Thomas Marshall Sturge II

Thomas Sturge was born on 15 Apr 1820 in Olveston and died in 1852 in USA aged 32.

IGI Individual Record FamilySearch™ International Genealogical Index v5.0 British Isles

THOMAS MARSHALL STURGE Pedigree Male

Event(s):

Birth:  15 APR 1820   Olveston, Gloucester, England 

Parents:

 Father:  THOMAS MARSHALL STURGE  Family 

 Mother:  HANNAH ENOCH  

THOMAS MARSHALL STURGE Pedigree

 Male       

Event(s):

Birth:  15 APR 1820   Olveston, Gloucester, England     

Parents:

 Father:  THOMAS MARSHALL STURGE  Family 

 Mother:  HANNAH ENOCH     

=================

NOTES FROM STURGE FAMILY WEBSITE ABOUT THOMAS and EMMA

AN AMERICAN ADVENTURE

Part One

This is an adventure with all the ingredients of a good story; with sex, pioneering spirit, death and calamity and then a happy ending, with the tale coming full-circle.

In 1843 my great-great grandfather Thomas Marshall Sturge II (born in Olveston in 1820) moved to Weston–super-Mare, where he had his own business as a cabinet maker. A member of his local meeting of the Society of Friends, he was planning to marry his sweetheart, Emma Sophia Mundy, who was not in membership. To this end she was already attending meetings for worship in preparation for her formal application for membership.

This is an adventure with all the ingredients of a good story; with sex, pioneering spirit, death and calamity and then a happy ending, with the tale coming full-circle.

In 1843 my great-great grandfather Thomas Marshall Sturge II (born in Olveston in 1820) moved to Weston–super-Mare, where he had his own business as a cabinet maker. A member of his local meeting of the Society of Friends, he was planning to marry his sweetheart, Emma Sophia Mundy, who was not in membership. To this end she was already attending meetings for worship in preparation for her formal application for membership.

Thomas Marshall Sturge II

Emma Sophia Sturge (nee Mundy)

It is at this point that sex enters the story. Emma became pregnant, a state that would prevent her attaining membership of the Society. Thomas, determined to marry Emma, took the decision to forfeit his own membership by marrying without the approval of the meeting, “marrying out.”

The minute book of the Monthly Meeting records the concern of Friends and at the meeting held at Claverham on 3rd January 1844 it was recorded that –

“The friends appointed to visit Thomas Sturge brought in the following report vis: “To the Monthly Meeting, agreeably to your appointment we have visited Thomas Sturge on his marriage contrary to our rules, to a person not in profession with us, he acknowledges having done so and was fully aware of the consequences of the step he had taken, we handed him such advice as we thought proper which was we believe well received.”

“This meeting accordingly concludes to disown him as a member of our Society. The friends on the appointment are requested to prepare a testimony of disunion with him and bring to our next meeting.”

That testimony was drawn up and placed before the next meeting. The minutes record that -

“A Testimony of disunion with Thomas Sturge has been brought here, read, and with some small alterations approved. The friends of the appointment are requested to hand him a copy of it. It is as follows -

“Thomas Sturge a member of this meeting having married in a manner contrary to the rules of our society, to a person not in profession with us and having been visited thereon when he acknowledged that he was fully aware of the consequences of the step he had taken we deem it incumbent upon us to uphold the Discipline established amongst us by disowning the said Thomas Sturge as a member of our Society, desiring nevertheless that his attachment to our Society may not be lessened by this step, but that his subsequent conduct may justify our looking with satisfaction to his reunion with us. Given forth at our Monthly meeting for the North Division of Somerset held at Claverham the 13th of 3rd Month 1844.”

When the following monthly meeting was held at Bath John Naish reported that a copy of the Testimony of Disunion has been handed to Thomas.

By 1850, having been unsuccessful in business, like so many at that time, Thomas appears to have been tempted by the promise of making a better life for himself and his family in the New World and set his mind on emigrating to America. A surviving letter written to Emma on 1st January 1850 by her aunt Rebecca Sturge (from the Summer House at Bewdley) suggests that she may not have been a wholehearted supporter of the planned adventure.

