The subject of this biography is the Thomas Thomas Moyle who married Grace Bennetts Matthews in St Levan,[1] Cornwall, on 1 December 1849.[2]
The marriage record tells us that the bride Grace was a spinster of full age living in St Levan, and was the daughter of a farmer named Thomas Matthews. The groom Thomas was a bachelor of full age living in Sennen,[3] and was the son of a coast guard man name William Moyle. It also says that the groom was a cordwinder; it clearly should have said that he was a cordwainer.
An 1841 census record shows a Moyle family including a ten year old boy named Thomas living at Sennen Cove:[4]
William Moyle (55, Coast Guard, born Cornwall),
Elizabeth Moyle (50, born Cornwall),
Edward Moyle (15, born Ireland),
Thomas Moyle (10, born Cornwall),
William Moyle (20, Blacksmith, born Cornwall).
To match the marriage record, we wanted to find a Thomas Moyle in Sennen whose father was a coast guard man named William Moyle. The minor problem is that Thomas aged ten on 6 June 1841 would not have been of full age on 1 December 1849.
At the 1841 census enumerators were instructed that the ages of people over 15 should be rounded down to multiples of five. Could it be that in this case the enumerator rounded Thomas's age down despite the fact that his age was less than 15?
An 1851 census record shows Thomas Moyle and his wife Grace living in St Just in Penwith,[5] on Fore Street, Lafrowda:[6][7]
Thomas Moyle (Head, 21, Cordwainer, Portwinkle),
Grace Moyle (Wife, 20, Buryan).
So it now appears that Thomas and Grace were not of full age at the time of their marriage.
Grace's birthplace was apparently not St Levan, as we had expected (given where she was living at the time of her marriage), but St Buryan,[8] which is adjacent to St Levan.
The place referred to as Portwinkle in the above record is surely Portwrinkle,[9] a coastal village in the parish of Sheviock.[10] Sheviock is near Plymouth, quite a long way from Sennen.
Recall that the Edward Moyle in the 1841 census record, presumably Thomas's brother, was born in Ireland. So it seems that this Moyle family moved around quite a bit.
The Thomas Thomas Moyle we are discussing must surely be the Thomas Thomas Moyle who was baptized in Sheviock on 28 November 1828.[11] The baptism record says that his parents were named Thomas and Elizabeth, his father was a mariner, and the family's abode was at Wrinkle. No doubt "Wrinkle" refers to Portwrinkle.
In view of his middle name, we can confidently guess that Thomas Thomas Moyle's mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Thomas.
We can find 1851 and 1861 census records for Thomas's parents.
In 1851 William and Elizabeth were living in Sennen churchtown:[12][13]
William Moyle (Head, 66, Coast Guard Pensioner, born Wendron),
Elizabeth Moyle (Wife, 65, Domestic, born Breage).
In 1861 they were living at Treeve in Sennen:[14][15]
William Moile (Head, 75, Pensioner Greenwich, born Wendron),
Elizabeth Moile (Wife, 75, Pensioner's wife, born Breague).
Treeve in Sennen is marked on the Cornwall Council Interactive Map.[16]
For the sake of identifying Thomas Thomas Moyle's parents, the crucial information is that they were both born in about 1785, William in Wendron[17] and Elizabeth in Breage.[18]
It is also convenient that an 1851 census record can be found that provides a good match for Thomas Thomas Moyle's (presumed) brothers William and Edward, who appeared in the 1841 census record referenced above.
They, like Thomas, were living on Fore Street, Lafrowda, in St Just:[19][20]
William Moyle (Head, 30, married, Blacksmith, born Mullion),
Peter Wallis (Lodger, 20, unmarried, Tin Miner, born St Austle),
Edward Moyle (Lodger, 26, unmarried, Mariner, born Brea in Ireland).
Given the Cornish pronunciation of Brea, it seems likely that Brea in Ireland refers to Bray, in County Wicklow.[21] The Cornish parish Mullion[22] is quite close to Wendron and Breage, where William's presumed parents were born.
