Thomas (Tomey) Wallis 1723 - 1761
Thomas (Tomey) Wallis , Of Lincoln. Probably brought up by his uncle Dr. Thomas Wallis in Stamford. d.s.p. Venn: WALLIS, -- College: TRINITY HALL Entered: Born: Died: Apr. 13, 1761 Adm. Fell.-Com. at TRINITY HALL, July 4, 1741. Possibly Thomas, s. and h. of Newcomen (1714). If so, died Apr. 13, 1761, aged 37. M.I. in Lincoln Cathedral. (Lincs. Pedigrees, 1035.) From a history of Louth by J.E. Swaby, M.A. "... Another will gives us an interesting picture of how one of the great houses might have been furnished at this time. lt is that of Mrs. Anne Browne, who lived at 21 Westgate, which is now occupied by Mrs. Yates. That had been the home of her father, George Sanderson, thrice Warden of Louth, and it had been left to her on his death in 1689. By that time she was the wife of Martin Browne, High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1698. Her husband died in 17 16 aged fifty-three. She lived thirty years longer as a kind of Lady Bountiful. At any rate, when Samuel Buck dedicated to her the earliest known picture of Louth Church in 1725, he described her as " the eminently pious and worthy lady, Mrs. Anne Browne." An inscription shows that her daughter Anne died in 1738, aged twenty-five, and it appears that her son-in-law, Robert Cracroft of Hackthorn, and the three grandchildren, Grace, Anne and Mary, lived with Mrs. Browne during the latter part of her life. In April, 1745, she bought 45 Westgate from Thomas Wallis, and in her will of November she left it to the three Cracroft children. After her death almost exactly a year later number 21 passed to their father. An inventory of the contents of this house was made in 1747, and it almost recreates for us the scene. In the hall were two oak tables, six leather chairs, numerous pictures and prints, a long settle, a harpsichord, a clock and a picture of King William and Queen Mary, to act as a silent reminder that the householder is a loyal supporter of " the Glorious Revolution." As we are ushered into the drawing room we see the two tea-tables, the six silk-bottomed chairs and the walnut card tables at which Mrs. Browne received her guests.Then we are conducted in turn to the bedchamber and the Yellow Room, with its yellow mohair bed, Dutch table, and the Japanese cabinet left to Mrs. Browne in 1713 by her aunt, Mrs. Newcomen, and later found at Hackthorn. We see Mrs. Cracroft's chamber, Mr. Cracroft's room the " Misses Chamber " and the Little Chamber, and in the great parlour we inspect the eight family portraits. Nor are we allowed to forget the other rooms or the garrets where the servants sleep. There is a long list of the plate left to Mrs. Browne by her daughter, Mrs. Gace. The plate she herself managed to collect is heaped together in the nursery closet, and we notice that along with the silver and gilt tea spoons there is a silver spit box. In the drawers are various items of jewelry, such as three diamond rings, a silver tobacco box, Mrs. Browne's silver tooth and car pick, and nearly twelve hundred pounds worth of money which she felt was safer kept at home than in the bank." Miscellanea" in the 3rd series Vol vi No 9 1913 of the Proceedings at page 107-8, and was entitled "Notices of a house in St. Michael's Lane, Alnwick". The relevant part reads " On 28 June 1890, the late Mr. Robert Middlemas of Alnwick, solicitor, communicated to me some particulars obtained from muniments of title of a house in St Martin's Lane, Alnwick. The house, known as the Willows, was so named by the then proprietor from a walk called the Willow Walk which formerly went past the house - J.C. Hodgson. "This house formerly belonged to Dorothy Popham, of Hound Street in the County of Somerset, widow, relict and devisee in fee of the real estate named in the last Will & Testament of Frances Popham of Hound Street aforesaid. Mrs. Popham before her marriage was Dorothy Wallis, widow of Thomas Wallis of Lincoln's Inn Esqre., which said Thomas Wallis was the only son and heir of Catherine Wallis who was the only daughter of Henry Collingwood, late of Great Ryle in Northumberland, Esqre., and niece of George Collingwood, formerly called Governor Collingwood, formerly of Great Ryle aforesaid."" The remainder of the piece deals with the history of the house after its purchase on 30 Nov 1786, by an Alnwick merchant named Ralph Annett. The details have no further relevance to the Collingwood or Wallis families. The Proceedings item can be taken as virtually definitive confirmation of the linkage between Collingwoods of Great Ryle and Wallises of Lincolnshire. I say "virtually" since, although Hodgson accepted the solicitor's statement, and the NCH compilers used it as evidence when preparing the Great Ryle pedigree, and though the solicitor clearly must have written from professionally acquired knowledge of the facts, the events he describes nevertheless dated from nearly a century before. The report, though authoritative, must therefore have some slight tinge of the anecdotal. It reveals the marriage of Thomas s/o Newcomen Wallis to a Dorothy ? which we may be able to check out, as we may Dorothy's second marriage to Frances Popham. The text reads as though the house at Alnwick was part of Frances Popham's estate, but this is not certain - it could have been a Collingwood property which came to Thomas via his mother. Popham's will may be findable, probably a PCC one. There is a published index of these, a copy of which is in the Soc Gen Library, or the Guildhall Library if that is closer to you - and it won't cost you anything to go in there. Unfortunately, the report gives no date, but it must have been before 30 Nov 1786, when Annett bought it, and after 13 Apr 1761, [John Sanders] See Lincolnshire Notes and Queries, Volumes 17-18 Front Cover W. K. Morton., 1923 - Lincolnshire (England):
|
| Born: 1723 | Baptised: St. Mary Magdelene, Lincoln, Lincs., England 15th Sep 1723
| | Died: 13th Apr 1761 | Buried: Cathedral, Lincoln, Lincs., England 1761
| | Family: Wallis formerly of Nun Ormsby |
|