4. CORY-MAY

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Fay Sampson’s Family History

This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)

Cory Tree

 THOMAS WILLIAM CORY and ELIZABETH ANN MAY (4)

 

 THOMAS WILLIAM CORY was baptised 25 May 1832 at St George’s chapel in Deal, which served the seafaring community of the lower town. . The baptism was also entered in the register of the mother church of St Leonard’s, Deal, higher up.

He was the seventh of ten children of Richard Cory and Ann Langley of Lower Street. He also had an older half-brother. His father was a gardener.[1]

Lower Street is known today as High Street. It runs parallel to, and inland from, Beach Street and Middle Street.

The curious thing about Deal is that Beach Street, along the seashore, is higher than the roads inland. The sea has washed up a bank of shingle, raising the level of the promenade.

In the 1841 census the family were still living in Lower Street. 9-year-old Thomas was the fifth of eight siblings still at home. The eldest boy had left.

Although his father was a gardener and previously a publican, Thomas, like so many others in Deal, became a boatman.

Thomas has not been found in the 1851 census. Earlier that year, he had joined the Royal Navy.

.On 1 Nov 1851, we have the record of him joining HMS Trafalgar.[2]

371775 Register Ticket
Thomas Corey
Born at Deal in the                                
County of Kent  – day of May 1833
Capacity  Boy 1 C
Height 5 5½   Hair  –
Complexion    Eyes –
Marks  –
First went to sea as BoyHas served in the Royal Navy –
Has been in Foreign Service –

When unemployed resides at –
Issued at HMS Trafalgar 1 day of Nov 1851.

The date of birth given is a year out, but there is no other Thomas Cory born in Deal around that time, and the month is right.

There are many cases in which Deal men have entered the Navy. During the Crimean War a body of them volunteered to man a ship of war and fight her in the Baltic. That proposal was not accepted, and parties of men joined vessels going to the Black Sea, laboured in the trenches before Sebastopol, and at the close of the war, as they themselves relate, were paid off without bounty or reward for their hard services on shore.” (E.C. Pain, The Last of Our Luggers.)

Their battle honours included Alma, Inkerman and Sebastopol.

Following Nelson’s victory and death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, HMS Trafalgar was the second ship to bear that name. She was a 120-gun ship of the line. She was launched by Nelson’s niece in 1841 with Queen Victoria in attendance.
The log book of Captain Edward William Hereford and the journals of Dr Edward Hodges Cree record the involvement of the Trafalgar in the Crimean War. [3]
The initial cause of the war was Turkey’s rejection of Russian attempts to secure comparable rights with France over the protection of Christian religious sites and subjects in Ottoman-held Palestine. Russia also claimed other Ottoman-controlled territories and invaded the Balkans. Turkey declared war. When Russia went on to invade Bulgaria, Britain and France joined the war on Turkey’s side.
   The main operations of the Crimean War occurred around the Russian naval port of Sevastopol, which suffered heavy fighting and a long siege. A number of the Traflagar’s crew died en route to the Black Sea via Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, the Bosphorus, the Port of Sinope and Kalamita Bay. She was present at the siege of Sevastopol in 1854. In October and November, 100 marines were transferred to Balaclava, transports of cavalry arrived and other HM vessels joined the fleet. On 17 October at 12.50, firing commenced at Fort Constantine. ‘At one o’clock the allied fleets, whose large vessels had been slowly creeping up to the town in tow of steamers, opened fire upon the town, which from that moment became enveloped in a dense cloud of vapour’. The Trafalgar opened fire at 13.10 and ceased at 13.25, firing again at 17.26 for 13 minutes: She ‘ceased firing not being able to see the object on account of the smoke and darkness’.
The harsh Crimean winter deeply affected the unprepared armies surrounding Sevastopol, and many troops fell victim to cholera and dysentery.
In September 1855 the Russians finally abandoned Sevastopol to the allied forces of Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia.

