Thomas WILSHERE

[Oakum Picker]

Thomas can be found with his wife & children living in Hitchin Herts in 1841. He baptises 3 more children in Hitchin to 1846.

His widow & some of the surviving children can be found still living in Hitchin in 1851.

There was no Death Reg. in Hitchin Dist. 1841 - 1851 & no burial in the parish or non-con registers. He'd lived in the Hitchin area all his life.

Looking further afield there was a death in Biggleswade in 1845 & another in Hertford in 1849.

Further investigation showed the former was a 2 yr old & the latter a 35 yr old in Hertford Gaol. The 2nd looked promising except for his age which was 10 yrs out so I put Thomas on the back burner.

Many years later ploughing through some Poor Law examinations I came across one for his wife Mary & his brother William speaking on her behalf where he stated his brother had died in 1849.

This prompted me to send for the Hertford death cert. which showed he was 35 & died from Asiatic Cholera in Hertford Gaol & was signed by the Coroner.

By this time I was concentrating on other parts of the family & wasn't visiting HALS but put it on my 'to do' list to search the newspapers at some point.

Then last week Beth on FTF offered to do lookups in the British Newspaper Archives as she had a lot of credits about to expire. The inquest report states that Thomas WILSHERE was of Hitchin confirming that he was mine as he was the only Thomas (from that stratum of society anyway) living in Hitchin at that time. His age was still 35 but I believe it was the error I first thought it was. He went into gaol a healthy man & was dead a fortnight later.