“My dear Emma Sophia

“I was much pleased to received thy letter and glad to hear you were all pretty well and can assure you I have often thought of and sympathised with you in the trial of leaving your native land and regret that thy Thomas is so fully decided about it, for I should have thought by making enquiries a living might have been found for you in this country but everyone who knows thy Thomas says he is so well calculated to prosper in America that I do hope and trust he may meet with that success there of which he has been disappointed here, and then as you are both young and need not despair of coming to England again to visit your friends and relatives though it is very trying to part and particularly so to thee to leave thy dear mother in such declining health.

“I am thankful that I am now much better than I have been but am still closely confined to the house and expect to be so for the most part of the winter as the cold air so affects my chest. I think I have scarcely been outside the door for two months.

“I have often thought I should have liked to have taken a trip down to Weston when I was staying so long in Gloucester last summer but hearing of thy being so near to thy confinement was one cause that detained me. I have a very pleasant recollection of the time I spent there more than two years since. I should not like to go there soon after you have gone - I should so very much miss you - I should very much like to see my little namesake. I thought it kind your naming her after me. I suppose you will spend a little time at Gloucester before you sail and if you embark from Liverpool I may just have an opportunity of meeting you at Birmingham.

“Little Ellen I suppose is now of an age to be a little useful to her mama. I hope your dear little boy has improved in health and strength lately, it must have been a trial for you to have had him so delicate.

“I understand brother Joseph saw your Thomas at Gloucester last week he thought he seemed very determined upon emigration. Well my dear Emma I hope as I have remarked and strength will be given you to meet every trial and now that it appears to be pretty much fixed your leaving what satisfaction it will give me to hear of your succeeding in your adopted country, since you have been so much disappointed in your native land.

“I am thy affectionate Aunt, Rebecca Sturge”

Whatever their fears, the next letter to survive finds Emma and the children staying with friends in Williamsburg, New York, whilst Thomas travelled to the Great Lakes with his bother Frederick in search of better prospects, telling of his progress and suggesting that he may have found the right opportunity and be ready for his family to join him.

“Rochester, New York State. 6th mo. 16th 1850.

“My very dear Wife

“I have no doubt you will be very desirous to know what has become of us. I believe this day fortnight I wrote to you from Eire from which place we proceeded to Cleveland where I did ten days work, but found wages very low and the place full of people in my trade and hearing good account of Milwaukee we took out places in the Baltic steamer Wednesday night and after a very pleasant voyage of 900 miles arrived there Sunday and had good opportunity of viewing the place which is most beautiful, situated on Lake Michigan a fine rolling country and I have almost decided on sending Fred back to bring you with the dear little ones but on the Monday I made enquiry at the Cabinet and Upholsterers and found our trade very depressed and remuneration being about 4 dollars a month and your keep and provisions and lodgings dearer than in the east. There has been such a rush of emigrants that they eat the whole of the pasture and the crops have been depressed in the last two years and everyone expects it will be again this year. The place is peopled with Dutch Irish and Norwegians so I think it will perhaps be best to try to get employment in one of the larger cities where I doubt not I will get into something although at a lower figure than we have been led to expect in the Old Country. We have met with agreeable companions in our journey very communicative and for all their disagreeable habits I shall in time get to like them. Fred met with a family of young ladies to amuse himself with. A Canadian gentleman supposed I shall do much better there but I have spent so much time and money here that I shall take the first offer that is made to me if at all desirable and on some future occasion perhaps I can ascertain that without much expense.

“The steamers on the lake are filled up with every convenience, the one we went to Milwaukee in, the Baltic, has a saloon the hold length 300 ft. one third being fitted up for the ladies who also have a private room where no gentleman is permitted on any pretence and is fitted up with couches lounges and chairs and I can assure you that Henry was quite right in saying that a lady may travel with great comfort anywhere in this wonderful country and also that it is advisable to have a companion with you as they are no respecter of persons but the cabin stewards have only to say “make way for the ladies” and the order is obeyed immediately.