William Moyle, son of William and Elizabeth, was baptized in Mullion on 8 March 1819.[23]
So the parents William and Elizabeth were surely the Willam Moil and Elizabeth Thomas who were married in Mullion on 20 July 1809,[24] rather than the William Moyle and Elizabeth Thomas who were married in Wendron on 23 June 1821.
As well as the sons William, Edward and Thomas, William and Elizabeth Moyle had two daughters: Jane Moil, baptized in Mullion on 26 February 1811,[25] and Mary Ann Moyle, baptized in Mullion on 13 May 1815.[26]
Thomas and Grace Moyle had three children baptized in Sennen:
William Thomas Moyle, son of Thomas and Grace, was baptized on 13 June 1850.[27] The family's residence was recorded as Sennen, presumably meaning the churchtown. The father's occupation was not recorded. William Thomas Moyle, aged 4 months, was buried in Sennen on 27 September 1850.[28]
Emily Jane Moyle, daughter of Thomas and Grace Bennets, was baptized on 11 September 1851.[29] The family's residence was Sennen, the father was a shoemaker.
Thomas Charles Moyle was baptized on 31 January 1853.[30] The father was a shoemaker, and the family lived at Trevescan.
Trevescan in Sennen is marked on the Cornwall Council Interactive Map, and is quite close to Treeve.[31]
South Australia
Thomas and Grace Moyle, with their three year old daughter Emily and one year old son Thomas, arrived in South Australia in the ship Hooghly on 19 April 1855.[32] In the passenger list Thos Moyle is described as a laborer, not a shoemaker.[33] This perhaps indicates that the Emigration Commissioners had advertised that agricultural laborers were needed in South Australia.
Thomas and Grace had the following children born in South Australia:
William Moyle, born 10 July 1856 at Aldinga,
Emily Jane Moyle, born 30 January 1859 at North Kapunda,
Emily Jane Moyle, born 15 November 1860 at Aldinga,
Edward Moyle, born 19 November 1862 at Kapunda,
Richard Bennet Moyle, born 13 February 1865 at Kapunda,
Elizabeth Thomas Moyle, born 16 March 1867 at Kapunda,
Margaret Bennetts Moyle, born 15 December 1869 at Kapunda,
Harry Moyle, born 19 September 1871 at Kapunda,
Mary Ann Moyle, born 28 December 1873 at Kapunda.
These births all appear in South Australian birth registration records.[34]
The first three were in FamilyHistorySA's "Births South Australia 1836 to 1860" online database, but unfortunately that website is now defunct.
It seems that after arriving in South Australia, Thomas and Grace first went to live in Aldinga,[35] no doubt because Grace's parents and sisters had settled there some five years previously. (See Grace's father's profile.) They then moved to Kapunda.[36]
Thomas apparently had some reason to believe, or hope, that his brother William had come to South Australia, since he placed the advertisement shown below in the South Australian newspaper The Adelaide Observer on 26 April 1856.[37]
However, there seems to be no evidence that William Moyle did come to South Australia, and what became of him is a mystery.
There are a few mentions of Thomas Thomas Moyle of Kapunda in South Australian newspapers. The earliest appears to be an election advertisement in The South Australian Register of 13 February 1865, addressed to Thomas English, in which T. T. Moyle and 89 other electors of the District of Light, feeling convinced that Mr English's views on the political questions of the day coincided with their own, respectfully requested him to allow himself to be put in nomination as a Candidate to represent their District in the ensuing Parliament.[38]
Similarly, there is an advertisement in The Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer on 15 November 1867 in which Thomas T. Moyle and 220 others urged Councillor James Pearce to allow himself to be nominated for the position of Mayor of Kapunda at the forthcoming elections.[39]
On 22 July 1868 Thomas Moyle gave evidence in a case in the Kapunda Local Court in which Mr J. P. Moyle charged a teenaged girl with stealing a pair of boots from his (J. P. Moyle's) shop. Thomas's evidence was that while he was serving her sister he saw the accused take the boots and leave the shop. He followed her and took the boots back. The girl was convicted, but because her youth and previous good character Mr. Moyle told the Court that he was not desirous to press the charge, and the Court decided to imprison her only until the rising of the Court.[40]
Observe that J. P. Moyle was also part of the James Pearce for Mayor campaign in 1867.
