#10 Thomas Kemble Holland - A Man of Pleasing Manners.

Thomas Kemble Holland was my 4 x great grandfather and spent most of his life in and around the parish of Mickleton in Gloucestershire. He was born to David Hughes Holland and his second wife Jane Stokes in 1767 and was baptized in the church at Weston Subedge. He had two older half-sisters from his father's first marriage to Mary Ashwin and, in 1768, a younger brother was born and named David Hughes Holland after his father. When Thomas was only 6 years old, his father died, leaving his mother Jane to raise her own two small boys as well as her two young step-daughters. It appears that she was supported in this by Thomas's grandfather John Holland of Mickleton.

In 1791 Thomas made a very advantageous marriage to a young lady called Temperance Tomes who was from the well-respected Tomes family of Long Marston . According to Ian Tomes who is the keeper of much of the Tomes family history, at the time of their marriage Thomas Kemble Holland had property worth about £20,000. The National Archives currency converter has this at about £1 120 600 today! He was described in the family record as a 'gentlemanly man of pleasing manners, but very passionate....intemperate'. Ironic really, given that his wife was called Temperance!

Between 1793 and 1808 the couple had 10 children, 8 of whom survived past infancy. The children were all baptized in the church of St Lawrence in Mickleton. My ancestor Mary Tomes Holland, was the second oldest child and was born in 1794. By about the time the last child, Charles Wynne Holland, was born in 1809 the family story is that Thomas had squandered his fortune. I find this somewhat concerning as in 1796 Thomas had been made trustee of two inheritances for his much younger cousin Charles Wynne, who was only nineteen at the time and who was considered " unable to take on the burden" of the significant estate. The evidence certainly is that Thomas wasn't the greatest financial manager so I hope that young Charles Wynne had something left of his inheritance by the time he came of age!

By the time Thomas Kemble died in May 1815 he still owned some land in and around Mickleton and he was able to leave cash bequests of about £300 each to his living children. The Tomes family records say, with some nuance of distaste, that he 'died from the effects of hard drinking.' Thomas was buried in the churchyard at Mickleton on 19 May 1815 and was survived by his wife Temperance.

Church of St Lawrence, Mickleton
© Copyright David P Howard and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

#2 Emlin Holland - A Name for All Time.

When I first started looking at the family tree, this was a name that jumped out at me. I love the name Emlin - it seems romantic and slightly other worldly. I have never known anyone named Emlin and one of my research goals was to look at where this name might have come into the family.

Emlin Holland was baptised on 3rd June 1800 in the parish church of Mickleton in Gloucestershire. Her parents were Thomas Kemble Holland and Mary Tomes (my 4 x great-grandparents). She was one of 10 children and fell right in the middle of the family.

In 1816, she married Cotterell Corbett a tanner, at Church Honeybourne. They settled at Lichfield in Staffordshire where, in 1822, they began their own family. Their first child, named Emlin for her mother, only lived a few days but between 1823 and 1829, another five children were born; the last being another Emlin Holland to carry on the name.

In 1830 Cotterell Corbett died in Lichfield and was buried back at Lower Quinton where his branch of the family originated from. How Emlin managed for the next few years I am not sure, but in 1835 she married again, this time to a distant relative of Cotterell's; a farmer by the name of George Sheaf. George was a son of Samuel Sheaf and Sarah Harbidge and the older brother of Charles Sheaf from last week's post.

Between 1836 and 1842 Emlin and George had four sons, William, George, John Holland and Samuel. Along with some of the children from Emlin's first marriage, the family lived and worked on a farm at Marlcliff, near Bidford on Avon.

In 1852, just before her death, this very early Ambrotype was made of Emlin. According to a distant family connection in England, in a letter to my Aunty Thea, it was taken in the front doorway of the farmhouse at Marlcliff. 

He says " one can just see her key ring, which we still have, with her name on it - Emeline Corbett - Lichfield"

And as for the name Emlin, I have traced it back through her family line to Emlin Winchester, born abt 1612 in Ascott-Under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire; the sister of our direct ancestor Anne Winchester. It appears in various spellings as Emlin, Emlyn, Emeline, Emmaline and survived in the family naming traditions for 400 years! 

The Stokes family of Cheltenham

This family is one of my lesser researched lines and I know very little about them. George Stokes was a clergyman in Cheltenham, educated at Oxford in about 1726.

He and his wife Mary had about 9 children most of whom were baptised in Cheltenham, although there are some for whom I cannot find baptism records. George died sometime before his wife Mary, as she was a widow when she wrote her will in 1779.

 Their daughter Jane married David Hughes Holland of Mickleton and they had two children Thomas Kemble Holland and another David Hughes Holland. I have always been interested to find out where the Kemble part of the name came from but can as yet find no evidence of a family relationship. However I have found a few tantalizing clues.

 1. Thomas and M Kemble were witnesses at the marriage of Jane Stokes and David Hughes Holland in Cheltenham.

 2. In his will of 1770, Thomas Kemble Esq of Tewkesbury leaves a bequest of 10 pounds to Mrs Mary Stokes of Cheltenham, widow.

 3 Thomas Kemble's wife Margaret leaves a property to Charles Wynne, the son of Robert Wynne and Dorothy Stokes - a sister of Jane Stokes.

 4. Thomas Kemble Holland and his wife Temperance Tomes use the names Stokes and Wynne when they name their children.

 5. Thomas Kemble of Tewkesbury had a brother Daniel who was also a Church of England Clergyman.

 6. Thomas Kemble's mother was Elizabeth Michell of Cheltenham....maybe this is where the connection is? Mysteries to solve!