“On the Baltic there were about 60 state rooms for the individuals each and the whole length of tables at night so I should think 200 in all at meals which is turned out in great style and much more for those who have comfort in my opinion. We have about 12 black rascals for waiters and when everything is laid on the tables the steward stood in the middle of the saloon rang a bell for all to take their seats, ladies of course first with their partners, upon the second ringing of the bell all the covers were removed instantly and you had the choice of some dozen dishes all cooked French fashion so that the meal had lost its right place. The plates are removed and the pudding plate dropped by one waiter, the knife by another, the spoon by another, the fork by another all dropping them at the same time which had a very ridiculous effect and appeared to be like children at play. Their puddings are excellent and the brandy sauce not spared. I observed the waiters spend some hours folding the napkins and preparing the tables in such a manner as you do not use at home except at a £1.1.0. dinner but for my part I do not think it adds to one’s comfort in the least and I found many of the same opinion, but as it is included in the fare you do not much mind it as you can travel the 900 miles for 6.5 dollars one way and 8 dollars the other everything included excepting shoe cleaning which they charge 25 cents for, we were done the first time but ignored the boot afterwards, there is also a barber’s shop and a washhouse for Americans seldom wash themselves and a barber can do well getting 5/- for shaving cutting and shampooing an operation they seem to enjoy but that luxury I have not yet indulged. In the Niagara steamer there was every comfort as on the other but not so much display [lost] but found a great drawback in both by night the bugs preventing me sleeping for hours neither Fred or our companions being [lost] it was like being on a bed of nettles [lost] I have found no [lost] but we have had no hot weather and only [lost] hours of rain which we had at Milwaukee [lost] in Buffalo which is a very large town but I should prefer where we are now and I think of Fred’s fetching you and the children this week, so please on receipt of this prepare as soon as possible and return our sincere thanks to the Bowyers and make such remuneration as your good sense dictate and if you are desirous of joining me as I shall enjoy your company again I doubt not you will use dispatch.

“In the mean time I will either take a small house or rooms the former I think will be very impractical [lost] rents being very high everywhere 150 to 200 dollars for a small wood house. Fred will make [lost] for present need and I fear not I [lost] something. Everyone appears well to do [lost] although I must acknowledge I cannot see how they do it but every convenience all articles excepting ironmongery and hardware are cheap and we are perfectly astonished by the immense stock kept in store in every branch we thought in every town the further west we went we should find it more of the wilderness but Milwaukee had establishments equal to the largest in Bristol, from what I have yet seen a man with small means stands less chance if in a business here than in the old country except in settling on land. We have taken lodgings for two dollars the week at tolerably comfortable quarters [lost] have better by steamer and hence [lost] Boats which are very comfortable and although they [lost] on board these steamers we had music and dancing every night and there is a piano on board for the ladies which they play considerably and sang also but had poor cracked voices in my impression very much want that mellowness and richness of your sweet tome that has always such peculiar charms to my partial ears but I recollect Mr [lost] had the same impression and Mr Gill the same opinion I believe - American ladies dress very oddly on these steamers a kind of loose night gowns made of Holland the ear drops being the only ornament about them either in person or dress. [lost] than those being bathed [lost] also a [lost] and you can meet with no accident except knocking your head against the bridges which requires care with children but you can settle with Fred. I owe your cousin Fred Mundy 3 dollars please do not forget it. I will write to Arthur to get the same man to remove the boxes to the depot who brought them and he will also pack them.

“My kind regards to Mr and Mrs Bowyer and Mr and Mrs Robson and best love to your dear self and children

“I am your affectionate Husband, Thomas Sturge”

Whatever the expected opportunity, whatever Thomas’s hopes in June 1850, this letter to his Aunt, dated November 1850, shows that the promise was unfulfilled.

“New York, 11m 12th 1850

“My dear Aunt,

“I have often felt desirous of writing to thee but delayed continually wishing when I did to be able to give a good account of ourselves and up to the present time there has been something to throw a damp on my spirits however I hope better days are in store for us.

“Our dear little Rebecca has been sickly nearly ever since we landed and several times we have been very much alarmed about her, Ellen also has been continually unwell with the prevailing complaints Diarrhoa and Dysentry. Hannah alone has enjoyed good health and spirits but I am glad to say all appear much better and appetite improves and we trust they gain in strength to stand the severity of the winter.