Thomas Corey’s service record shows that he joined the Trafalgar on 4 Feb 1851, aged 18, as a Boy 1st Class.
The following year, on 12 July 1852, he became an Ordinary Seaman.
On 6 Jan 1855 he was promoted to A.B. (Able-Bodied Sea man).
He was discharged on 27 Apr 1855, with character Very Good.
The following day, 28 Apr 1855, he was transferred to the Orion, again as an A.B..
He was discharged to ‘Shore’ on 4 May 1856, again with a Very Good character.

Thomas returned to Deal, where he eventually owned his own lugger and became one of the outstanding seamen on the east Kent coast.

The Deal Boatmen have a history both as smugglers and as lifesavers. They saved many lives when ships ran aground on the Goodwin Sands. There was no lifeboat at Deal until 1865.

 

ELIZABETH ANN MAY. Elizabeth was the daughter of Sarah May. We have no information about her father, though her mother later married Edward Sacket.

Baptism. Deal.
1835  16 Jan   Elizabeth Ann May illeg. daughter of Sarah. Alfred Square.[4]

Alfred Square marks the northern end of the “old town” of Deal.

Her mother Sarah was from Deal. In successive censuses, Elizabeth says she was born in Ramsgate. It may be that Sarah went away for her pregnancy and returned to her home town for the christening. Or it may be that Elizabeth was mistaken. She may have been born in Deal and moved to Ramsgate while she was still too young to remember her previous home. Her half-brother was born and baptised in Ramsgate.

Sometime between 1835 and 1843 Elizabeth’s mother married. We know that her new surname was Sackett. Her husband’s first name may be Edward, a tailor of Ramsgate, but this has not been confirmed.
   Elizabeth used the name Sackett for one of her own children, so it is possible that Sackett was her father. If he was a sailor, he could have been at sea when she was born, and married Sarah afterwards. But the fact that she was not living with the Sacketts in 1841 suggests that this was not the case.

Elizabeth seems to have been brought up, for a time at least, by her mother’s family in Alfred Square.

1841 Census. Alfred Square, Deal.

Elizabeth May        76      Pauper        Yes  (born in Kent)
John May                 40      Mariner      Yes
Rebecca May             25                           Yes
Elizabeth May         5                           Yes
Thomas May             30      Mariner      Yes
Harriet May              30                           Yes
Thomas May             8                             Yes
Jane May                   5                             Yes
Lydia May                 3                             Yes
Louisa May               1                             Yes

The baptismal register shows that Sarah May’s father was probably John May of Deal. The 1841 census does not give relationships, but we can assume that the older Elizabeth May was the younger one’s great-grandmother. Rebecca was probably her aunt and Thomas her uncle. The fact that 5-year-old Elizabeth’s name is given before Thomas’s and the rest of the children, suggests that Thomas and Harriet were not her parents.

Elizabeth’s age is one year out. She was 6. But a grandfather or great-grandmother might have been vague about this, when her mother was not there to check.

In 1842, Elizabeth’s mother married the army tailor Edward Lawrence Sacket, but since this is seven years after Elizabeth’s birth it is unlikely that he is her father.

Early in 1843, Elizabeth’s mother gave birth to a half-brother.

About the same time, Edward Sackett deserted from the army, having a medical condition that made him unfit for active service.  He rejoined the following year and was imprisoned for nearly 4 months. He was eventually discharged from Dublin in 1845, but did not return to Kent until shortly before his death in 1857.

Elizabeth would have seen very little of her stepfather, but she used the name Sackett for one of her children.

Elizabeth became a dressmaker. We find her again in the 1851census. She is now living with her mother and half-brother.

1851 Census. 19 Dolphin Street, Deal
Sarah Sackett     Head      Mar    38                               Deal
Elizabeth May     Daur       Un     17      Dressmaker    Ramsgate
Edward Sackett      Son                     8       Scholar            Ramsgate

Dolphin Street runs from the northern end of Middle Street to the beach.

