Notes on Badsey surnames :
Tomlinson

These are a series of notes compiled by Maureen Spinks on families who lived in or near Badsey. Maureen, who has transcribed the Badsey parish and census records up to the beginning of the 20th century, will attempt to answer specific queries from bona fide researchers. Please give as much information as possible in order to make the task easier. Please e-mail any corrections, additions or queries to history@badsey.net. For a full list of the surnames covered see the research interests page.

There are just a few references to the name Tomlinson in Badsey records.

The first time that the name appears is in the Baptism Register, when Anne Tomlinson, daughter of Joseph and Jane Tomlinson, was baptised on 7th October 1866. Her sister, Jane Sophia, was baptised three years later. The family is then to be found in the 1871 Badsey census. Joseph, working as an agricultural labourer, was living with his wife and two young daughters in a house which is believed to be the current 22 Brewers Lane. They had left the village by 1881 and were living at 2 Clarkes Buildings, Water Works Road, Edgbaston. Joseph was employed as a maltster; Joseph’s elder daughter, Ann was working as a servant to Oliver and Emma Martin, at 52 Hyde Road, Birmingham.

Both Joseph and Jane (née Howes) Tomlinson had been born in Wickhamford, in 1840 and 1844 respectively, but Joseph had connections with Badsey, as his mother, Judith (née Simpson) had been born there. Judith (1802-1888) had married Thomas Tomlinson (born at Lichfield in 1799) at Wickhamford on 17th June 1821. They had six sons and one daughter: William (1823-1829), Thomas (1827-1848), Harriet (1831-?), Jesse (1833-1894), David (1837-?), Joseph (1840-?) and William (1843-1930).

There is great confusion about the names of the two youngest boys in the Tomlinson family. The Wickhamford Baptism Register lists two William Tomlinsons being baptised, both the children of Thomas and Judith Simpson, one in 1840 and one in 1846 at the age of three. It is assumed that the 1840 entry was an error (or a change of heart on the part of the parents) because by the time of the 1841 census, the youngest child is listed as Joseph (ie the one born in 1840). However, Joseph Tomlinson gives his age as 20, 28 and 39 respectively in the 1861, 1871 and 1881 census records which, if correct, would give him a birth date in the range 1841-1843, rather than just before his baptismal date of 21st January 1840.

In 1841, the Tomlinson family were living in Wickhamford (Anne, the eldest daughter, had left home); Judith’s brother, Joseph Simpson was lodging with them. By 1851, Joseph Simpson was no longer with them, Thomas Junior had died in 1848, and Jesse had left home. However, by 1861, Jesse was back, and Thomas and Judith had all their five unmarried children (Harriet, Jesse, David, Joseph and William) with them. Thomas was described as an invalid agricultural labourer. By 1871, the household consisted of Thomas and Judith, and their three unmarried children, Harriet, Jesse and David, Joseph and William both having married by this time. Thomas Tomlinson died in July 1873. At the time of the 1881 census, 80-year-old widow, Judith, described as an agricultural labourer, was living at The Cottage, Wickhamford, with her two unmarried children, Harriet and David, and her granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of her youngest son, William, who had moved around considerably within the Midlands. Judith Tomlinson died in 1888.

Besides Joseph, brother William Tomlinson features briefly in Badsey records. William Tomlinson (1843-1930) married Louisa Hall at Badsey in 1864 and had five sons and four daughters, born at various places in the Midlands. In the years when his children were growing up, William had a variety of jobs: groom and gardener in Shenstone, Staffs (possibly on the estate of Robert Peel), c 1865-1868; gardener at Bonehill, Staffs, possibly at Drayton Manor, c 1869-1872; labouring jobs in Wolverton (a hamlet near Pershore) and Hallow, Worcestershire, in the 1870s; possibly a job as an iron moulder in the early 1880s in Glasgow; mid 1880s onwards, gas stoker for the Market Harborough Gas & Coke Co. In 1881, William’s family were in Hallow, Louisa working as a gloveress, but it is not known where William was. It is possible that he had gone to seek work in Scotland. There is a William Tomlinson of the right age, whose birthplace is described simply as "England", who was working as an iron moulder, and lodging (along with 24 other men) at "Model Lodging House", 57 Portugal Street, in the Gorbals region of Glasgow. William and Louisa moved to Great Bowden, Leicestershire, and remained there until their deaths in 1930 and 1933 respectively. Diana Wallis of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, is the great-granddaughter of William Tomlinson, and contacted the Badsey website.

There was a David Tomlinson who appears in Badsey records, when his daughter, Ethel Jane, was baptised in 1886. He had married Mary Anne Stanton in 1882 when working as a Bailiff at Wickhamford and was at that time working as Bailiff at Glebe Farm, Badsey. David’s father’s name is given as Richard on his marriage certificate, so he is believed to be a different David Tomlinson to the one who had been living in Wickhamford in 1881 with his widowed mother.

Jesse worked as an agricultural labourer, shepherd, groom and gardener for John Nind at Wickhamford Manor. He never married. After John Nind died, he went with his widow, Jane Nind, to Beckford, and worked for her; he died in Evesham Workhouse. Harriet Tomlinson never married and lived at home. She was a gloveress and then a dressmaker. After her parents died, her niece, Mary Elizabeth, was living with her at Wickhamford in 1891, and then they moved to Evesham.

See also:
Research interests:surnames and other topics in Badsey and Aldington
Alphabetical index of surnames


Updated 5 September 2003. Contact email: History@badsey.net