the Ann's Family Bible gives details of other more remote relatives children born during the 1830s and 1840s, no mention is made of Thomas (1811) other than the date of his birth at Boxley.

Thomas (1811) and Sarah are a frustrating couple. They lived at a time when public records were becoming available and yet we know less about them one might expect. London's population in the Victorian period was a rapidly changing one with men changing employment and locations regularly. However, the family tree written in the Morley bible only lists four children, Flora, Henry, Thomas and Sarah. Flora Susannah, who was born on 9 March 1838 in Cold Blow Lane, Deptford, Kent, is the eldest. She was christened locally on 15 April in St Nicholas' Church, Deptford. Civil registration had started in September 1837 and Flora's birth was registered with Thomas's occupation given as a Cow Hooper. Flora never married, and in 1881, she and her mother, Sarah, are living in lodgings in Hackney. There is no entry under Occupation in Flora's census return, but Sarah is described as a Widow and an Annuitant. Flora has also been found in the censuses of 1891 and 1901.

Their next child, a boy, was Henry Morley Bigg, my great grandfather. Henry was born at Hedley Place, Hoxton in Shoreditch on 9 November 1839 and he was originally registered as Morley Bigg, the Henry being added subsequently. (This made his birth certificate somewhat difficult to find!) Henry was christened at St John the Baptist, Shoreditch on 8 March 1840 and one cannot help speculate about the location of the christening, the use of Morley as his second forename and the length of time before his christening took place. Had there been a rift with the Morleys that had been healed by the birth and christening of Henry Morley Bigg?

Thomas's occupation is recorded as a Milkman on Henry's birth certificate.

At the time of the 1841 census, some 17 months after Henry was born, Thomas and his family were still living in Hedley Place, Hoxton but they were recorded as having only the one child, Flora, present at that address. Henry, however, can be found staying with his grandmother in St Giles, Camberwell. She is recorded as a widow of independent means.

Two other children are listed in the Morley bible, namely Anne and Thomas. However, from the 1851 census we can see that in fact Thomas and Sarah had 6 children. As well as the four already mentioned, there was Emily Elizabeth born Q1 1842, and who died in 1857 when she was 15, and the last child, William, who was born in 1850. No other children appear listed in subsequent censuses so if any more children were born, it is probable that they died young. Perhaps the fact that their births are not recorded in the Morley bible means that Jonathan Morley died before they were born, i.e. before 1842. That is certainly consistent with the fact that so far no trace of Jonathan has been found in the 1841 census.

Henry's will of March 1902 appoints his brother Thomas as an executor. Another executor is his brother-in-law William Alfred Chardin, so presumably he is Anne's husband. Auntie Annie is also mentioned in JBB's letter.

The final puzzle about Thomas (1811) is how he came to marry Sarah Ann Morley. The Morleys appear to be fairly rich and Thomas was just a milkman. It is not as though Sarah was pregnant when the marriage took place, unless there was an earlier child who died shortly after birth - Flora was not born until 2½ years after they were married. It remains a mystery.