John PICK and Ann Lockton THACKER
My own ancestor was Thomas and Mary's sixth child, John, baptised in 1830. John was married on 16th May 1854 to Ann Lockton THACKER, the eldest of four sisters, from Pointon in Sempringham parish where the wedding was held. Ann worked as a house servant for widow Mary Lunn in Birthorpe. Mary Lunn was probably John's great aunt and also a distant relative of Ann's so it may have been here that John and Ann met. Their first child, Eliza, was born shortly after they married so it is quite likely that this was a 'shotgun' marriage. Ann's father James, a labourer, must have been pleased that he had managed to marry off his eldest daughter at the age of twenty. The three younger sisters did not fair so well - all three were in Bourne Workhouse by the time they were in their twenties and all had illegitimate children. Only Ann and her brother John Thacker, another agricultural labourer, married and stayed out of the workhouse.
But there was worse to follow for the Thackers. Ten years after John Pick and Ann's marriage, Ann's father committed suicide by hanging himself from the bed-post. The date of his death, 4th April, was shortly after the March Quarter Day (25th March) when rents would be due. The accounts of the Parish Overseers of the Poor record that James Thacker had defaulted on his rent several times over the preceding years. James, his wife, Mary, and his family of unmarried daughters (and a growing brood of illegitimate grandchildren) were living on hand-outs from the Parish at the time of his death. No doubt it all got too much for the poor man.
All was not plain sailing for John and Ann PICK either. After Eliza, seven more children were born over the next twelve years. The family followed what agricultural work was available - first at Counthorpe or nearby Castle Bytham, then Dowsby Fen, close to the Thackers in Pointon - before returning to John's home village, Burton Coggles were he worked as a shepherd and farm labourer. In 1861, John and Ann lived next door but one to John's brother William and his family. By 1881 John had moved to Somerby, closer to Grantham and with him were youngest son Wortley and unmarried daughter Elizabeth (Eliza). The whereabouts of John's wife, Ann, is a sad tale to which we will return. John and Ann's children were:
- Eliza, born 1854 who became a domestic servant and housekeeper for her father;
- Mary born 1855;
- Edwin, born 1856, who became a carter at an iron foundry in Grantham and married Elizabeth Mary GEESON in 1888. They lived first at Great Gonerby and then at 72 Inner Street, Grantham after about 1891;
- George, my ancestor, born 28 August 1858 and who married Betsy WHITWORTH in 1885;
- Thomas, baptised in 1860, moved to Hungerton cum Wyville around 1881 and married Annie Boyall from Colsterworth in 1887. Their six children were all born in Wyville but the family moved to Walton Farm, Spittlegate, Grantham around 1901;
- Sarah, born in 1862 was a domestic servant in Corby in 1881 and married Alfred BONNER a railway signalman from Little Cawthorpe in 1884. They settled in Burton Coggles were they had at least two children;
- Emma Lockton baptised in 1865, did not marry and was a housemaid in Sapperton in 1881. But by 1901 she had been admitted to Kesteven County Asylum, in Spittlegate Within as a pauper patient;
- Wortley baptised in 1867 married in 1891 to Fanny MOULDS from North Witham. Fanny was a dressmaker and a servant at the Manvers Arms in Somerby where, by 1881 Wortley, his sister Eliza and father lived. After marrying Wortley became an iron ore quarryman in Stathern Leicestershire.
When Wortley, John and Ann's seventh child, was born in Burton Coggles, Ann was 33 and John 37. They lived in Sewards Row, just off The Street and next to The Hare and Hounds Inn (now the Chomeley Arms). Next door to John were John's brother Wortley and his wife Mary Jane and their family. On the other side of the Hare and Hounds lived another brother George Pick and his family. Brothers William and Thomas also lived in The Street. In 1871 there were no fewer than thirty-three Picks living in Burton Coggles - most, if not all, related!
Sue Gordon 3/8/07
Thomas Pick and Elizabeth Money
Thomas Pick and Mary Wortley
Ann Lockton Pick (nee Thacker) at Lincoln Asylum
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