My great-great-grandfather was Thomas Dewes, and I’ve never been able to find his baptism, or identify his parents. He’s a brickwall in my tree. These are my notes as I investigate – I’ll be looking at Dewes/Duce/etc people in parish registers to see if I can identify where he’s from.
Thomas’ life
The earliest record I have for Thomas is his marriage to Alice Goymour at Lavenham in 1816. I sent off for an image of the parish register, and the marriage licence. They’ve been transcribed as “Thomas Bruce”, and another Thomas Bruce appears in the same register later the same year. However, when I looked at the images I could clearly see that “Thomas Duce” had been entered first, and then the surname was changed to Bruce. It would seem that it was correct to begin with, as everything else matches up. To confuse things further, Robert Bruce married Mary Duce in Long Melford the year before – no wonder the vicar was confused!
Thomas – an agricultural labourer – and Alice had ten children, between 1817 and 1839. The first two, Mary Ann and Ann, were baptised in Long Melford, then the rest of their children were baptised in neighbouring Acton. Alice died in 1840, and on the 1841 census, we find Thomas living at Newman’s Green in Acton with eight of his children: Mary, Susan, Amelia, Charles, Hannah, John, Elizabeth and Sarah. His age is given as 53, so gives a rough year of birth of 1788.
We have more – but conflicting – information on the 1851 and 1861 censuses. On both, Thomas and his family were once again living at Newman’s Green. We have Thomas Dews on the 1851 census, a 64-year-old widower and “pauper ag lab”, born in Melford, with six of his children, plus a grandchild. Then on the 1861 census, we have a 74-year-old widower and “ag lab”. He passed away in July 1867 and was buried in Acton, his age given as 80. So the 1851 and 1861 census, plus his age at death, give us a rough year of birth of 1787, which is close to the estimated year of birth we get on the 1841 census: 1788. But we don’t know where he was born: one source says Long Melford, the other says Acton. However, they’re next door to each other, so that at least narrows it down to a small area.
There are no Dewes/Duce/etc parish baptisms in Acton until Thomas and Alice third child, William, was baptised there in 1822. Neither are there any Dewes/Duce/etc marriages or burials until Thomas and Alice arrive. The picture is different if we look at Long Melford.
Long Melford
From the time Long Melford’s parish registers begin in the 1550s, the first Dewes/Duce/etc record we meet comes a century later, when Daniel son of Daniel Dewce was baptised in 1650. Using the Suffolk Family History Society transcriptions for Long Melford, going back to 1754, there are Duce families baptising their children there. We have:
- William Duce and Ann: seven children baptised between 1765 and 1782
- Samuel Duce and Elizabeth: two children, baptised in 1777 and 1779
- Thomas Duce and Mary: nine children between 1794 and 1798. They had two sets of twins: Ann and Frances in 1796 and John and Samuel in 1800.
Potentially, one of these couples is our Thomas’ parents.
Then, after Thomas and Alice’s two children were baptised, we have more Duce couples in Long Melford:
- John Duce and Ann: eight children baptised between 1826 and 1844
- Charles Duce and Charlotte: two children, baptised in 1836 and 1840
- Then more Williams and Charles etc into the 1850s and 1860s and beyond
So what more can we find out about the three couples who could be our Thomas’ parents?
- William Duse married Anne Reed in Long Melford in 1762. It’s possible William died in 1792 and was buried in Long Melford – the register only gives a name and a date. I’m not sure what happened to Ann after 1782. They would’ve been married over 20 years by the time our Thomas was born, which makes them very unlikely to be his parents. It’s not impossible, though, but not as likely as our other candidates.
- Samuel Duce married Elizabeth Campin in Long Melford in 1777. They were both single, and from Long Melford. Their witnesses were William Duce and James Webb. Samuel might be the Samuel Duce who died in 1799 and was buried in Long Melford. We have a burial for an Elizabeth Duce in Long Melford in 1823, aged 82, which gives her a rough year of birth of 1741. If she’s Samuel’s wife, it would put her in her late 40s when our Thomas Duce was born – it’s possible she could still be his mother, but it’s not all that likely.
- Thomas Duce married Mary Salter in Long Melford in 1790. They were both single, and from Long Melford. Their witnesses were John Salter and William Scott.
Thomas Duce and Mary Salter
Of all the Long Melford Duces, Thomas Duce and Mary Salter feel like the most likely candidates for our Thomas’s parents. Although they married in 1790, which is after his supposed birth year of 1788, it’s very close. And we have a four year gap between Thomas and Mary’s marriage and the first recorded baptism of a child. What sticks out for me is that although they had four sons, not one of them was baptised “Thomas”. Most parents at this time would name children after themselves – although that said, our Thomas didn’t name any of his children after himself! Interestingly, though, Thomas and Mary named one of their sons Charles, as did our Thomas and Alice. Alice’s mother was an Ann, and Thomas and Alice’s first daughter was named Mary Ann, then the second one just Ann. Was the first daughter named “Mary Ann” after both of her grandmothers?
To-do list
There is still a lot for me to research but I think this is a good start. Are there Salter descendants in my DNA matches who I haven’t yet been able to place? And can I trace Thomas Duce and his wife Mary? What happened to them next? What happens if I trace their known children – do any of them cross my Thomas’ path? Are there any wills which could help? And are there any other Dewes/Duces/etc like our Thomas, who definitely existed but for whom we can’t find any baptisms? What about non-conformists? What about baptisms in nearby parishes – Long Melford shares a border with Essex, so does Essex yield up anything of interest?
By Helen Barrell
First published: 6th February 2025.