Thomas Tummon and Jemima Ellen Davies [Wells]

Hull Holy Trinity
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © David Wright - geograph.org.uk/p/240610

Thomas Tummon (b. 1841), son of Joseph Tummon and Jane Hatcliffe and brother of William Henry Tummon, married Jemima Ellen Davies Wells on 27 Mar 1859 at Hull Holy Trinity. However, there appear to be many romantic or mischievous, and very probably obfuscating, embellishments to their marriage certificate.

Thomas Tummon (19) Labourer, resident in Posterngate, Hull, lists his father as the late Joseph Jeykell Tummon, Merchant's Clerk. Late is correct, Jeykell is an entirely false addition and Joseph was an Agricultural Labourer (probably illiterate).

(In case you're wondering, the Gothic novella, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson wasn't published until 1886, so it wasn't that they had grabbed a topical and fashionable name from the fiction of the day.)

Jemima (20), also of Posterngate, Hull, lists her father as Philip Davies Wells, Lawyer's Clerk. On later records, she consistently claims to be from Northampton, Northamptonshire and there is one Jemima Ellen Davies born there in 1837 (making her 22), whose parents were Rhees John Davies and Elizabeth Barnes (m. 1831), who in 1841, lived in Dychurch Lane, St Giles, Northampton. Rhees Davies was working as a clerk. However, I've found no further census records for them.

On 1 Jun 1840 at Northampton Quarter Sessions (Sessions House, Northampton), Rhees John Davies, Attorney's clerk, had been sentenced to 12 months in gaol, accused of obtaining one sovereign by false pretences. It seems he had earlier brought a case for unpaid wages and that the sovereign was properly credited to his employer, Richard Thompson, then an Attorney (inferring that later he was not). There is a pencil note on the case papers that says, "There seems to have been malice in the prosecution," and, in red, below it, the word Pardon. Davies' sentence was remitted on 1 Jul 1840. There was an inquiry, after appeals to the Home Office on Davies' behalf and I'm unsure whether he served any part of his sentence or not at the Common Gaol of Northampton (Northampton Borough Gaol and House of Correction), but this does perhaps explain why the family left Northampton and ended up in Hull and why different names were being used.

Even one of the witnesses to Thomas and Jemima's marriage is listed as Thomas Magdalen Grayburn, who must be Thomas Midgley Grayburn who had married Thomas' sister in 1858. Although this could simply be a transcription error.

Thomas and Jemima had at least eleven children:

1. Thomas Alfred Jeykell Tummon b. 1860 M Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 192, bap. 21 Mar 1860, at St Mary's Church, Hull, died in the same quarter, 1860 M Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 135. 
2. Jane Elizabeth Tummon b. 1861 M Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 176, bap. 10 Feb 1861 in Hull (record doesn't list which church.)
3. Alice Tummon b. 1863 M Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 173
4. George Tummon b. 1864 D Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 179, bap. 6 Nov 1864 in Hull (again, venue is not listed on the record.)
5. Thomas Tummon b. 7 Dec 1866, bap. 30 Dec 1866 at St Mary's Church, Hull, reg. 1867 M Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 175
6. James Tummon b. 1868 D Qtr in HULL Vol 09D Page 205, bap. 3 Jan 1869 at St. James's Church, Hull, died in 1869 M Qtr in HULL Vol 09D  Page 154
7. Albert Tummon b. 12 Nov 1869 in HULL Volume 09D Page 220, bap. 12 Dec 1869 at St. James's Church, Hull.
8. Jemima Tummon b. 12 Jan 1872 in HULL Volume 09D Page 208, bap. 11 Feb 1872 at St. James's Church, Hull, residence Pease Street, Hull. Died before her 1st birthday in 1873 M Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 152.
9. James Tummon b. 1873  J Quarter in HULL  Volume 09D  Page 230, bap. 8 Jun 1873 at St. Luke's Church, Hull, died in the last quarter of 1873 
10. John William Tummon b. 1875 M Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 244
11. Charles Alfred Tummon b. 1880 J Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 256, died in 1881 S Quarter in HULL Volume 09D Page 184

The mother's maiden name on the first five children from Thomas Alfred Jeykell to Thomas in 1867, have the mother's maiden name listed as Wells. Those from James in 1868 onwards, the mother's maiden name is listed as Davis or Davies.

In 1861, Thomas Tummon (20) Dock Labourer from Marshchapel, Lincolnshire, was living at 4, Delaporte Court, St Marys, Hull with wife Jemima E Tummon (22) from Northampton, Northamptonshire and daughter Jane E (0). (That same year his brother, William, was living, next door, at 5, Delaporte Court, St Marys, Hull.) 

In 1871, Thomas Tummon (29) and Jemima E Tummon (31) were living at 8 Mary Ann's Place, Adelaide Street, Holy Trinity, Hull with Jane E (10), Alice (8), George (6), Thomas (4), Albert (1) and Robert Sykes (30) also a Dock Labourer, Boarder.

In 1881, at 6 Chatham Place, Adelaide Street, Kingston upon Hull, were Thomas Tummon (39) Dock side labourer; Jemima Tummon (41), Jane Elizabeth Tummon (20) Draper's assistant; Alice Tummon (18) Domestic servant; George Tummon (16) Fisherman; Thomas Tummon (14) Fisherman; Albert Tummon (12) Scholar; John William Tummon (5) Scholar and Charles Alfred Tummon (1).

In 1891, still at Chatham Place, were Thomas Tummon (49), Jemima E (50), John W Tummon (16) Telegraph messenger and Dennis E Davis (19) Blacksmiths labourer, Nephew. (This Dennis Edwin Davis (sic) was son of Dennis Edwin Davies and Martha Jane Kynman, who had married in Hull, in 1867. The father, Dennis Edwin Davies, born 1841, in Northampton was Jemima's younger brother. When he had married in 1867 and for the 2nd time, at 40, in 1882, he listed his father's name as Rees John Davies, a Law Stationer, confirming my earlier findings.)

Thomas Tummon died, aged 53, in the last quarter of 1895.

In 1901, Jemima E Tummon (59) widow, was living at 7, Chatham Place, Hull with just her son John W Tummon (26) Dock side tallyman labourer.

In 1911, Jemima Ellen Tummon (72) was living alone at 11 Lee Smith Street, Hedon Road, Sculcoates.

In 1921, Jemima E Tummon (83) from Northampton, Northamptonshire, widow, was once again alone at 11, Lee Smith Street, Hedon Road, Sculcoates.

Jemima Ellen Tummon died, in Sculcoates, in 1923.