 

Thomas and Elizabeth were married in Deal on 19 Oct 1857, only a year or so after Thomas’s return from the Crimea.

 The couple had nine children baptised at St Andrew’s, Deal.

 1 Dec 1858 Mary Ann Norris d/o Thomas William & Elizabeth Ann.  Peter St; Mariner
 1 Feb 1861  Sarah Sackett                                                               Bridge Row; Mariner

It is interesting that Elizabeth chose to give her daughter her mother’s married name, even though she was not herself a Sackett.

The 1861 census shows this small family.

1861 Census. Deal. 2 Bridge Row.

Thomas William Cory    Head      Mar      28     Boatman       Deal
Elizabeth Ann        Do      Wife        Mar      26                           Ramsgate
Mary Ann                   Do       Dau                        2                            Deal
Sarah                           Do      Dau                      8 Mo                        Do

Then a son was born.

 3 Dec 1862  Thomas Edward                                                           Lower St; Mariner

Thomas junior died soon after. His death was registered in the first quarter of 1863.

Four more sons followed before the next census. The family were moving house every few years.

 31 Jan 1864   Richard William                                     Lower St          Mariner
 8 Feb 1867       Edward John                                          62 Lower St         Mariner
15 Jan 1869     William Henry Worthington                 7 Bulwark Row    Boatman
5 Mar 1871       Morris Henry                                         7 Bulwark Row    Boatman

Bulwark Row was one street inland from the beach.

1871 Census. Deal. 7 Bulwark Row.
Thomas W Cory         Head      Mar      38     Mariner         Deal
Elizabeth A  Do           Wife      Mar      36                             Ramsgate
Mary A          Do              Daur                  12                              Deal
Sarah             Do              Daur                  10      Scholar           Do
Richard      Do              Son                    7          Do                  Do
Edward         Do               Son                    4          Do                 Do
William         Do               Son                    2                                Do
Morris          Do               Son                    1 Mo                          Do

Two more children were born, including a second Thomas.

 10 Sep 1873 Harriet Annie (born 21 Aug 1873)                         7 Bulwark Row; Boatman
 17 Aug 1876 Thomas Edwin                                                       78 Lower St; Boatman

This Thomas too died in the first quarter of the following year.

Thomas senior was famous for his work as a boatman in the Downs, the stretch of water where ships turned the corner from the English Channel towards the port of London.

 From E.C. Pain. The Last of Our Luggers and the Men Who Sailed Them. T.F. Pain & Sons. Deal & Sandwich. 1929.

 “The old legitimate occupation of the Deal boatmen (apart from smuggling),” wrote the talented author of ‘Sketches of Deal, Walmer and Sandwich,’ was designated ‘hovelling’. The calling involved taking provisions and supplies to vessels in the Downs, saving lives, and performing salvage operations to ships on the Goodwin Sands, work now largely done by the lifeboats and steam-tugs. They also supplied anchors and cables to ships whose ‘ground tackling’ had been lost by being obliged to slip their cables through stress of weather, or whose cables had parted – an occurrence more common before hemp cables were replaced by chains. Another important work performed by the luggers was ‘sweeping’ for and fishing up lost anchors and cables.”
   Deal was once celebrated for its hemp cable factories, but this was not during the period under review [1858-1909]. It was not until hovelling became practically a thing of the past that the Deal lugger disappeared….
   It is also recorded that during January of that year [1866] “upwards of 500 ships are riding at anchor in the Downs, presenting one of the grandest sights witnessed here for many months.”…
   “During the last three years,” stated one nautical witness in 1869, “upwards of 600 anchors and chains have been recovered from the Downs, and were offered for sale by auction at the Lord Warden’s Depôt.”…
   The usual charge for carrying out an anchor in normal weather was £1 per cwt. (the value of the anchor), and from 10s to 15s per cwt for a cable….
   “Another object of interest,” stated the ‘Bath Chronicle’ in 1876, “is the field behind the Castle, where the ships’ anchors and chains, which have been raised from the Downs, have been stored. There they lie, of all sizes, and in all states of preservation, some almost new, others covered in barnacles, their massive iron shanks half-eaten through with decay, testifying to the number of years they have remained at the bottom, but yet have not sunk beneath the sand a bit further than the day they were cut adrift. The raising of these anchors forms one of the means of subsistence to the boatmen of Deal. It is during a gale from the S.W. or N.W. when vessels by the hundreds are lying in the Downs, that to avoid fouling each other, or dragging their anchors, many of them were forced to slip their cables and hoist sail. When the sea subsides, the luggers go out, two of them sailing together a parallel course, the length of a warp apart, one end of which each boat holds, while the middle part sweeps the ground till it catches in the flukes of some abandoned anchor.”…