Mr J. P. Moyle was John Perry Moyle, who was baptized in Wendron on 20 March 1818[41] and died at Kapunda on 31 January 1880.[42][43] A bootmaker by trade, he became the Mayor of Kapunda and a Justice of the Peace.[44][45][46]
It is probable that Thomas Thomas Moyle and John Perry Moyle were first cousins, John Perry Moyle's father Peter Moyle being an elder brother of Thomas Thomas Moyle's father William. John Perry Moyle's will was witnessed by a Thos Moyle, presumably Thomas Thomas Moyle.[47]
In March 1870 Thomas T. Moyle and J. P. Moyle were two of 166 electors of the District of Light who signed an advertisement requesting that A. Gaedechens Esq. allow himself to be nominated as a candidate to represent their important district in the ensuing parliament.[48] Similarly in September 1873 Thomas Thos Moyle and J. P. Moyle were amongst 209 electors of the District of Light who, having been credibly informed that a vacancy was likely to arise at an early date and believing that Randolph Isham Stow Esq. would be a most useful and valuable Member of the House of Assembly,[49] respectfully requested that he allow himself to be nominated as a candidate to represent Light.[50]
Over the years Thomas attached his name to several similar election notices supporting candidates for a variety of elections, both for local government and for the government of South Australia.[51][52][53][54][55][56][57] Observe that in 1881 Thomas supported two different candidates: in those days some districts returned more than one member to the House of Assembly.[49]
The list of Randolph Stow supporters included a Thos Moyle as well as a Thomas Thos Moyle, the David Moody supporters included a Thos Moyle as well as a Thomas T. Moyle, and the James Wheatley supporters included a Thos Moyle as well as a T. T. Moyle. So there were at least two Thomas Moyles in Kapunda. So, for example, we cannot be sure which of them owned the cat that had been born with only three legs.[58]
In 1875 T. T. Moyle had a financial disagreement with his eighteen year old son William, and placed a rather angry advertisement in the local paper.[59]
Thomas T. Moyle, Bootmaker, Kapunda, is listed in Josiah Boothby's Adelaide Almanac and Directory for South Australia for the year 1875. The other Thomas Moyle of Kapunda is also listed; he was an engineer.[60]
Boothby's Directory had been published since 1864, but Thomas was not listed before 1875.
Boothby's Directory for 1876, by some error, changed Kapunda bootmaker Thomas Moyle's middle initial from T to V,[61] and he stayed as Thomas V. Moyle up to and including 1881.[62] In the 1882 edition the middle initial disappeared; in this year as well as Thomas Moyle bootmaker and Thomas Moyle engineer there was a Thomas C. Moyle butcher at Kapunda.[63]
Thomas remained as plain Thomas Moyle in the directories up to 1887,[64] but from 1888 on he again became Thomas T. Moyle.[65] He was listed for the last time in 1906.[66]
On 6 September 1878 William Moyle, Thomas's son, committed suicide by hanging himself. He had given no indication that he was going to do so, and the inquest was unable to discover any reason for his action.[67][68]
One of the newspaper reports of the inquest into William's death gave his age as 18, another gave it as 21. South Australian official records correctly give it as 22.[69]
On 8 January 1888 Thomas's youngest son, Harry Moyle, died from sunstroke.[70] It was a very hot day, and Kapunda butcher J. M. Watts and several of his employees, including Harry Moyle and Thomas Moyle junior, had been watering stock in a paddock at a place called Scotty's Grave, near Kapunda. After finishing they assembled briefly in a house on the paddock, where Harry had a drink of cold water, then started back to Kapunda. Harry (who was on horseback) and two other lads were the first to set off, followed by Mr Watts, Harry's brother, and others. The had not gone far before Harry suddenly felt unwell, dismounted, and lay down in the shade of a tree. His friends bathed his head with water from a nearby hole, but he died within a few minutes, in his brother's arms.[71]
The following item about Thomas Moyle was published in The Kapunda Herald on 9 March 1906.[72]
Mr. Thomas Moyle, who had resided in Kapunda for 50 years, and who was one of its most generally-known townsmen, removed to Broken Hill on Friday last. He had not been in good health for several years, and has gone to the Hill, where he and Mrs. Moyle will be near some of the family. With the exception of a brief period at Willunga, Mr. Moyle had resided in Kapunda from the time of his arrival in the state till his removal, and for the whole of that time had been employed in the establishment of the late Mr. J. P. Moyle. For many years he had been in charge of the lighting up of the Methodist Church.
