The Signs of Poverty — Thomas Hughes

B. before 28 Nov 1790 in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England¹
M. 2 Jan 1811 in Bristol, England²
Wife: Hester Keen
D. 15 Jun 1835, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England³

Throughout the life of Thomas Hughes, every record had some indication of his social status: he was born into poverty and he died in it.

Thomas was the fourth son of John Hughes and Betty Morris of Almondsbury, England. The family lived in Almondsbury, England, which was just east of Bristol. Thomas was christened at St. Mary’s Church on November 28, 1790, likely as an infant.² Since he later signed his name with an X, we can assume he had little or no education.¹ Like many in the village, Thomas’ family received handouts from the community. Records show that his mother was sometimes given cloth, which she presumably turned into simple garments for her children. 

St. Mary’s Church in Almondsbury.

In early 1800, Thomas’ father received money to put towards the building of a house.⁴ Likely it was a very modest structure, but the record suggests that John Hughes was constructing it. Thomas, age 9, may have picked up a few carpentry skills because after he came of age, he also received one pound towards the building of his own house. This was noted in the Almondsbury vestry order book on May 31, 1816.⁴ The meager amount of money donated to them would suggest that the houses built by Thomas and his father were little more than wooden shacks, although this is speculation.

By this time Thomas had gotten married. On January 2, 1811, he wed Hester Keen at St. Stephen Church in Bristol.² Between 1813 and 1831, they had eight children, of whom at least two died young. The records of St. Mary’s Church in Almondsbury show that there was a gap of over 9 years between Thomas bringing children into the church to be baptized. Although he had a son born in 1819, and another born in 1823, he waited until the last day of 1826 before having them baptized along with their newborn sister.⁵ Perhaps he didn’t have the money for the service when the boys were born.

Thomas’ adulthood was a time of widespread unemployment in England. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars starting in 1815, ex-soldiers returning from the battlefield created a situation where there were more men looking for work than there were jobs. The Industrial Revolution was also a factor in the evolution of the workforce. These things likely affected Thomas as he struggled to find employment as a laborer.

The hardships of Thomas’ life may have contributed to his early death at age 45. When he died on June 15, 1835,³ he left behind several underaged children, and his widow Hester remarried in 1838.⁶ Although she was widowed again, none of the surviving children ended up in the poor house (one son migrated to Canada), so the cycle of poverty seems to have died with Thomas.

Children:
1. George Hughes — B. before 31 Oct 1813, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England;⁷ D. 6 Feb 1814, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England⁸

2. George Hughes — B. before 11 Apr 1815, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England;⁹ D. after 1891, (probably) England;¹⁰ M. (1) Mary, before 1861;¹¹ (2) Elizabeth, before 1881¹²

3. James Hughes — B. before 10 Aug 1817, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England;¹³ D. before 4 Jan 1829, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England¹⁴

4. Charles Hughes — B. about 1819, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England;⁵ D. before 1864;¹⁵ M. Maria Bevan (1820-1888), 15 Jun 1842, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island¹⁶

5. Thomas Hughes — B. about 1823, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England;⁵ D. after 1861;¹¹ M. Mary Ann Wither (~1823-?), 7 Sep 1845, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England¹⁷

6. Rachel Hughes — B. before 31 Dec 1826, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England⁵

7. James Hughes — B. before 4 Jan 1829, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England¹⁴

8. Selina Hughes — B. before 31 Jan 1831, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England;¹⁸ M. William Cardin (1831-?)¹¹

