The ‘Mark’ of Thomas HUGHES
"In memory of WILLIAM JOHN/ son of THOMAS and ELEANOR/ HUGHES of this town who died/ Jan 29th 1853/ aged 7 weeks.
Wele plant ydynt etifeddiaeth/ yr Arglwydd, ei wobr ef yw/ ffrwyth y groth. [Behold, children are the inheritance/ of the Lord, his reward is/ the fruit of the womb.]
Also of MARY-ANN daughter of/ the above named who died Dec/ 8th 1854, aged 4 years./ Also of ARTHUR THOMAS son of/ the above named who died Feb/ 26th 1861 aged 2 years/ 6 months./ Also of CATHERINE MORGAN [Mother of Eleanor] who/ died July 6th1867 aged/ 75 years./ Also of EDWARD son of the/ above named who died Oct 16th/1870, aged 16 years"
Grave A1 – Churchyard
NO MATTER HOW OFTEN I see a family grave with a list of children buried in their infancy or early years; no matter how often I tell myself that infant and early childhood mortality was so prevalent in the 19th century, I still feel deeply saddened and take a moment to empathise with the grief of the parents.
Thomas and Eleanor HUGHES (neé MORGANS) buried their seven-week-old son, William John, in January 1853. His death certificate gave ‘Convulsions’ as the cause of death and that there had been ‘No Medical Attendant’. It’s likely an untreated infection caused his death.
Almost two years later, their almost four-year-old daughter, Mary Anne, died, again from ‘Convulsions’. And in 1861, little Arthur Thomas died from Pneumonia, one of the leading causes of death in the second half of the 19th century.
When their teenage son, Edward, died from heart disease in 1870, aged just 16, he was buried with them. Eleaner’s mother, Catherine MORGAN had also been laid to rest in this churchyard family grave a few years earlier.
Thomas and Eleanor had one remaining daughter, Mary Louisa, born in 1856.
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Thomas HUGHES was a tailor. He moved to Aberafan from Carmarthenshire some time before the first census in 1841. The census confirms his age as 25 (although the 1841 census rounded up or down people’s ages to the nearest ‘5’). He was living with the Jones family at West Gate Row, which was part of the High Street. Mr Jones was a tailor himself, and another young man lodging with the family was a tailor too.
Tailoring was an important trade in the 19th century. The 1851 census identified 152,672 tailors in Britian, more than the entire railway industry at the time, and that number increased throughout the century.
Thomas HUGHES married Eleanor MORGANS in the Spring of 1846. She must have also possessed a dexterity for needlework because, on the 1851 census, when the family were living at Butter Street, Aberafan, she lists her occupation as Dressmaker. And even though later censuses reduce her to ‘no occupation’ or ‘Tailor’s Wife’ it’s likely she was an active participant in the tailoring services Thomas offered. .
The 1875 OS map I have posted does not give the names of streets, so I’ve also posted one from 1914 for comparison. Butter Street was an earlier name for Ty Mawr Street, which you can see on the right-hand-side of the High Street. Other street names in this area – Cattle Street and Duck Street – add weight to the idea that an early market, 17th century or very early 18th century, once took place in this area.
By February 1861 the HUGHES family had moved to Picton Street. And by 1867 they’d moved again to Clarence Street. Both streets are clearly marked on the later OS map.
Eleanor died at Clarence Street on 7th July 1880. She was only 53 and it’s likely she was in significant pain in the days before her death from ‘Bowel Obstruction’ which has since been identified as a late stage of abdominal cancer.
But the family grave in the churchyard must have been deemed to be full as she was buried in the People’s Graveyard on 10th July.
Thomas and their daughter carried on living at Clarence Street. He was still busy as a tailor and Mary Louisa kept house for him. Then on 8th September 1885, Mary Louisa died from Acute Peritonitis; she was buried with her mother on 10th September.
Two years later, on 12th December 1887, Thomas died at 3 Clarence Street from Bright’s Disease, an historical classification for a number of kidney diseases.
Thomas had registered the deaths for each member of his family. He was unable to write so each death certificate stated, ‘The Mark of Thomas Hughes, Widower, or Father, of the deceased, present at the death’. But his illiteracy did not inhibit his ability to provide for his family; he worked as a tailor and 'Master Tailor' in the town for over 40 years.
It was a ‘Mary Evans’ who registered Thomas’ death. She also made ‘her mark’ confirming she was present at the time of his death.
Thomas was buried with his wife and daughter on 15th December 1887. The partial records available for the People’s Graveyard, recorded quite a number of years ago, confirmed their grave as being a few rows back from the entrance, on the right-hand-side. But it was only by identifying the adjacent graves that I could be sure I had found the right one as the top layer of stone had blistered away leaving a completely blank face.
Eleanor, Mary Louisa and Thomas – we remember you. Your story is a story of our town: migration, family life, loss and grief, and of your contribution to a busy little community that was changing and adapting to the relentless engine of the century.
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