The prizes for salvaging were rich – awards of £130 and £212 were typical of those made, which in the 1850s and 1860s were enormous sums.

In those days all Deal and Walmer beach was full of those wonderful sea boats hauled up on the shingle, while their mizzen booms almost ran into the houses on the opposite side of the roadway. The Deal luggers are about 40 ft long and 13 ft beam, more or less. The small luggers are called ‘cats’. There is a forecastle or ‘forepeak’ in the luggers where you can comfortably sleep [weather and seasickness permitting]…. There is a moveable ‘caboose’ in the ‘cats’ right amidships, in which three or four men packed close side by side can lie. These large boats are lugger-rigged, carrying the foremast well forward, and sometimes, but very rarely,…. a mainmast also, with a maintopsail as well, of course, as the mizzen behind. The mainmast is now hardly ever used, being inconvenient for getting alongside shipping….
   It is a fine sight to see one of them crowded with men and close reefed, cruising in the Downs, ‘hovelling’, or ‘on the look-out’ for a job in the gale. While ships are parting from their anchors and flying signals of distress the luggers supplying their wants or putting pilots on board wheel and sweep round them like sea birds on the wing…
   A literary visitor…in a gale… makes his way into Beach Street through a narrow winding thoroughfare, a view of the dark green foaming ocean bursting suddenly on his sight. A crowd of vessels lay in the Downs within a mile of land, tumbling heavily upon the billows and plunging nearly bows under as the tug at their cables brings them up in their caper-cutting. The surf is boiling all along the beach with a ceaseless roar – deep and resonant as thunder. Seagulls are flying close inshore, uttering strange, harsh cries as they dive into the seething waters. Here and there groups of longshoremen, with large scarves twisted round their necks and stout pilot coats buttoned closely over their jerseys, are sheltering under the lee of little tarred boat-houses, while half a dozen boatmen, all dressed in oilskins and sou’westers, are busy a few yards away preparing to launch a large lugger, and a few others are busy in laying a row of long greased ‘planks’ like small railway sleepers from her bows to the water’s edge, to assist her passage over the pebbly incline. The crew clamber over her bright varnished side, the signal is given, a shout raised, the chains which hold her let go, and first slowly, but gathering way as the slope becomes steeper, she speeds at last with the velocity of an express train plump into the breakers. A shower of spray bursts in a white cloud over her bows and she rears upon the foamy crest of the incoming surge until she seems ready to stand on end; but while you watch spellbound, expecting to see the billows beat her back again, and perhaps fling her wrecked and broken upon the beach, the impetus given in running off the beach has carried her well out, and the nimble crew have already hoisted the reefed lugsail; and as they haul off the sheet, you stand watching and admiring the seamanship of the fellows who are handling her as she goes bounding over the high seas, the spray casting ceaseless showers over her as she plunges on her errand. (Thomas’s granddaughter,
Edith Cory, described how she helped launch the lifeboat in a similar way, the women and girls picking up the rollers as the stern cleared them, and running round to place them under the bows, while the men heaved.)…

[The ‘Bath Chronicle’ reports] None enjoy being thoroughly idle more than those sailors, who know what hard work is, such as many of us would shudder to undertake. Pleasant moments have I spent with them in their reading-rooms, learning from them the ins and outs of their life, the tone of their conversation being unrestrained and jovial, yet never coarse; their good manners apparent by the way they admitted a stranger among them, being anxious to entertain him with their charts, their books or their papers, with a degree of unreserve yet respect that is seldom met with….

