Thomas Wetherill (1681?-1757) and Mary Corpe (1685?-1721).
My 8th great-grandparents.
Thomas’s birth year and location is not certain but based on the year of his marriage he was likely born in the early 1680s. It’s therefore possible that he was the Thomas Wetherill born on 25 July 1681 to father John Wetherill of Yarmouth and named at a meeting of the Society of Friends or Quakers, meaning that the family were nonconformists.
Norfolk had been a stronghold of nonconformist religions for more than a century by this point, with puritanism particularly notable in the county. On top of that the Civil War of the 1640s, which culminated in the execution of the king, had inflamed religious tensions further across the whole country. Persecution of the puritans increased after the republican era of the 1650s ended with the return of the monarchy under Charles II, who was sympathetic to Catholicism. The Quakers had only formed in the mid-17th century, out of various sects of puritan radicals who sought a simpler form of worship, and meetings weren’t held in Yarmouth until the 1670s so the Wetherills were early followers. It wasn’t until 1694 that the Quakers were able to purchase a property in the town that would become their meeting house. Persecution and legal restrictions were a constant presence and it’s no surprise that some folk chose to follow the state religion even if in name only. Whether Thomas Wetherill retained his father’s Quaker beliefs is not known but he married in the state Church of England while his older children were baptised in the CofE church. Latterly, however, the nonconformism returned and his younger children were baptised at the presbyterian Gaol Street Congregational Church in Yarmouth.
Thomas wed Mary Corpe on 14 September 1707 at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth and for both it was their first marriage. I’ve not found a baptism matching the spelling of her name but a Mary Curbe was baptised in Yarmouth on 27 August 1686 to parents Israel and Anne. The lack of her parents’ names among her offspring is, however, a sign that she may not be the right woman. Several children were baptised to Charles and Winifred Corpe in Great Yarmouth in the 1670s but I’ve yet to find a daughter Mary in the records.
Thomas and Mary had five known children and he worked as a schoolteacher, a career inherited by his son William. Thomas was described as a mathematician in the baptism records of his children Samuel and Mary while, on the death of his son William in 1789, the Gentleman’s Magazine Volume 59, Part 2 described the latter as an “eminent teacher of the mathematics” and claimed that “the joint term of his and his father [Thomas] keeping school in that town is 121 years”.
Mary died relatively young in 1720 and was buried at St Nicholas’s on 4 February. Thomas died in July 1757 and was buried in Great Yarmouth on the 24th of the month. He didn’t leave a will and his son William was appointed administrator of his estate. The documents relating to this confirm that Thomas died a widower.
It’s worth noting that the spelling of surnames gets even less consistent at this point in history so Wetherill is often spelled Withrell, Witherill and so on.
Thomas and Mary’s children:
- John Wetherill (1710-????), my 7th great-grand uncle. He was baptised on 22 September 1710 at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth. He may be one of the Wetherills who died in Great Yarmouth in 1724 and 1727 or he may have left the town as there is evidence of men by this name elsewhere in Norfolk. Alternatively, it’s possible that he died and the next son in line inherited his father’s estate.
- William Wetherill (1711-1789), my 7th great-grand uncle. William was a school teacher and a man of property.
- Thomas Wetherill (1712-????), my 7th great-grandfather. He married into the well-off Sley family of Great Yarmouth.
- Elizabeth Wetherill (1713-1799?), my 7th great-grand aunt. Elizabeth married a successful salesman and took over his business on his death.
- Samuel Wetherill (1715-1715), my 7th great-grand uncle. Samuel was born on 27 April 1715 and baptised on 5 May at the Gaol Street Congregational Church in Great Yarmouth. I suspect he was the child buried in the town on 10 September even though the records suggest his mother was named Sarah.
- Mary Wetherill (1717-1718), my 7th great-grand aunt. Mary was baptised on 29 April 1717 at the Gaol Street Congregational Church in Great Yarmouth and was buried in the town on 2 May 1718.
Sources: BMDs, census and other info at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk. British Newspaper Archive – titles in text. Records at Norfolk Family History Society. Will and other records from Norfolk County Archives – Y/D 51/494-499 (Master’s Row). ANW administration bond, 1757, no. 60. ANW, will register, 1788-1789, (1789) fo. 103, no. 85. Y/C 19/36 assembly file 1785-90. Yarmouth Quaker History. Gentleman’s Magazine Volume 59, Part 2.