TILLEY
with roots in Somerset, England
family
the
Thomas Tilley
Thomas Tilley was born in Compton Bishop, Somerset, on 7 March 1849, the son of Sarah [Duckett] and Thomas Tilley (1809-93).
He married Ann Tyley (born 4 September 1849 in Weare) at the parish church of Weare, Somerset, on 21 February 1871. Annie, as she liked to be known, was the daughter of farmers Edwin and Judith Tyley (whose parents were Thomas Vowles and Judith Taylor).
Thomas and Annie had 11 children. Thomas died at the age of 87 on 11 March 1936 at his home The Cedars in Cross, Compton Bishop. Annie had died 22 years earlier of tuberculosis aged 64 on 11 May 1914.
Thomas Tilley in a formal pose with his wife Ann (née Tyley).
The family outside The Cedars, in a photo taken around 1899, shows Thomas and Annie Tilley in the centre with, from left: Edith Anna (nee Look, born 1877) and her husband Arthur Herbert, Ted (1878-1961), Lilian with Bessie in front of her, then Reg, Lottie, Wilfrid, Herbert House and his wife Soie.
Thomas and Annie’s children:
Edith Lilian b. 1872 - d. 1 May 1943 * unmarried
Arthur Herbert b. 1873 - d. 1926, married Edith Anna Look (1898)
Sarah (Soie) b. 1874 - d. 1933, married Herbert Rugg House (1898)#
Reginald John (Reg) b. 1876 - d. 22 Mar 1921, married Florence Annie Reed (1914)
Bessie Hulbert b. 13 Oct 1877 - d. 29 Sep 1948, married Henry W. (Will) Cockle (1918)
Edward Tom Tilley (Ted) b. 1878 - d. 1961, married Ada Margaret Look (1908)
Annie Charlotte (Lottie) b. 1880 - d. 1937, married Herbert Rugg House (1934)#
George Ernest b. + d. 1881, buried St Andrew’s, Compton Bishop
Wilfrid George b. 1882 - d. 27 May 1949, married Catherine (Kate) E. McCracken (1916)
Ella Mary b. 1885 - d. 1903, buried St Andrew's, Compton Bishop
Harold William Duckett b. 1889, married Doris Anderson (1915)
#Herbert Rugg House married a third time in 1938 to Alice Bryan
# 2 sisters, 1 husband
Soie was the first of Thomas Tilley's daughters to marry Herbert Rugg House. They tied the knot in 1898. She died in 1933 and a year later, Lottie married him. She died in 1937. Another sister, Edith Lilian, left her estate to him when she died in 1943. Herbert, who was born in 1874, died in 1974.
Thomas was two years old in the census of 1851.
In the 1861 census he was a scholar at the Parochial School at Long Ashton, 15 miles away from his home in Compton Bishop.
The Parochial School at Long Ashton where Thomas went to school.
Thomas Tilley on horse in front of what was possibly his first car, outside The Cedars, his home in Cross, Somerset.
Thomas Tilley in the orchard at Manor Farm with St Andrew’s Church, Loxton, to the right.
How The Cedars, in Old Coach Road, Cross, Somerset, looks today. The photo was taken in August 2014.
The birth certificate of Thomas Tilley shows he was born on 7 March 1849 in Compton Bishop.
The birth certificate of Ann, daughter of Edwin (1807-90) and Judith [Vowles] Tyley (1814-98).
Thomas Tilley and Annie Tyley were married on 21 February 1871 in the Church of St Gregory in Weare, Somerset.
%20%2B%20.jpg){kind=small}
In the 1871 census, 22-year-old Thomas Tilley was a farmer of 130 acres, employing one man and one boy.
Later, in 1881 Thomas Tilley was farming 154 acres with three men and two boys.
%20%2B%20.jpg){kind=small}
In the 1891 census there were nine children living at home with Thomas and his wife Annie.
%20%2B%20.jpg){kind=small}
%20%2B%20Anne%20Ti.jpg)
The census of 1911 shows Thomas Tilley as retired with four of his children at home – Reginald, Wilfrid, Bessie and Harold. Ella had died of tuberculosis in 1903 aged 18.
Ted Tilley reported the death of his mother Annie on 11 May 1914. She died aged 64 due to Phthisis Pulmonalis, or “tuberculosis”.
Annie Tilley was buried at St Andrew's Church in Compton Bishop, Somerset, on 16 May 1914.
Thomas Tilley died on 11 March 1936. His son-in-law, Herbert House, reported the death, the cause of which was given as Senectus, or “old age”.
The probate of Thomas Tilley makes for interesting reading as it mentions a second wife, Mary Elizabeth (Yatman of Winscombe), who he married after the death of Annie but who died before him. His eldest son Edward Tom and son-in-law Herbert Rugg House were executors.
Three daughters – Lilian, Bessie and Ella – are living at home, The Cedars, in the 1901 census.
Thomas Tilley with three of his daughters Lottie (1880 - 1937), Lilian (1872 - 1943) and Bessie (1877 - 1948).
The funeral report of Thomas Tilley as published by a newspaper.
The gravestone to the right in the photo at St Andrew's Church in Compton Bishop, Somerset, is dedicated to Annie, the wife of Thomas Tilley. It is also where Thomas is buried. To the left of their grave lies the gravestone of their youngest daughter, Ella Mary, who was born on 24 February 1885 and died of tuberculosis aged 18 on 22 July 1903.
Sadly, the gravestones were in quite a state in the photo taken in 2014. A bush covers most of Ella’s. In August 2015, Thomas and Annie’s great great grandchildren, Imogen and Simon Tilley, wielded a pair of loppers and secateurs to clear the area.