In 1833, the directory The Watering Places of Britain reported that there were 500 Deal boatmen. “all, however, are not of the elite, one-third of them only being what are locally termed ‘rough-weather seamen’, or ‘dreadnoughts’.” These were men like Thomas Cory, who would set out in any weather to save people and ships in danger.

His lugger was England’s Glory.
Salvage work could be a profitable business.

England’s Glory A South-end Lugger. For services rendered to the ship “Iron Crown” on 7th. February 1866, ashore on the Goodwin Sands, and aiding in saving the ship, cargo and passengers, an award of about £7000 was given, which was shared amongst around sixty-two local boatmen. In November 1858 her crew were awarded £130 for supplying an anchor and chain to the brig “Margaret”. In January 1866 for services given to the schooner “Hamburg” £106. On 28th. February 1868 for assistance given to the brig “Rhoboth” £40 was awarded. In February 1861 she was awarded £450, for supplying an anchor and chain and pulling free from the shore, the ship” Canadian” at that time laden with coffee. Again in March 1880 an award of £420 was given for clearing the barque “Meridian” from the main

But times were often hard for the Deal Boatmen. One of Thomas’s elder brothers, Morris Clayson Cory, emigrated to New Zealand in 1858. Two years later he drowned, when a party of Deal boatmen tried to rescue the crew of a schooner in a gale.

1881 CENSUS. 78 High St, Deal
Thos. CORY    Head    M         48        M         Mariner                        Deal
Eliz. CORY      Wife     M         45        F           Mariner Wife               Ramsgate
Mary A. CORY  Daur    U          22        F                                                 Deal
Rich. CORY     Son      U         17         M         Bricklayers Labr          Deal
Edwd. CORY      Son                  14        M         Scholars                         Deal
Wm. CORY         Son                  12        M         Scholars                         Deal
Morris CORY     Son                  10        M         Scholars                         Deal
Harriet CORY    Daur                7          F          Scholars                          Deal

Sarah has left home and is a servant to Sarah C. Mason, a widow Annuitant of 76, at 48 West St, Deal.

In 1881Thomas William Cory was awarded £2.2s.6d by the Shipwrecked Mariners Association for the loss of the ‘Ellen’.

The Deal Maritime Museum once had a massive photograph of Thomas William Cory with his family in its entrance hall.

Jean Nightingale, daughter of Richard Cory, identifies them, not entirely accurately, as:
Top Row (right to left).  “The right hand figure is Grandfather who was born in 1864 Richard William who married Jane Bushell Baker and was a bricklayer.

Edward (Ted) married Aunt Annie who lived next door in Middle Deal Road and he was a carpenter.
Aunt Sally married a publican and had the Deal Hoy in Duke Street.
William (Bill) [Actually this is Morris, a soldier who married Elizabeth Harris.]
Second Row.  Aunt Polly [Mary] and she married a boatman. Great Grandfather Thomas William married Elizabeth Ann née May.

Minnie [Harriet Annie] married a Royal Marine and as they had no children of their own, Ethel [Richard’s daughter] had a son before she died [of TB], who was illegitimate, so Minnie took the child over.
Bottom Row.  Morris married Maud and lived in Princess Street and he was a boatman. was a boatman. [This is actually William Henry, a boatman, who married Maud Betts.]

