Thomas Henry INKSON, b: 13 Apr 1856 Kings Lynn, Norfolk
His Story
Thomas Henry was the first son of Thomas Harborow b. 16 Dec 1834 and Martha. His existence was not known to the modern family until recently as he was bought up away from the rest of his siblings, a story which is told elsewhere on this domain. He founded the 'Norwich' Inksons.
We know his date of birth from his birth certificate. That shows that he was born in his paternal grandparent's house : 43 High Street, Kings Lynn. Five years later, at the time of the 1861 census - just before his fifth birthday - he was living with his maternal grandparents, Henry Garner and his family, at the 'Three Tuns' pub in Kings Lynn. Ten years after that he was boarding in Holt, about 20 miles away from the family in Burnham Sutton and was described as a scholar [life cannot have been that bad : his landlady was a confectioner!].
By 1881 he was in Norwich, had a family of his own and was on the way to establishing his own omnibus company : the start of the 'Norwich' Inksons.
Thomas Henry married Emma Bezant Wright in late 1876. He would have been 20 years old. The marriage was registered in Aylsham district in Q4 that year and the marriage certificate shows that they were married in Aylsham parish church on 12 Dec. On the certificate Thomas Henry is noted as being an inn keeper living in Ditchingham, a village some 20km south of Norwich. [Unfortunately there is an incorrect Mormon record for the event, saying that it took place on 12 Nov 1876 in Ditchingham.]
A year later they were in Burnham close to the rest of the family. We know that because the baptism record of Mildred Lucy Emma [baptised as Mildred Emma], Thomas Henry and Emma's first child, gives their address as Burnham Ulph in the parish of Burnham Sutton cum Ulph. Interestingly, the baptism record describes Thomas Henry as an 'inn keeper' : was he working for his maternal grandfather or were they visiting from Ditchingham on the night of the census?
They cannot have stayed too long in Burnham because at the time of the 1881 census they were living in the Heigham area of Norwich and had had a second daughter, Winnie Ethel, born in Norwich 9 months earlier. Mildred Lucy Emma had died at the age of two. The census record states that Thomas Henry was an omnibus conductor. They stayed in Heigham for the next forty years or more. In 1891 he had progressed to being a driver of an omnibus, essentially a groom as noted by officialdom on the census record. In 1897 he was made redundant from the bus company that he was working for so he progressed from there to owning his own cab and bus company. His oldest son, Alfred, was working for him as a driver [groom] in 1901 and in 1911.
We know from the 1911 census that, in total, Thomas Henry and Emma had seven children, one of which [Mildred Emma] died in infancy.
At the time of the 1921 census the family were still in Heigham and in the records both Thomas Henry and Alfred are described as cab proprietors. Alfred, aged 39, was still single. The 1921 census record also reveals that the second son, Charlie, aged 30 and again single, was also living in the family home. He is described as an unemployed, partially disabled, Canadian soldier. Investigation shows that he emigrated to Canada, arriving in Quebec on May 7 1912, destination Eldorado(!), Ontario where he wanted to work on a farm. He subsequently served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War and suffered a gunshot wound to his left chest not that long before the Armistice.
Emma Bezant died in 1927. Her death was registered in Q1 that year in the Smallburgh registration district to the north east of Norwich on the coast.
By the time of the 1939 registration, Thomas Henry was living in Thorpe St Andrew, just outside of Norwich, a widower of course. He was living with his daughter Nellie, by then a widow herself, and a grandson, a son of Nellie. He died there about three years later. His death was registered there in Q2 1942. He would have been 86 years old.
As a codicil to the above it is worth noting that all three sons of Thomas Henry and Emma Bezant married relatively late in life and none had any children so the Inkson name withered on this branch of the family tree.