The Royal Ancestry of Thomas Graves of Thurcaston - Generation II - Storer Graves

In the previous post we proved that Thomas Graves was the son of Storer and Mary Graves. In this post, we will take a look at Storer Graves' life, and in turn, prove his parentage.

Marriages

We first meet Storer in the baptismal records of his children through Mary, in Thurcaston, Leicestershire. The children are listed in the last post, and were all baptised between 1806 and 1820, in Thurcaston, Leicestershire. Therefore, we can expect to find a parish marriage record for Storer before 1806, which will tell us his wife's maiden name. We duly find the marriage of Storer Graves to Mary Hall on the 27th November 1803 in Thurcaston.^[1] This marriage record tells us that at his marriage in 1803, Storer was a widower, so he had been married before. And Storer also signed his name, demonstrating that he was literate.

Searching for any marriages of a Storer Graves prior to 1803, we find a Storer Graves being married to Jane Clarke, both of the "South End of Mountsorrel"^[2], which is the part of Mountsorrel which runs down Loughborough Road, and begins around where the modern baptist church in Mountsorrel is today. (Compare with the location of "South End" on the 1883 OS Map here). 

Storer and Jane's only child, Ann, was born in or around 1800, at Hathern, a parish 10 miles North of Mountsorrel, as mentioned in the previous post. However, on the baptism, Ann Graves' mother is listed as Ann, not Jane. Unfortunately, even official records are not invulnerable to human error, and there is good reason to conclude that the misnomer is a case of that. The main reason is that there simply are not any other Storer Graves in 18th and 19th Century England. The only exception is Storer Graves (born in 1833), who was Storer's namesake grandson, son of Benjamin Graves, and one or two other Storer Graves who were born later in the 19th Century, relatives of "our" Storer.^[a] There is no other child born to a Storer and Ann Graves (with surname variants) anywhere in England, neither to a Storer and Jane, which ties up with the fact that Storer's first wife died prior to 1803. The next Graves child born to a father Storer is Nathaniel in 1806, born to Storer Graves and Mary Hall.

We know that Jane Graves nee Clarke would have died sometime between the 14th September 1800 (birth of Ann Graves), and the 27th November 1803 (Storer's marriage to Mary Hall). This is a fairly short range, yet after a thorough search through the burial records for a "Jane Graves" (with variants), no burial record is returned. No burial record for Storer's first wife occurs even after 1803, which makes it most likely that Jane Graves nee Clarke just does not have a record of her burial.

However, we can still be certain that the "two" Storers from the marriages are the same man. The first line of evidence aforementioned - that there only is one Storer Graves in England at the time. The second is that on Storer's marriage in 1803, he is listed as a widower. The only marriage for a Storer Graves pre-1803 is Storer Graves to Jane Clarke. A third interesting line of evidence that the Storer Graves who married Jane Clarke, and the one who married Mary Hall are the same man is the near-identical signatures for Storer Graves on both marriage records. Storer's name is spelt varyingly throughout his lifetime, yet on documents where he actually signs the page, he always signs his name with the spelling "Storar". This spelling of his name in the signature is seen in both marriage records, and the signature itself is practically identical on both records. (Compare the 1799 signature with the 1803 signature)^[b]. The fourth line of evidence comes from Storer's Will, which was proved in 1843, the year of his death, in which he lists his four sons through Mary Hall, and crucially "my daughter Anne", his daughter through his first marriage. As a side point, his signature at the bottom of his Will is also identical to the one on both marriage records as well, which ties everything together.

Thus Storer Graves married twice, first to Jane Clarke in 1799, and secondly to Mary Hall in 1803. Both marriages are indisputibly the same man.

Career

On the baptisms of Storer and Mary Graves' children, Storer is listed as a cordwainer. Searching through the apprenticeship records, we find Storer's apprenticeship indenture in 1790. He was apprenticed as a cordwainer to Joshua Barsby in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire.^[3] Usually an apprentice began around age 14, and the average duration of an apprenticeship was 7 years, and this is the case for cordwaining. So Storer would've been born around or before 1776, and finished his apprenticeship around 1797, which ties up with his first marriage being shortly after, in 1799, Mountsorrel.

