5

Monk Tree

THOMAS CONGREVE and MARY (9)

 

THOMAS CONGREVE. We have traced a line of the Monk ancestry back to the Lincolnshire village of Whaplode. Here, Isaac Congreve married Sarah Speechly in 1775. This takes us back to the following baptism.

Baptism. St Mary, Whaplode.
1753 Jun 17  Isaac Congreve s of Thos & Mary

We have been unable to find Thomas’s own baptism. His age at his burial puts it at 1704-5.

Nor have we been able to find his marriage to Mary.

 

MARY. Because we do not have their wedding, we do not know Mary’s maiden name, or where she came from.

The age at her burial is given as 31, but crossed through. If correct, it would give her a birth date of 1723-4, considerably younger than Thomas. It is probably safer to assume that it is a mistake.

We first pick up their story in the late 1740s, with the baptism of three children at Crowland Abbey. This is just over 10 m south of Whaplode. Crowland Abbey was a monastic house until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. The chancel and transepts of the abbey church were demolished, but the nave remained in use as the local parish church, until the roof fell in in 1720. By Thomas and Mary’s time, only the north aisle was in use as a church.

Baptisms. Crowland Abbey.
1748 May 18  Mary
1749 Sep 24   Mary
We assume that the first Mary died, though we have not found her burial.
1752 Jan 30  Rebekah

These three entries end with “of Deeping Fen”. This is a wetland west of Crowland, bordered by the Rivers Welland and Glen. Through the 18^th century there was much discussion about how this might be drained to provide more farmland. There were numerous windmills pumping water into drainage channels.
It is likely that Thomas was farming here. His son became a grazier, so it is likely that Thomas followed a similar occupation.

From there, they move north to the town of Spalding.

Baptisms. St Mary & St Nicholas, Spalding.
1752 Jun 2  Isaac Congreve son of  Thomas and Mary
1753 Jun 17  Isaac s of Thos & Mary
1754 Feb 24  Abraham

Again, we have no burial for the first Isaac.

The following year, Mary died in Spalding.

Burial. St Mary & St Nicholas, Spalding
1755 May 21  Mary Congreve aged 31 Wife of ,,,

Her age has been crossed out, and the name of her husband has been overwritten, but the absence of further baptisms leads us to believe that this is Thomas’s wife.

Thomas may have remarried.

Marriage. St Mary & St Nicholas, Spalding.
1766 Mar 27  Thomas Congreve of Deeping Fen in this parish and Mary Burwell

There were two children from this marriage.

Baptisms. St Mary & St Nicholas, Spalding.
1767 Apr 7  Mary
1769 Sep 29  Elizabeth

There is another burial for Mary Congreve in 1780

Burial. St Mary & St Nicholas, Spalding.
1780 Oct 16  Mary Congreve aged 36

The young age makes us doubt whether this was a second marriage for Thomas, or whether her husband was a younger man, On the other hand, the abode of Deeping Fen matches that of earlier baptisms.

Thomas was buried in Spalding 23 years after the first Mary.

1778 May 22  Thomas Congreve Age 73 from Whapload

The likelihood is that Thomas had gone to Whaplode to live with his son Isaac after Mary’s death, but wished to be buried back in Spalding with his wife.

 

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