Thomas INKSON, b: ABT 1722

Thomas Inkson b. ABT 1722 Kings Lynn, Norfolk

Thomas was the last child of Thomas b. ABT 1683 and Margaret that we are aware of [but Margaret was only ± 34 years old when he was born ...]. He was baptised in St Nicholas on All Saints' Day in 1722.

An Edward Brown, butcher of Bloomsbury [London], paid a fee for a 'Thomas, son of Thomas Inkson of Lynn, Norfolk', to be his apprentice on 25 May 1738. We presume that this was Thomas b. ABT 1722 who would have been 16 at the time of the apprenticeship. Thomas senior was a baker in Kings Lynn but other Inksons in the town were butchers so it is not clear why Thomas didn't stay in Kings Lynn. Perhaps it was a family decision to expand the 'empire'?

Thomas next appears in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, about 30 km north of London. It was here that he married a Mary Ward of Sabridgeworth [a town 15 km east of Hertford] on 13 Aug 1747. He is described on the parish marriage record as being 'of All Saints Hertford' so he was resident in the town. His father left him property when he died in 1743 so Thomas was a wealthy man : was he still working [as a butcher?] in Hertford or was he now a 'gentleman of means'?

We know that Thomas and Mary had at least one child, a daughter. In Mary's will she is referred to as 'my only daughter Peggy Inkson' and in the will of Mary Chennery, Thomas' sister, she is referred to as 'my niece Margaret Inkson' [Peggy being a diminutive of Margaret]. It is not clear whether Mary meant 'my only daughter [but I have sons]' or 'my only child'. There are no parish records for the baptism of any children of Thomas and Mary. Margaret / Peggy was still single when she signed her own will in 1807 when the chances are that she was 50 years old or more [her parents had married in 1747 so 60 years before] so it is extremely unlikely that she had any children of her own.

We don't know when or where Thomas died but we do know that Mary, his wife and by then a widow, signed her will on 09 Jun 1797. At that stage she was living back in her home town of Sabridgeworth. Her will was proved on 26 Apr 1798 so she died either later in 1797 or early 1798.