He continued this trade all throughout his children's births, all the way up to Jane, his last daughter, baptised in 1820 in Mountsorrel. We next find Storer Graves in 1830, in the Electoral Register for Leicester.^[4] He is to be found in the parish of Thurcaston, in the Hundred of West Goscote, with houses and land as freehold, and his occupation was still listed as a shoemaker. He is to be found again in 1832, at the same place and occupation in the Poll Book. This gives a bit more information and tells us his freehold was "near the Pinfold".^[5] The Pinfold was an area of land fenced off and designated for holding livestock that had strayed away from their owner. Some information and images of the Thurcaston Pinfold can be found here.

Both Storer Graves and his wife Mary Hall were alive for the 1841 census. They are to be found in "the parish of Thurcaston", and Storer's occupation is now given as a grazier (which will be discussed in more detail later). Storer and Mary were both listed as 60 years old in the census, giving a potential birthdate of c.1781.^[6] They were probably older, as the instructions for the enumerators of the 1841 census were to round down the ages of householders to the nearest five. This is consistent with our probable birth date of c.1776. The census also states that Storer was born in the county of Leicestershire. Unfortunately, the census is not any more specific on their place of residence, but the 1841 Electoral Register tells us that Storer was now living "On the Green" in Thurcaston.^[7]

Storer Graves died just under two years later, on the 6th April 1843, due to decay of nature. His age of death given was 66, giving a birthdate range of 1776-1777.^[8] This is again consistent and further bolsters our previous estimations of his birth being around 1776. His profession was given as "grazier and victualler". Benjamin Graves signed his death certificate.

We see that Storer changed his profession from being a cordwainer, or shoemaker, to a grazier (and victualler, according to his Will^[9] and death certificate). This change was made sometime between 1830 (the Electoral Roll where he is listed as a shoe maker) and 1841. The Newspapers surrounding his death give us some information about this. The Leicestershire Chronicle^[10] and Leicestershire Mercury^[11] both printed almost the same notice on the 8th April 1843 about Storer's death. They also give us the bit of information that Storer was the landlord of the King William IV pub! The Mercury, however, incorrectly states that Storer died "yesterday", which would've been Friday, 7th April, whereas the Chronicle correctly states that he died "on Thursday", and the 6th April 1843 was indeed a Thursday. Both also incorrectly state his residence as "Thurlaston", though we know it was Thurcaston. There also was never a King William IV pub in Thurlaston, though there certainly was one in Thurcaston. From this above, we can find Storer Graves in Kelly's directory for Leicestershire, page 554, where he is stated as the landlord of William IV in Thurcaston!^[12] In addition, on the 15th April 1843, the Leicestershire Mercury published an column called "Leicestershire Police Courts" under "Local News". In this column, it mentions temporary transfers of licenses of pubs. It says "The Hare and Hounds, Thurcaston, from Storer Greaves, to Benjm. Greaves, his son."^[13] This is just another little line of evidence that the Benjamin who signed Storer's death certificate is indeed his son, and that the Storer who was a victualler and grazier was the same Storer as was the cordwainer.

Birth and parentage

All the information thus far collected now allows us to find Storer's birth. We know he was probably born c.1776 in Leicestershire. The great rarity of the forename Storer also is a great aide! Searching for any births of "Storer Graves" (with variants for forename and surname) between 1760 and 1780, anywhere in England, returns just one result: "Storah Graves", baptised 30th July 1776, in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire, to John and Elizabeth Graves.^[14] Despite the wide search, the single result yielded is exactly what we had expected and postulated from the previous information. We knew Storer must have been born c.1776, probably in Mountsorrel, and the baptism proves this. This bapstismal record also confirms our hypotheses earlier as well; it shows he was 14 when he entered his apprenticeship, 64 years old at the time of the census (therefore being rounded down to 60) and 66 years old at the time of his death.

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We already have enough evidence to conclude that "our" Storer was the son of John and Elizabeth Graves, however, one last bit of evidence which ties everything up, is the Will of Thomas Graves of Thrussington, which was written in 1827 and proved in 1829.^[15] Thomas was Storer's paternal uncle, and we will examine this document in more detail in the next generation's post, Storer's father, John. However, extracting some of the key information from the Will shines a light on why and how Storer was able to change his profession, and even more conclusively proves his parentage. Within this 3 page Will, Thomas Graves "bequeath[s] unto my [his] Newphews, John Graves and Storer Graves, sons of my [his] late brother John Graves a ... sum of two hundred and twenty pounds apiece." Further, Thomas gave Storer another sum of £880 and a messuage of land situated in Thrussington. In addition to this, Thomas spells out many family relationships and gives a big picture of the family throughout his Will, which will be discussed in more depth over the next generation. However, the information relevant to Storer revealed through the Will is this: Storer has at least three siblings as mentioned in Thomas Graves' Will, 1) John, 2) Ann and Mary. Mary's baptism is found in Mountsorrel, 20th January 1779, to John and Elizabeth Graves.^[16] The Will helps explain how Storer had the money to be a freeholder, and also explains what facilitated his change of profession.

