Thomas Wetherill (1712-1755) and Sarah Sley (1720-1800).
My 6th great-grandparents.
I speculated in the story of James Wetherill and Mary Proctor – my 5th great-grandparents – that his parents were Thomas Wetherill and Sarah Sley despite the lack of a baptism record. So there’s a degree of assumption going on when it comes to my 6th great-grandparents. However, I’m confident I’ve got the right people based on the available records.
What is certain is that Thomas and Sarah married on 22 May 1746 in St Nicholas’s Church, Bradwell, Norfolk. Both were said to be from nearby Great Yarmouth on the marriage register and Thomas was described as ‘the younger’, suggesting his father was another Thomas.
Where Thomas came from is not 100% certain but the only candidate based on currently available records is a Thomas Wetherall born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1712. He was baptised on 12 December that year at St Nicholas’s Church to parents Thomas Witherell and Mary Corpe. However, this would make Thomas Jnr around 33 years of age at the time of his marriage, which is rather late for the period.
Sarah came from a reasonably comfortable background judging by the will of her father James Sley, drawn up in 1758. This mentions his daughter Sarah Wetherill as well as grandchildren James and William and lists, over many pages, his properties in and around Great Yarmouth. Sarah was born to him and his wife Susannah Barnes in 1720 and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth on 31 January that year.
It’s unclear what Thomas did for a living but various records at Norfolk Archives in a collection from 1755-59 point to him being the Water Bailiff and Collector of Haven and Pier Duties in Great Yarmouth in his later years, if not earlier. There’s a petition (pictured here) from him to the Mayor and borough assembly to continue in the role for another year, which was granted by the authorities on condition of him giving security and acting under the supervision of an Abel Clifton. A subsequent petition of October 1755 from Sarah widow of Thomas Wetherill, late water bailiff, requested payment of the salary he would have received had he lived till the previous Michaelmas. This noted that she had been left with two children “in a very necessitous condition”. This too was granted. And yet another petition from Dover Colby and Abel Clifton requested recompense for acting jointly as water bailiff, which they’d done during the sickness of Thomas Wetherill from 17 May 1754 to his death. It was ordered that £60 be paid to Clifton and £80 to Colby.
The Water Bailiff played a significant role in the local community, collecting fees and in the years before Thomas’s appointment carrying the town’s sword before the Mayor in civic processions.
Norfolk Family History Society has the record of Thomas’s death in 1755 and burial in Great Yarmouth on 4 July.
Sarah died in 1800 and was buried at the parish church on 18 September, described as a widow aged 82.
Thomas and Sarah had at least four children:
- James Wetherill (1747-1747). He was baptised on 27 February that year at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and buried there on 29 October.
- Thomas Wetherill (1748-1748). Baptised on 10 March that year at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, he was buried on 1 April.
- William Wetherill (1749-????). William was baptised on 12 February 1749 St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and was mentioned in his grandfather James Sley’s will of 1758. It’s likely that he was the boy apprenticed to bailiff Abel Clifton in Great Yarmouth in 1863, with a premium listed as £15. Clifton had previously supervised William’s father in the role.
- James Wetherill (1750?-1801) – my 5th great-grandfather. As I mention above, this is a guesstimate and no baptism record survives. However, a James Wetherill is mentioned in grandfather James Sley’s will of 1758.
Note that the will of James Sley mentions a grandchild called Thomas Wetherill. Is this a child of Sarah and Thomas?
Sources: BMDs, census and other info at Ancestry.com and Findmypast.com. Records at Norfolk Family History Society. Will records from Norfolk County Archives. Norfolk Archives: Y/C 19/33 Assembly file. 1755-9.