Evidently the late Mr J. P. Moyle's establishment persisted long after the death of Mr Moyle himself.
Death
An article in The Areas' Express mentions that Thomas Moyle, formerly of Kapunda, died at Broken Hill[73] on Sunday 1 April 1906.[74] Although the New South Wales death record says that he died on 2 April 1906,[75] it confirms that his name was Thomas T. Moyle and that his parents were named William and Elizabeth.
↑Thomas and Grace Moyle at the 1851 census (piece 1919, folio 315, page 4, schedule 11). Free UK Genealogy "General Register Office: 1851 Census Returns database", FreeCEN (accessed 7 April 2021).
↑Thomas Thomas Moyle, 1828: "England, Cornwall Parish Registers, 1538-2010" database with images (FamilySearch, 14 April 2015), Cornwall > Sheviock > Baptisms, 1813-1871 > image 16 of 53; Kresen Kernow, Redruth.
↑William and Elizabeth Moyle at the 1851 census (piece 1919, folio 481, page 1, schedule 1). Free UK Genealogy "General Register Office: 1851 Census Returns database", FreeCEN (accessed 7 April 2021).
↑William Moyle's houshold at the 1851 census (piece 1919, folio 314, page 3, schedule 7). Free UK Genealogy "General Register Office: 1851 Census Returns database", FreeCEN (accessed 7 April 2021).
↑William Moyle's houshold at the 1851 census: "England and Wales Census, 1851" database with images (FamilySearch, 9 November 2019), from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census" database and images, findmypast, from PRO HO 107, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
↑Emigrants on board the Hooghly, left Plymouth on 3 January 1855: State Records of South Australia, GRG 35/48/1, official assisted passage passenger lists, list 11 of 1855, Hooghly, page 2, (digitised copy, viewed 7 April 2021). See names 18 to 21 in the left column.
↑Emigrants on board the Hooghly: State Records of South Australia, GRG 35/48/1, official assisted passage passenger lists, list 11 of 1855, Hooghly, page 5, (digitised copy, viewed 7 April 2021). See name 25 on the page.
↑New Justices: The South Australian Register (Adelaide SA 1839–1900), 12 May 1876, page 7. (National Library of Australia, Digitised Australian Newspapers, retrieved 7 April 2021.)
↑John Perry Moyle Bootmaker deceased: "Australia, South Australia, Will and Probate Records" database (FamilySearch, 26 September 2019); from State Records of South Australia GRS 16377/1/33/25, Probate and Administration Books 23 December 1879 to 4 March 1888. FamilySearch film # 103271675, image 103 of 610, and see also image 104.
↑To Mr R. J. Day: The Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer (SA 1864–1878), 11 October 1872, page 2. (National Library of Australia, Digitised Australian Newspapers, retrieved 1 June 2021.)
↑Freaks of nature: The Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer (SA 1864–1878), 28 October 1870, page 3. (National Library of Australia, Digitised Australian Newspapers, retrieved 1 June 2021.)
↑Notice: The Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer (SA 1864–1878), 1 June 1875, page 2, column 5. (National Library of Australia, Digitised Australian Newspapers, retrieved 1 June 2021.)
↑Suicide: The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide SA 1867–1922), 10 September 1878 (2nd ed.), page 3. (National Library of Australia, Digitised Australian Newspapers, retrieved 2 June 2021.)
↑Death Search, New South Wales: search for Thomas Thomas Moyle, son of William and Elizabeth, between 02/04/1906 and 03/04/1906, or between 01/04/1906 and 02/04/1906.
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