The Cranborne Lockyers

Thomas William Lockyer

Thomas married Mary Waters, a girl from Hinton Parva. This village is also known as Stanbridge and is made up from two separate clusters of buildings. One is round the old mill on the River Allen, and the other is on the main Wimborne to Cranborne road to the east. It is likely that the original development was by the mill and its chapel, now the Church of St Kenelm, was alongside the road. The grave of Thomas and Mary's son George (only fifteen years old when he died) can be found in the churchyard there.

Thomas and Mary lived for a time in Hampreston, where they had their two eldest sons, Joseph and Thomas Henry. In the 1871 census, 22 year old Joseph's occupation is recorded as 'midshipman'. Sadly, Mary died on 8 July 1864 and she was buried alongside her son George at St Kenelm's.

Thomas and Mary's family

	Name	Birth/*Baptism	Married
Parents	Thomas William Lockyer	*3 July 1825	25 March 1846
	Mary Waters	1825
Children	Joseph	1849
	Thomas Henry	1850
	George	1846
	Frances Mary	*1 August 1847
	William Stoneham	*27 March 1855
	Edgar Waters	*13 October 1861

In 1866, Thomas remarried. His second wife was Ellen Budden, one of the eleven children of Francis Budden and his wife Ann. Ellen was born and baptised in Christchurch, but the youngest two of her brothers and sisters were baptised in the beautiful village of Coombe Keynes, near Wool in Dorset. The most likely explanation for this is that the family moved to Dorset in about 1831. Interesting, carved headstones may be found on graves of several members of the Budden family in the churchyard of the Holy Rood church in the village.
Click image to see full size picture of Coombe Keynes (98kb)
Click image to see picture of Budden headstones (81kb)

Thomas and Ellen had a daughter, Lillie Frances, who was born in the parish of Cranborne but, not surprisingly, was baptised in the family church at Coombe Keynes in 1867.

In the 1881 census, Thomas is recorded to be living in Romsey, Hampshire, with Lillie and his unmarried son William. Living with them, as a general domestic servant, was a 21 year old girl called Mary Northover, who was born in Wool. The census tells us that Thomas was a farmer of 479 acres, employing 15 men and 3 boys, while William farmed 190 acres with 5 men and 2 boys. There is, however, no record of Ellen, so I assume that she died before 1881.

Lillie Francis eventually emigrated to Sydney, Australia where she died in about 1948. It is likely that she went to live with her aunt Sarah, her mother's sister, who married Andrew Johnston Sievers in Sydney on 3 August 1863.

Thomas and Ellen's family

	Name	Birth/*Baptism	Married
Parents	Thomas William Lockyer	*3 July 1825	1866
	Ellen Budden	28 September 1826
Children	Lillie Frances	*3 February 1867
	Ernest A.	1868