Jen's Genealogy Pages

My great-great-great-great-great grandfather Thomas Ansted was born around 1764, likely in London, England. I hope to eventually find solid information on his birth, but for now the best I can find is his death certificate that suggests his birth would have been around 1764. I don’t have any information on Thomas’ childhood or young adulthood at this point so the next time we encounter him is at the time of his marriage.

On January 22, 1787, Thomas married Esther Barrass in Saint Leonards, Shoreditch, London. Thomas was a bachelor, but the marriage register indicates that Esther was a widow:

That was news to me. With some further research, I located Esther Carruther’s first marriage to John Barrass in April 18, 1774. Their daughter Elizabeth Barrass was born on May 16, 1883 . John died of consumption and was buried on December 29, 1785 at Saint Luke in Middlesex, Islington. I have not yet found any record for Esther Carruther’s birth but working from her burial record it appears she would have been born around 1753. From that, I figure she would have been around 34 when she married 23 year old Thomas.

Following their marriage, Thomas and Esther had three children of their own. Their first born, John Ansted, became my great-great-great-great grandfather. He was born on October 27, 1789 and was baptised on November 22 of that year at Saint Dunstan in the East in London. Younger brother Thomas Ansted was born on July 4, 1791 and baptized on November 27 of that year. Daughter Sarah Ansted was born on July 25, 1796 and baptised on October 5 of that year. Both were baptised at Saint Dunstan in the East. Judging from her inclusion in Thomas’ 1846 will, Elizabeth was raised with the rest of the children and he considered her one of his own, ensuring that his will included provision for her. (I hope to eventually fully transcribe his will and will post further information on it in the future.)

Thomas was widowed in 1802, when Esther passed away at age 49. She was buried on June 5, 1802, in the South Yard of St. Dunstan in the East, London.

Thomas was politically active, as evidenced by this notice I found in the October 15, 1803, Times of London:

CONSTITUTIONAL LIVERY.
THE MEMBERS of this SOCIETY are respectfully invited to DINE at the London Tavern on Tuesday, the 25th day of October, 1803, being the Anniversary of his MAJESTY’s happy ACCESSION to the THRONE.
Mr. EDWARD KEMBLE, Chairman,
Mr. NATHANIEL BRICKWOOD, Deputy-Chairman.¹¹

Mr. Thomas Ansted is one of the men listed as a member following this notice. The dinner was to start at four o’clock and tickets were 7s. 6d. each. Being relatively unfamiliar with this period in English political history, I did a little bit of digging and discovered that the Constitutional Livery was a conservative club formed in 1797 to strengthen the hand of the government. Liverymen were freemen attached to London city companies and were entitled to vote.

Following that notice in the papers, I have no information on Thomas until his listing in the first English census in 1841. He is living alone, at age 75, with two female servants. His residence is York Row, in the Borough of Lambeth, Kennington, Surrey and his profession is that of broker. Other research has determined that he was a fruit broker and the Ansted half of Clark & Ansted (formerly Fielder, Clark & Ansted). I hope to outline a brief history of the company soon.

Thomas died at 82 years of age. According to the Times of London, he died on October 30, 1846.

His death certificate corroborates this, listing his date of death as October 30, 1846. He was living at 6 York Row, Kennington Road at the time of his death and the cause of death was ‘Decay of Nature’. That would seem to mean that, at 82, he died of old age.

The informant was Robert Silvester (his step-daughter’s husband) and he was living with Thomas at the time of his death. In fact, further research showed that Robert married Thomas’ daughter Sarah the following year. Presumably Elizabeth had died sometime prior to Thomas. She is mentioned in Thomas’ will, but that was signed in September 1838, eight years before his death. I have not yet located her death information but, presumably, she died between 1838 and 1846.

Thomas was buried on November 8 in the South Yard of St. Dunstan in the East. His will was probated November 19 and his first-born son, John, was his sole executor.

 

Related posts:
Thomas’ son: John Ansted (1789-1877)
Thomas’ granddaughter: Dionysia Ansted Burton (1827-1898)
The best laid plans…: Update on the Ansteds
Australia Day 2011 – Clark & Ansted
The Ansteds of London