Sarah Sackett Cory’s marriage is recorded,

18 Aug 1888 St Leonard, Deal, marr. by banns George Thomas NORRIS   b 26 Whitesmith  High St Deal   s/o Alfred Hadley NORRIS – Whitesmith
Sarah Sackett CORY     s 27  High St Deal  d/o Thomas William CORY – Waterman
Wtn. Thomas CORY, Edward John CORY, Harriet Annie CORY, Emily Sarah NORRIS

They had the following children:

26 Mar 1891  George Alfred   2 Sandown Terrace – Whitesmith
19 Mar 1892  Herbert Edward   as above
21 Nov 1894 Arthur Henry Murray  born 21 Oct 1894   “Deal Hoy” 16 Duke St – Publican
21 Aug 1896 William Worthington Hadley James  as above – Licensed Victualler
10 Oct 1900 Sidney Charles   3 Waverley Terrace, Cannon St: Whitesmith

It seems that Sarah and George took over the Deal Hoy pub from her uncle John Cory, who was the licensee in 1881.

16 Duke St. (Deal Hoy), Deal
John L. CORY    Head           M 57  M  Deal   Licensed Victualler
Elizabeth CORY Wife            M 56  F   Deal
Alice DIXON      Grand Daur    12  F   Deal   Scholar

The Universal British Directory (1791) says of Deal: ‘A hoy which carries goods to London sails one week and returns the next.’ A ‘hoy’ was a coastal trading vessel used during the 17th and 18th centuries.

On 4 Nov 1890 their son Morris married Elizabeth Harris at St Andrew’s Deal. The groom’s name was originally entered as ‘Morris’, a common name in this family, but this was crossed out and replaced with ‘Maurice’. The latter is how he signs the register. He was a soldier. Probably the recruiting officer wrote down his name with the more usual spelling, and Morris accepted it thereafter. In the same way my father Edmer Sampson became Edmar when he joined the Royal Marines and spelt it that way for the rest of his life.

By the 1891 census, only one of Thomas and Elizabeth’s adult children was left at home. They were living in a 4-roomed house.

1891 Census. Deal. 78 High St.
Thomas W Cory      Head      M     58      Sea Mariner       Deal
Elizabeth A    do      Wife       M      55                                   Ramsgate
William H W       do       Son        S      22      General laboror  Deal

Bill Cory, grandson of Thomas William’s son, William Henry Worthington Cory, says:
“Grandfather has been described in various censuses, birth certificates etc., as a labourer, or a tinman’s solderer. Officialdom at that time didn’t recognise the boatman on Deal beach as a distinct occupation. He was always a mariner and did a little fishing, a little salvaging of the wrecks on the Goodwins, a little boat building and a little smuggling. If times were hard he would go to the fish canning factory and do a little soldering of the tins – but they had to be very hard. But he was the ‘ace’ builder of clinker built boats and even as an old man showed the young-uns how to do the sealing with tar between the planks. The “Princess Elizabeth” and the “Carefree” were the last built in 1947 at Deal, and the builders asked Granddad to show them how.”

ENGLAND’S GLORY

 England’s Glory was a South-end lugger, and is described in “The Longshoreman” as “the old lugger – by which familiar description we were in the habit of calling our favourite boat upon the beach; a stout, staunch sea-tub.” It was England’s Glory that launched at the same time as the Reform on the terrible night when the latter was driven on to the Pier and lost with eight hands.

In conjunction with the Sandown lifeboat, England’s Glory was the subject of one of the most remarkable salvage claims recorded in local history. The British ship Iron Cross, from Shanghai to London, laden with tin and a valuable general cargo, got ashore on a dangerous part of the Goodwin Sands on the 7th February, 1866. A heavy sea was running at the time, and the stranded vessel would doubtless have become a total wreck but for the timely assistance of the lugger England’s Glory and the Sandown lifeboat. As soon as the lugger left the beach an exciting scene ensued. The Sandown and Walmer lifeboats were immediately launched. The latter arrived at the wreck first, but missed a rope thrown out from the ship and drifted rapidly to leeward. In the meantime England’s Glory and the Sandown lifeboat had got possession. In rowing back to the ship the Walmer lifeboat was several times struck by enormous seas; four of her oars were broken, and the iron rowlocks on which they rested were bent nearly double. On two or three occasions the boat narrowly escaped being turned over. Eventually, with the assistance of two steam tugs, the Iron Crown was floated and taken to London. The salvage claim was not settled till the following June. A valuable ship, her crew, passengers and cargo, had been saved from destruction, and in consideration of the exceptional services rendered, and of the conditions prevailing at the time, an award of £12,000 was made, about £7,000 of which amount was divided amongst local boatmen, some sixty-two in number…

