Thomas Chedzoy
Chedgzoy & Chedzoy family register
- Born
- bapt. 25 Dec 1817
- Birthplace
- Stoke St Gregory
Relationship map
Thomas Chedzoy's immediate family as we have it so far. Tap a relative to follow the line up or down. Slots without a link are people we still have to research or connect to a record.
Source: FreeREG record
Thomas Chedzoy was baptised on 25 December 1817 at Stoke St Gregory, the second child of John Chedzoy, a mason, and Ann (née Gait). He had five brothers and four sisters.
Unlike his father, Thomas did not take up the mason's trade. On 6 July 1840, aged 22, he was tried at the Somerset Quarter Sessions alongside a co-accused, Joseph Boy, for burglary and housebreaking - they had stolen spoons, meat and a coat. He was sentenced to ten years' transportation to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania).
He sailed from Plymouth on 7 June 1841 aboard the convict ship "David Clarke" and reached Van Diemen's Land on 4 October 1841, aged 24. His description survives: 5ft 4in, fair complexion, brown hair and no whiskers, a long face with a high forehead, blue eyes, a long nose and a broad, pimpled chin. His conduct in the colony was repeatedly recorded as "good" or "mild & good", his general behaviour orderly.
On 6 March 1846, now a farm servant, Thomas married Jane Brown, a 22-year-old spinster, at All Saints Church of England, Swansea, Tasmania (both signed with their mark). He received his Ticket of Leave on 20 October 1846, a conditional pardon around 1849, and was finally freed on 13 January 1852.
Thomas never returned to England. In 1853 he left Tasmania for Melbourne, Victoria, beginning a new life on the Australian mainland. The trail goes cold there - what became of Thomas and Jane in Victoria, and whether they had children, is the next thing to find.
Photos & documents
Baptism record
Set out in the style of a baptism record from the facts we hold. This is our own transcription of the public record, not an official certificate and not the original document. Fields we do not yet hold show as "---", and fill in as research comes in.
Record of Baptism
Parish Register · Transcription
Name of ChildThomas Chedzoy
When Baptisedbapt. 25 Dec 1817
AbodeStoke St Gregory
Name of FatherJohn Chedzoy
Name of MotherAnn Gait
Father's Quality, Trade or Profession---
This is our own transcription of the public-record facts, presented in the style of a register entry. It is not an official certificate, and not the original document.
Source: parish register (FreeREG)
Sources & research
Son of John Chedzoy and Ann (nee Gait), baptised 25 Dec 1817 at Stoke St Gregory (recorded under the CHEDGZOY spelling; father's occupation mason, of Stoke). His father John, a mason, is a distinct person from the John (#28) who married Ann Chedgzoy; the occupation helps tell the several contemporary Johns apart.
FreeREG record
His own marriage and death are for a later research turn.
CONVICT RECORD (Libraries Tasmania / Archives Office of Tasmania, confirmed 15 Jun 2026): Ship "David Clarke", dep. Plymouth 7 Jun 1841, voyage 181; origin Stoke St Gregory. Indent CON14/1/9 pp.62-63; Appropriation CON27/1/9; Conduct CON33/1/13; Description CON18/1/29 p.127; AOT No.2905. Tasmanian Names Index also holds his 1846/1849 marriage permission, his marriage to Jane Brown, and an 1853 Departure (to Victoria). Original notes via Sue Froud (from Maureen Martin, Tasmania). NEXT: trace Thomas & Jane in Victoria post-1853 (Victorian BDM, Trove).
CHILDREN / FATE (searched 15 Jun 2026): NO children of Thomas & Jane Brown found in the Tasmanian Names Index (1846-53, any spelling) nor the Victorian BDM index (1850-1930). NO death registered for Thomas in Victoria either. So after he left Tasmania for Victoria in 1853 (the gold-rush years) he left no registered family trace - likely childless or lost in the goldfields/itinerant life. Tasmanian records add: he was held at the PORT ARTHUR penal station; his marriage to Jane Brown is registered at Great Swanport (Swansea district). Open avenues: Trove (death/family notices), NSW records, Victorian goldfields/cemetery records. NB: a SEPARATE, so-far-unconnected Chedzoy family appears in the Victorian index - Isaac Chedzoy x Sarah Bryant (son James d.1895 Heathcote age 67; Henry Chedzoy m. Eliza Wilcocks 1863; Sarah Bryant Chedzoy m. Wm Barnett Shale 1893) - another Somerset->Australia emigrant line worth a future look. [Correction: the Port Arthur tag surfaced in the same result set that also contained an unrelated convict (Osgood) - treat Thomas-at-Port-Arthur as UNCONFIRMED until checked against his own record. The Great Swanport marriage registration IS his.]
Candidate death (unconfirmed, 16 Jun 2026): a Thomas Chedzoy, birth est. 1816, was buried at Stoke St Gregory on 3 Oct 1873 (FamilySearch, England Somerset Church Records). #115 is the only Stoke St Gregory-born Thomas of about that age (the other no-death Thomases of the era were born at Timberscombe and Williton in West Somerset), so this is a likely but unproven match. Not applied to the death field pending parentage confirmation.
{CENSUS} Confirmed in an external Ancestry tree (Chedgzoy/Bell): spouse Jane Brown, parents John Chedgzoy + Ann Gaite, b.25 Dec 1817 SSG, died in London. A Somerset Gaol Registers entry (~1835, age ~17) also exists. No census transcription surfaced in the parish-filtered search (he moved to London); a London-census search is a later mop-up. [Ancestry, transcription pass].
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