“I believe thou has heard of our travels in this land of promise therefore I need not recapitulate any of our adventures to thee. I enjoyed our trip to the west and think it will be of advantage to me at some future period but I found it desirable to take a journeyman situation for some time before doing anything for myself and finding employment more certain and remuneration rather higher in New York than in the country I did not want a situation in Brooklyn as a cabinet maker and through the hot weather had some very trying work to do, making bureaus of Black Walnut a very hard wood but for four months I persevered at the low remuneration of 6 dollars a week but finding my boss a hard master applied for a place as a upholsterer in the Broadway at 9 dollars and have been there one month and find it a decided improvement and should work continue back I hope we shall get through the winter comfortably and make both ends meet in our expenditure. My first boss deprecated my services but on my leaving offered me 8 dollars as a constancy which I have declined having positively engaged myself. My present boss is more liberal but is a great driver all his aim being to make dollars working from Daylight to Dark sometimes two or three nights in the week and frequently all Sundays from which work I have excused myself but altogether he is a decided improvement on the last but being constantly hurried takes much from the pleasure of work and much prefer the old steady English plan. I have an opportunity of seeing some of the best furnished homes in New York which far surpass anything I ever witnessed in England as everything being valued by its cost the monnied men appear to be as extravagant as possible in carpets and furniture.

“The greatest drawback of living in these large towns is the high price for apartments We are paying 7.5 dollars per month for one decent size room and two very small ones and I have greatest difficulty to obtain any at all in a decent neighbourhood in consequence of having children. The are five families living in the house which is about the size of fathers but that is nothing to New York since one room is considered sufficient for one family.

“We find some provisions cheaper tea coffee and sugar but Bread meat and vegetables are dearer so with the high rent you can live cheaper in England.

“Brother Fred has been absent two months residing sometime at a cousin of my Wifes who has just entered on a farm and Fred has been assisting him so will be able to give me some idea of that sort of life for which I have a decided predilection.

“Fred did not succeed in getting a situation in New York being of just the occupation that is most overdone. Porters, packers, coopers and even common labourers earned more than clerks in fact Americans take good care to get all the good easy places and immigrants must do all the drudgery and such as are strong and accustomed to hard work do first rate.

“We were most disappointed in not seeing thee at Birmingham. Thy kind present of £3 was very acceptable and has added to our comforts for which please accept our united thanks. We have heard continually from Gloucester and Weston which we have thought very thoughtful of them being the greatest treat we have to read letters and papers from England. We have been sorry to hear of thy continued ill health – trust future accounts will be more favourable. We find there is still a strong feeling against the blacks who are looked upon as quite different sort of beings to the whites and I have met with none that would advocate their having the same privileges and are quite shocked at such a proposition. I never fail to express my opinion very plainly on the subject but think the Anti-Slavery cause progresses very slowly in this part of the Union.

“My dear Wife has not had good health but I trust in time she will get acclimated. She unites with me and the children in love to thyself and our Birmingham relations. As it is very late I must conclude in love.

“Thy affectionate nephew, Thomas Sturge

“If thy health permits a letter will be much appreciated.”

As is shown in the letter to his Aunt, the family In England were keen to offer their support. A later letter from his father Thomas Marshall Sturge of Gloucester to his uncle, Charles Sturge of Birmingham, suggests the best means of doing that.

“I am obliged for thy kind offer of a gun for my Son Thomas. If agreeable to thee, I think the present of £5 will be much more acceptable to him, and I will request him to purchase a good one for the purpose. Frederick says that they are to be had in abundance at the Shops, and of every variety and quality.”

That letter had been written on 29th September 1852 but, unbeknown to all, a calamity that would dash these hopes and plans was lurking just days away. Less than a month later, the next surviving letter between his father and uncle records the terrible news, as Thomas Marshall Sturge explains the circumstances of his son’s death.