Conclusions and comments

The 1841 Census, Storer's death certificate and implied age from his apprenticeship indenture all consistently give his estimated date of birth as c.1776. The wide parameters around his baptism search, and rare name, give further confidence that the 1776 Mountsorrel baptism is correct. His identical signature across all the documents that he signed prove that it was the same man who married twice and bequeathed Real Estate to three of his sons in his 1843 Will. The Newspapers and Will of his uncle Thomas Graves give further evidence that the 1776 baptism is correct, and explain why Storer changed his profession so late in life. We have therefore proven that Storer Graves who married, firstly Jane Clarke and, secondly Mary Hall, and was a cordwainer, then grazier and victualler, and died in April 1843 was the son of John and Elizabeth Graves, in Mountsorrel.

Diagram of the lineage proven so far:

Generation II Family Tree

Sources and footnotes

[1] "England Marriages, 1538–1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N2XH-45Z : 13 March 2020), Storer Graves, 1803. Original image accessed at FindMyPast.

[2] "England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4W-G5P5 : Fri Mar 08 17:49:51 UTC 2024), Entry for Storar Greaves and Jane Clarke, 1799. Original image accessed at FindMyPast.

[3] The National Archives of the UK (TNA); Kew, Surrey, England; Collection: Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books: Series IR 1; Class: IR 1; Piece: 65, Storer Graves. Original image accessed at Ancestry.

[4] Storer Greaves, 1830, West Goscote, Leicestershire, Thurcaston, from: Ancestry.com. UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Accessable here.

[5] Storer Graves, 1832, Hundred: West Goscote, County: Leicestershire, Civil Parish: Thurcaston, from: Ancestry.com. UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Accessable here.

[6] Storer Graves, Class: HO107; Piece: 596; Book: 12; Civil Parish: Thurcaston; County: Leicestershire; Enumeration District: 10; Folio: 8; Page: 11; Line: 10; GSU roll: 438746. Accessable here.

[7] Storar Graves, 1841, Hundred: West Goscote, County: Leicestershire, Civil Parish: Thurcaston, from: Ancestry.com. UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Accessable here.

[8] England, death certificate (digital image) for Storer Graves, died 6 Apr 1843; registered June quarter 1843, Barrow upon Soar District, Leicestershire, England. Volume 15, Page 25.

[9] Will of Storer Graves of Thurcaston, Leicestershire, grazier and victuallier, 1843, proved 1843. Accessable at FindMyPast

[10] (1843) Died, Leicestershire Chronicle, April 8th, page 3.

[11] (1843) Deaths, Leicestershire Mercury, April 8th, page 3.

[12] PDF of Kelly's Directory accessable from University of Leicester special collections here.

[13] (1843) Local News, Leicester Police Courts, Leicestershire Mercury, April 15th, page 1.

[14] "England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPWB-2PTW : Sun Mar 10 10:46:47 UTC 2024), Entry for Storah Graves and John, 1776.

[15] Will of Thomas Graves of Thrussington, Leicestershire, farmer, 1827, proved 1829. Accessable at FindMyPast.

[16] "England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPWB-XX1F : Thu Mar 07 04:40:36 UTC 2024), Entry for Mary Graves and John, 1779.

[a] In the later generations' posts, we will discover where the forename Storer comes from, and why Storer's family used the unusual forename.

[b] You can also compare these signatures to the signature Storer signed on his Will, but due to the way the paper has been folded/torn it is not possible to see the full signature. Though, the part that is still visible is also identical to the marriage signatures.

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Many thanks to Mandy Webb, a descendant of Storer Graves and Mary Hall, who has a plenitude of knowledge about this family, and sent me a lengthy email on Storer Graves. She wrote this article in Who Do You Think You Are magazine recently. I hope she finds out some novel information about her family through these posts. I will do a post on the parentage of Mary Hall at some point in the near future.