Thomas Smith.

Thomas Smith.

Thomas Smith (1825-1904) was the son of Alexander Smith and his wife Jane. They lived in Nolton in West Wales. Alexander was a collier.

 If you visit Nolton  beach today you wouldn't believe  the fact that this little cove was once a port exporting coal from the nearby coal  pits dating from 1439 around Nolton and Newgale. Quite large sailing vessels beached here to load cargoes of coal  for distribution around St Brides Bay and even further afield. The cargoes were brought down to the shore by carts and wagons drawn by teams of horses and, during the late 19th and early 20th century, by traction engines towing pairs of eight-ton trailers the six miles from Haverfordwest Quay for export by sea.

The coal from Haverfordwest was the local anthracite shipped up by lighters from Hook colliery. Trefrane Cliff colliery, half a mile north near Newgale, was the biggest pit in the vicinity, and its ruined buildings and tall brick stack are prominent features beside the National Park Coastal Footpath to this day. This mine was worked from 1850 to 1905 with a 300-foot deep shaft slanting under the sea, and a steep tramway up which the coal was winched to the top of the cliff near the coast road.

Mining ended in the area before World War One because of the hazards of working under the sea, where the weight of water at high tide often broke through into the sloping shafts. It is amazing to think that there is a reserve estimated at 230 million tons of coal still unworked under St Brides Bay.

In 1841, Thomas was fifteen years old, living with his mother, father and six other brothers and sisters.

He married Mary Davies on the twenty eighth of June, 1845.

By 1851, with his first wife Mary he now had two children, John and Elizabeth. In the census, he is listed as an agricultural labourer. He was now 25 years old.

Mary died on the fifteenth of December, 1863. She was 35. She had six children. Sarah, Elizabeth, Ann, Edwin, Alexander and William. William was my great grandfather; father of my grandmother Ann Davies nee Smith.

Mary died in child birth.

Mary Smith

beloved wife of Thomas Smith of Penllwyn in the parish of  Hawhaden 

who died on 15th of December 1863 aged 35 years old.

On the twentieth of September 1864, Thomas was involved in a road accident. The news report describes him as a game-keeper. Strangely, towards the end of my mother's life I became aware of the fact that she appeared to know a lot about game keepers. Strange as she was brought up in the Rhondda Valley where there was no game or game keepers.

He married Jane Roberts on August 21st 1866. The newspaper reports him as being a gamekeeper.

The 1871 census shows Thomas as being a farmer of 30 acres of land. He is now 44 years old. His son Edwin appears to be still living with him. He has had three children with his second wife Jane. Interestingly, they call one of their daughters Mary. By now, my great grandfather William was 15. He had left home to become a servant.

In 1881, Thomas is 56. With his second wife Jane (age 45) they have six children from Thomas' second marriage. The youngest, Esther is just a few months old.He is listed as a farmer.

By 1891, Thomas and Jane are living at a place called Rainbolts Hill. There is a farmhouse on the site at present. I wonder whether this was Thomas and Jane's home.

1911 census shows them still at Rainbolts Hill.

Thomas died in 1904. His grave lies near to the grave of his first wife, Mary. He was 79 years old.

He had ten children. John, Elizabeth, Edwin, William, Mary, another John, Martha, Thomas, Jane, Hester.

Jane continued to farm at Rainbolts Hill. The 1911 census shows her listed as a farmer. She is living with two of her daughters, Jane and Hester and a servant.

I've found this newspaper clipping about Jane and a run in with the law. Another family road incident. 

August 24th 1910.

At the time, she would have been 73 years old.

 Unlike many of my family from the time, she appears to have been able to read and write. Here is her signature on the 1911 census.

Jane died in March 1922. She was 85.

I've found one newspaper item relating to Hester Smith. If this is our Hester Smith then it appears that she ran away with the gypsies. She was my second great aunt.

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