UNPREMEDITATED OCEAN REGATTAS

Depicting in “The Longshoreman” “one of those unpremeditated ocean regattas rendered deeply exciting by the significance of the stake at issue,” the master of England’s Glory pays a well-merited tribute to the Early Morn. “I had plenty of faith,” he says, “in the sailing powers of our boat to out-distance all her rivals but one, and that was the lugger named the Early Morn, reputed to be one of the swiftest sailers hailing from Deal.”…
   “Of the half dozen boats which got away from the beach almost as soon as England’s Glory, two were not long in giving up the race; the other two held on for a while, then one after the other dipped their lugs and hove about for the land. Now it was come to a match between the Early Morn and ourselves. The two remaining luggers were overtaken by one of those black frosty squalls which are characteristic of the easterly winds in these parts. When the squall had passed the Early Morn was rising and falling upon the seas under her mizzen only, with a mere stump of naked foremast sticking up forward and her big lug trailing in the water alongside. Thus England’s Glory with Old Corry at the tiller, out-distances all the rest and is the only lugger of the six left in the running.”…
   The author of “The Longshoreman” (Herbert Russell) shows an intimate knowledge of the sailing qualities of the Deal luggers. In choosing the Early Morn and England’s Glory as rivals in a race to the Goodwins on active service, he selected the two swiftest luggers on the beach in those days. If the former did not take the Borough Members’ prize – usually £10 – in Deal Regatta, it might almost be taken for granted that first honours would fall to the latter.
   England’s Glory, usually manned by an exceptionally smart crew, was invariably foremost in salvage operations…
   England’s Glory bore a name that was an inspiration to any crew, and all that it implied was never more nobly vindicated than on the memorable night of November 30th, 1867, when above the tumult of the tempest might have been heard the ringing cheers of an excited crowd of sight-seers as “the old lugger” rose to the heaving breakers after the Albion had perished in a gallant attempt to launch with an anchor and chain…

It will thus be seen that “the old lugger” held as fine a record as any boat on the beach, and on two occasions at least she braved and survived overwhelming conditions to which two of her equally stout contemporaries succumbed… The disasters to the Reform and the Albion illustrate as nothing else could the enormous risks which the Deal boatmen never hesitated to take when any vessel in distress was in need of their services…
   The older type of craft represented by the Early Morn and England’s Glory were unsurpassed, in point of sailing qualities, by boats of more recent design. This was to some extent accounted for by the fact that the newer boats were built with a view to fishing as well as hovelling, to say nothing of the advantages of speed to the earlier craft, when it came to smuggling.
   Contemporary writers attributed the decline of the Deal lugger to the development of steam as a propelling agency and the advent of steam-tugs in the Downs… Another contributing cause of the steadily diminishing number of Deal luggers was the relative decrease in the recurrence of wrecks on the Goodwin Sands and the resultant effect on hovelling…
   The dwindling of the larger type of boat on this part of the beach made the Beach House improvement scheme possible in 1892… Projects… absorbed their capstan grounds and boat-houses. (Thomas’s granddaughter, Edith Cory, began work at the Beach House Hotel as a chambermaid.)
   Several were purchased by pleasure boat proprietors, converted into sailing yachts with swallow-tailed sterns, and transferred to more prosperous south coast towns, where they became the delight of casual trippers…

There is the burial of a probable grandson, named after Thomas William:

8 Jul 1898 Thomas William George CORY  age 18mths of Deal.

Elizabeth Ann Cory died in 1894, at the age of 59.