“I should not have objected to go to America on this melancholy occasion, and I said so, and am obliged by thy kind proposition, but I am convinced that it would be as distressing to my poor Wife as the loss of her dear Son and it is quite out of the question, besides there is about £6000 now depending on my Life in the Equitable Office, and they would charge no trifle for a license. They charged nearly double premium £22 12s. instead of £12 12s. and had it been south of Pennsylvania it would have been £32 12s. on £500 on Thomas’s life for one year when he went out. I observe on referring to S. Bowyers letter it was not on my Son’s land, but on a neighbours that the sad event took place and the 3 words “on his land” should be left out of the report. I was led into the mistake by the poor Fellows having said in a letter we received only the day before he was going to have a “Bee” for that purpose.”

There must have been many other sad letters describing the disaster that had befallen this young family but these have not survived. What can be pieced together from the remaining records is that the family returned to England and eventually settled in Melksham, Somerset. The children were educated at the Friends’ school at Sidcot and Emma, later aided by her daughters, ran a successful “dame school” at “The Lawns” in that town.

However, the story turns full-circle with Emma taking membership of the Society of Friends in 1868. Her application, recorded in the minutes of North Somerset Monthly Meeting at Weston-super-Mare, tactfully skirts the subject of why her previous path to membership had failed. In time she became an Overseer of the Melksham Meeting and the 1895 edition of the “Annual Monitor” records her death as follows; “The little meeting at Melksham was very near her heart, and with failing breath she commended it to those who stood round her bed, when the sands of time were nearly run.”

Emma and her daughter Ellen are buried in the small burial ground behind the old meeting house at Melksham. As for my great-grandfather, Thomas Marshall Sturge III, he simply became a rebel - but that is another story.

http://www.sturgefamily.com/Discover/AN%20AMERICAN%20ADVENTURE.htm

• *********************************************************************************************************************************

1. ######################################################

   ---

AN AMERICAN ADVENTURE

---------------------------

Part Two

For the amateur genealogist there is, perhaps, nothing more annoying than a gaping hole in the family history. This is all the more so when that heritage can be traced to the very earliest days of the Society of Friends and the burial of Joseph Sturge I at Lower Hazel Burial Ground in 1669.

So, when I began my researches in the Seventies, how could I not know more about my great-great grandfather, when he had died hardly more than a hundred years before? A more experienced researcher might have got there sooner, I simply took the long way around. My Grandfather and Father had often told me of Thomas’s death, “killed by a falling tree in America.” Now, that is a pretty big place and we had no idea whether the death had occurred in the United States or British North America (Canada.) What very quickly became clear was that these countries had not kept accurate national records of birth and deaths at that time. It was quite impossible to know where to begin the search.

Some years later, as a long-shot, I had an idea. Might his father have placed an obituary for his son in the local newspaper? The archivist at Gloucester reported that the local newspapers for this period were preserved on microfiche and so it was that I booked a fiche reader and hotel for two days and travelled down to commence what I anticipated to be a laborious search.

The library opened. Sat at the machine, reels stacked high and ready to begin, the helpful archivist suggested that I might like to check some index cards on which a team of volunteers were extracting from the Gloucestershire obituaries. So, in less than twenty minutes I had found it!

In the “Gloucester Journal” of 30th October 1852 was the entry:

 “THOMAS STURGE On or about 9th inst., aged 32, at Mill-farm Chestertown, state of New York, where he had emigrated with his family, in 1850, Thomas Sturge, son of T. M. Sturge, of this city; he was occupied with others to clear the land when a tree fell upon him, and he was killed on the spot. He left a widow and five young children to lament his early and melancholy decease.” 

An atlas was snatched from the library shelf. Where was Chestertown? No sooner had I returned home than a letter was on its way to the mayor, requesting any assistance. A remarkably prompt response from the Town Historian included pictures of the grave at the West Church Cemetery, with the inscription:

Thomas M. Sturge

Native of England,

Killed by the falling of a Tree

Oct. 7 1852, Aged 32 Years

A beloved Husband affectionate

Father and valuable Friend.

Peter M. Sturge

Dorking

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE WITH PHOTOGRAPHS ON THE WEBSITE LINK

=============================================================

WEBSITE....THOMAS MARSHALL STURGE II

http://images.google.co.nz/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sturgefamily.co...