Thomasin Darling

THOMASIN DARLING

[mother of Grace Darling]

From Grace Darling website

Born Thomasin Horsley in Bamburgh, 27 February 1774
Died Bamburgh, 16 October 1848, age 74

Thomasin, Grace’s mother, was the eldest child of Job and Grace Horsley of Bamburgh. She was one of twins: her sister, to be called Grace, died at birth. In 1805 at the age of 31 she married the 19 year old William Darling. Thomasin had three younger, eligible sisters yet William chose her. This unlikely union created a happy marriage of over forty years and produced nine children, including two sets of twins. Grace was the seventh child and their youngest daughter.

Thomasin moved with her husband to Brownsman Island and then to Longstone and had a busy domestic life. It is said she hardly ever left the islands. At the time of the Forfarshire rescue Thomasin was 64. She helped launch the coble for William and Grace and was left on her own in the lighthouse. Later that day she had to accommodate and attend to survivors and lifeboat men, sixteen in all.

In the accounts of the Darlings story little is said about Thomasin other than she spent most of her time at the spinning wheel but she was at the centre of a loving family at all times, supporting William’s work as lighthouse keeper all her life.

She died at Longstone in 1848, six years after Grace, and is buried in the family grave at Bamburgh. William remained at Longstone until his retirement twelve years later.