Thomas cannot be found in the 1901 census. His son Richard and his family are also missing. It may be that Thomas had moved in with them, or that one or more enumerator’s books is missing.

In the 1911 census, he was living alone in the almshouses in Beach Street. He was receiving a pension for his services in the Navy.

1911 Census. 3 Alms Houses, Beach St, Deal, Kent

Cory, Thomas William            Head         Widower  78               Pensioner Navy      Deal, Kent

The Mary Hougham Almshouses are on the junction of Beach Street and Griffin Street. They were founded for retired boatmen.

3 Almshouses

Thomas died on Tuesday, 3 March 1914.

Deal, Walmer & Sandwich Mercury. 7th March 1914.

DEATH OF A DEAL CRIMEAN VETERAN

The passing away this week of Mr Thomas William Cory removes from our midst another Crimean veteran and a typical Deal boatman. Cory who would have celebrated his 82nd birthday in May next, had for upwards of 17 years been an inmate of the Mary Hougham almshouses at North Deal. On February 2nd last, deceased was proceeding upstairs to bed carrying with him a pail and a candle. By some means or other he appears to have stumbled at the top step, and falling backwards fell headlong to the bottom, receiving very severe injuries. Being a Crimean veteran and a naval pensioner, he was admitted to the Royal Marine Infirmary at Walmer, where he eventually succumbed to his injuries at three o’clock on Tuesday afternoon last. Cory first saw service on H.M.S, Orion, but during the Crimean War he was attached to H.M.S. Trafalgar, whilst his distinctions comprised the Crimean, Baltic and Turkish medals, with clasps. The funeral takes place at the Cemetery today (Saturday) at three o’clock, with naval honours.

  The East Kent Mercury records that he was buried with full military honours in acknowledgement of his service in the Crimean War.

FUNERAL OF MR THOMAS CORY.  – The funeral of Mr Thomas Cory – the Crimean veteran and naval pensioner, whose death was announced in our last week’s issue – took place in Deal cemetery on Saturday afternoon. The deceased mariner was accorded a naval funeral, the remains being carried to their last resting-place on a gun carriage, drawn by a party of Marines, some 25 in number. Among the mourners was Mr William Hookham (formerly Master of the Dover Trinity Pilot Cutter), an old shipmate of the deceased’s, while the Rev P Lawson Neagus (Downs Chaplain, Missions to Seamen), officiated at the graveside. As the Marine bugler sounded “The Last Post”, a touching incident occurred outside the cemetery gates. At the time a troop of Baden Powell Girl Guides in uniform, under the command of Lieut. Miss Ena Russell, were returning from a scouting expedition, when, hearing the bugle, and instinctively guessing its meaning, Miss Russell immediately brought her little company to a halt, and at the word of command, the Girl Guides formed up outside the cemetery, stood at “attention”, and remained at the “salute” until the last sad note had died away.

His grandson William Thomas Cory, son of William Henry Worthington Cory, applied to join the army in the same year.

Sgt William Thomas Cory

William Thomas Cory of Deal, Kent, was apprenticed as a potter on leaving school but when the First World War  started, he went to enlist.  He walked from Deal to Belvedere to the recruiting office. Although only 14 and big for his age, they guessed he was underage and rejected him. Each year he tried again until aged 17,  they let him into the Royal Sussex Regiment. A fit young man, he became a Sergeant 1st Class and a PT Instructor.
He was sent to France after basic training and his regiment reached the front-line after a 10 day train ride in goods trucks on the 1st November 1918.  Eleven days later the Armistice was declared. William went into the Rhineland as part of the Army of occupation and returned home in 1920. [5]

 

[1] Canterbury Cathedral Archives. Findmypast.
[2] Merchant Navy Seamen 1835-1941. Findmypast.
[3] Royal Museums Greenwich. Log of HMS ‘Trafalgar’ 1851-55. www.rmg.co.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.22274
[4] Kent Family History Society transcripts
[5] www.royalsussex.org.uk

 

 

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