Sources:
1    Baptismal record of Thomas Hughes, Bristol, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, Ancestry.com
2    Marriage record of Thomas Hughes and Hester Keen, England, Marriages, 1538-1973, FamilySearch.org
3    Death record of Thomas Hughes, England, Bristol, Parish Registers, 1538-1900, FamilySearch.org
4    Overseers order books, 1797-1817, England, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, FamilySearch.org
5    Baptismal record of Charles, Thomas and Rachel Hughes, E., B., P. R.
6    Marriage record of Jonathan Horler and Hester Hughes, England & Wales Marriages, 1538-1988, Ancestry.com
7    Baptismal record of George Hughes (older), E., B., P. R.
8    Death record of George Hughes (older), E., B., P. R.
9    Baptismal record of George Hughes (younger), E., B., P. R.
10  1891 U. K. census, Almondsbury, England
11  1861 U. K. census, Almondsbury, England
12  1881 U. K. census, Almondsbury, England
13  Baptismal record of James Hughes (older), E., B., P. R.
14  Baptismal record of James Hughes (younger), E., B., P. R.
15  Hutchinson’s Prince Edward Island City Directory, 1864, which shows Maria Hughes as a widow
16  Marriage record of Charles Hughes and Maria Baird, Canada, Prince Edward Island Marriage Registers, 1832-1888, FamilySearch.org
17  Marriage record of Thomas Hughes and Mary Ann Wither, Bristol, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935, Ancestry.com
18  Baptismal record of Selina Hughes, E., B., P. R.

Survivor of Childhood Tragedies — Marie-Thérèse Maillot

B. 3 Mar 1708 in Montreal, New France¹
M. 11 Aug 1730 in Montreal, New France²
Husband: Antoine Mallet
D. after 25 Oct 1753 in (probably) Post Vincennes, New France³

By the time Marie-Thérèse Maillot had reached her 14th birthday, she had seen the death of both parents and eight of her ten siblings, plus her home was destroyed in a fire. But she survived, and wound up making a life far from where she started out.

Thérèse was born on March 3, 1708 in Montreal to Guillaume Maillot and Marie-Anne Massé.¹ Her father and grandfather were both blacksmiths,^4,5 a vital part of the growing settlement on the St. Lawrence. When she was a child, Thérèse watched as her parents buried infants, one-by-one. Then in 1718, her father died at age 47.⁶

Thérèse’s mother remarried to merchant from France named Pierre Courault de LaCoste,⁷ who became her step-father even though he was just 12 years older than she was. The family continued to live in the house owned by Thérèse’s father, said to be two stories tall and measuring 33 feet by 45 feet.⁸ Unfortunately, it was made of wood, which would come into play one fateful day during 1721.

That June 19th, the people of Montreal had gathered on the streets in celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi, one of many special dates on the Catholic calendar. It’s easy to imagine Thérèse and her sister Marie-Anne joining in the excitement. But then someone fired a gun in the air, with sparks landing on and igniting the roof of a church building. Before anyone could stop it, lower Montreal was engulfed in flames.⁹ The house where Thérèse lived was on Rue Saint-Paul,¹⁰ and wasn’t far from the church. The blaze ended up destroying about 150 homes, and hers was one of them. For the next several months, the family was forced to take refuge in a house located outside of the fire zone.¹¹ 

Map of the 1721 Montreal fire.

Things got worse for Thérèse that year. In September, her mother went through her final labor, delivering a stillborn child — and then she died.¹² Thérèse and Marie-Anne were left under the care of their young step-father, who remarried to someone even younger in March 1722.¹³

It may have been because Pierre Courault de LaCoste was a fur trading merchant¹⁴ that Thérèse ended up moving to the West. Certainly she came into contact with many people in Montreal who had dealings with her step-father, such as Antoine Mallet, a man from Detroit. They were married on August 11, 1730 at Notre Dame de Montreal with Courault de LaCoste in attendance.² Not long after that date, she left the St. Lawrence River area, never to return.¹⁵ Thérèse was able to sign her name on the marriage document, an indicator that she had received some education. 

Signature of Therese.

After a long trek by canoe and foot, Thérèse and Antoine set up their household at Detroit.¹⁵ Established in 1701, the French outpost was already a lively place of fur trading leading to places further west. Thirty years after its founding, it still was a rough existence, and of the ten children Thérèse gave birth to, only four survived. Her child-bearing spanned the years 1731 to 1743.

