Sarah Jane (1839-1865) – daughter of Thomas Smith Nicholls and Rebecca Hooper
Thomas Hooper (1839-1877) – son of Thomas Smith Nicholls and Rebecca Hooper
Mary Elizabeth (1841-1910) – daughter of Thomas Smith Nicholls and Rebecca Hooper
Mary Jane (1841-1868) – daughter of William Nicholls and Jane Hooper
Adam HOOPER or Adam Henry Nicholls (1836-1864) – illegitimate son of Rebecca Hooper
The two Nicholls families lived next door to each other in Millend, North Nibley, in 1841. Across the valley, at Sodom Farm (now Waterley Farm) the recently-widowed Mary Nicholls farmed, until her death in 1844. With her were her other 2 children, Elizabeth and John.
Two of her sons, William (a farmer) and Thomas (a haulier) had married two sisters, the daughters of George and Margaret Hooper. The widowed Margaret lived in Millend, in Millend House, which had been left to her by her father, Adam Perrett. In the same household were her daughter, Jane Nicholls, her son-in-law William, and Mary Jane, her granddaughter. Adam Hooper was also in the household. He was the illegitimate son of another daughter of Margaret’s – Rebecca.
Her sister Rebecca married Thomas Nicholls and lived next door to her mother, with their three children, Sarah Jane, Thomas and Mary Elizabeth. They seemed to have moved to Nibley shortly before the ’41 Census, as Thomas, Mary Elizabeth and James were all baptised in St Martins on 10th December 1843, along with their cousin, Edwin. Their older sister, Sarah Jane, had been baptised in St Mary’s, Wotton under Edge, in 1839, and their half brother, Adam, was baptised in St Martins in 1836.
Thomas Nicholls (later Thomas Smith Nicholls) passed through so many occupations that it is difficult believe that we are talking about the same man.
- in Sarah Jane’s record of birth, he is a bacon seller.
- in his later children’s baptism records he is recorded as being a farmer, and, in the 1841 Census, he is recorded as being a haulier.
- in 1851 he is an agent at a slate mine, then is a surveyor, again a farmer, and an innkeeper.
In the 1851 Census, Thomas and his family had moved to Upper Pennal, Merionithshire, where he worked as a slate quarry agent. They now had eight children. Adam Hooper was now recorded as Adam Hooper Nicholls and recorded as being the son of Thomas.
In 1852, Thomas and Rebecca was living in Esgairgeiliog Mill, Merionithshire, and Thomas has become a miller. The mill was built on the site of a previous corn watermill and would have processed slate, later becoming a slate enamelling works. The pillars of the old “bont ddu ” tramway bridge that carried slate from the mill over the river up to the junction with the Corris railway line can be seen. The river was believed to have once driven a 40 foot diameter water wheel that powered the mill machinery. Later on it drove turbines for the same purpose.
They appear in the baptism record of their son Arthur Rushmoor, who sadly died 2 years later. Rushmoor is the name of a farm on the Wotton-under-Edge border with North Nibley, farmed by the Nicholls family at the time. George Edwin, their last child, was also baptised here at the same time.
In 1861, Mary Elizabeth and Thomas Hooper, along with their brother George, were living in Corris. Their mother is ELIZABETH Nicholls, 47 years old, and born in Nibley, ‘agents wife’. Thomas is in Cheshire, in Hassall, near Congleton. He seems to have been visiting his son James, who was a carpenter. Thomas is now recorded as being a land surveyor.
Rebecca Nicholls died in 1869, and was buried in North Nibley churchyard. Her residence at the time of her death was Charfield.
Gloucester Journal 2 October 1869
DEATHS – Sept 29 at 1 Worcester Street, in this city, Rebecca, the beloved wife of Mr T S Nicholls, of New Hall, Charfield, in this county, aged 55.
Thomas is recorded as a farmer in Charfield a year later, but in the 1871 Census is back in Wales, living with his son Thomas and his wife in Bangor Street, Carnarvon. He is recorded as ‘living on dividends’.
A year later, Thomas married Mary Owen. Both of them were recorded as innkeepers. In 1879, he died and was buried at Holy Trinity, Corris. His abode at the time of death was the Slaters Arms, Corris. His widow, Mary, continued to run the pub until her death in 1907.
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Sarah Jane Nicholls married Owen Roberts in 1856, when she was 17. Owen was a quarrier and stone cutter. In 1861 they were living with their 3-year-old son, Thomas Nicholls Roberts in Corris. They had five children before Sarah’s death, of bronchitis, in 1879.
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Thomas Hooper Nicholls was living with his mother and siblings in 1861. He was working as a slate enameller.
In 1869, he married Emily Wigmore, in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire. His profession was recorded as artist and his residence as Llanbely (?), Caernarvonshire.
In 1871, he and Emily were living in Bangor Street, Carnarvon.
In 1877 Thomas died of diarrhoea, aged 38.
Caernarvon & Denbigh Herald
3rd November 1877
On Sunday last, at 34 Bangor Street, Mr Thomas Hooper Nicholls (of the firm of Messrs Nicholls & Owen, Enamelled Slate Works), died, after a long illness, aged 38. Deceased, who leaves a widow, was the eldest son of Mr T Smith Nicholls, Corris. He was a very kindly-disposed man, and was generally respected, and great sympathy was felt for him during his long illness, as well as for Mrs Nicholls under her severe trial. The remains of the deceased were buried at Llanbeblig churchyard.
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Mary Elizabeth Nicholls was living with her parents and siblings at Lludi, near Pennal in 1851. a Decade later, the family had moved to Corris. Four years later, aged 22, she married Owen Griffith, a quarryman. The importance of the Nicholls and Hooper names is apparent in the name of their first child – Thomas Hooper Nicholls Griffith.
In 1871, Owen had become a publican, and, with Mary and his children, was running the Braichgoch Inn, in Corris. He died in 1873 and the following year Mary, still living at the Inn, had married William Owen and had two more children. She lived there until her death in 1910.
Cambrian News 16th December 1910
FUNERAL – On Saturday, the funeral of Mary Owen, Glandwr (late Factory, Corris) took place at the Reheboth Graveyard. The deceased was well known and respected in Corris and district, being an old inhabitant. She had attained the age of 73 years.
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Adam Henry Hooper (now Nicholls) was living with his family in Lludi, near Pennal, in 1851. Ten years later, he was working as a servant at Abbey Field House, Sandbach. He died in 1864 of TB. His profession was as a private soldier, and he died back in Merionethshire, in Machynlleth with his mother as witness.
Adam was discharged from the 26th October 1863, due to having TB, and being unfit for service. He had enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the 15th Regiment at Halifax on the 14th January that year. The discharge order tells us that he was 5’5″ tall, with a fresh complexion, grey eyes and dark brown hair. It also records that he was born in ‘Hutton Underay” [obviously Wotton under Edge].
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In 1851, William Nicholls, the brother of Thomas, was still living in Nibley, with his mother-in-law Margaret and his wife and four children. He was now listed as an agricultural labourer. His wife, Jane, died that year and was buried a week before the baptism of her daughter Ann.
Three years later, William (now a railway porter) married Eliza Russell in Gloucester. In 1861 he had become a police and was living in Llanvihangel Crucorney in Monmouthshire with Eliza, Mary Jane and his young daughter Eliza Alice, born that year. After that, I can find no trace of Mary Jane.
North Nibley One-Place-Study 