Thérèse moved one more time in her life. In 1750, her 15-year-old daughter was married at Post Vincennes,¹⁶ which is in present-day Indiana. Thérèse’s name was on a Post Vincennes baptism dated October 25, 1753, and she was described as a widow.³ Most likely, Antoine had died after they both moved there, but there is no record of his death. The baptism was the last mention of Thérèse, and she probably passed away during the 1750s.

Children:
1. Marie-Therese Mallet — B.about 3 May 1731, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. Jan 1734, Detroit, New France¹⁵

2. Marie-Catherine Mallet — B. about 22 Oct 1732, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. Oct 1732, Detroit, New France¹⁵

3. Marie-Therese Mallet — B. about 12 Apr 1735, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. 19 Sep 1763, Post Vincennes, New France;¹⁶ M. Jean-Baptiste Renaud dit Deslauriers (1708-?), 26 Oct 1750, Post Vincennes, New France¹⁷

4. Jacques-Louis Mallet — B. about 15 Apr 1736, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. 14 Jun 1794, Vincennes, Indiana Territory;¹⁸ M. Marie-Louise Crepeau (1758-1825), about 1778, Post Vincennes, Illinois Country¹⁸

5. Joseph Mallet — B. about 26 Aug 1737, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. Apr 1739, Detroit, New France¹⁵

6. Jean-François Mallet — B. about 11 Oct 1738, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. before 25 Jul 1806, Vincennes, Indiana Territory;¹⁹ M. Marie-Charlotte Levron dit Metayer (1756-1814), 30 Jan 1770, Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory¹⁹

7. Marie-Timothea Mallet — B. about 6 Sep 1739, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. Dec 1739, Detroit, New France¹⁵

8. Angelique Mallet — B. about 9 Dec 1740, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. Dec 1740, Detroit, New France¹⁵

9. Antoine Mallet — B. about 12 Feb 1742, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ M. Catherine Bordeleau (1759-1818)²⁰

10. Augustin Mallet — B. about 12 Apr 1743, Detroit, New France;¹⁵ D. Apr 1743, Detroit, New France¹⁵

Sources:
1    Baptismal record of Marie-Therese Maillot, Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979, FamilySearch.org
2    Marriage record of Antoine Mallet and Marie-Therese Maillot, Q., C. P. R.
3    Baptismal record of Marie-Therese Renaud dit Deslauriers, “Records of the Parish of St. Francis Xavier,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 12, 1901, p. 209
4    Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française listing of Martin Masse
5    Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol. 6, Gerard Lebel (translated by Thomas J. Laforest), 1990
6    Burial record of Guillaume Maillot, Q., C. P. R.
7    Marriage record of Pierre Courault de LaCoste and Marie-Anne Massé, Q., C. P. R.
8    Montreal Fire 1721, Google Groups
9    Torture and the Truth: Angélique and the Burning of Montreal (website)
10  Property sale record, 9 Jul 1721 to 30 Jan 1722, BAnQ
11  Inventory of property of Pierre Courault de LaCoste, 23 Sep to 16 Oct 1721, BAnQ
12  Burial record of Marie-Anne Massé, Q., C. P. R.
13  Marriage record of Pierre Courault de LaCoste and Marguerite Aubuchon, Q., C. P. R.
14  Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française listing of Pierre Courault de LaCoste
15  Genealogy of the French Families of the Detroit River Region, 1701-1936, Christian Dennison, 1987, p. 783
16  Burial record of Therese Mallet, “Records of the Parish of St. Francis Xavier,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 12, 1901, p. 325
17  Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française listing of Therese Mallet
18  WikiTree listing of Jaques Louis Mallet
19  WikiTree listing of Jean François Maillet
20  WikiTree listing of Antoine Maillet