Great x4 Grandmother Thomazin Mutter (nee Kerslake)

My Great x4 Grandmother Thomazin (1811 - after 1871) was a housewife and mother of two.

The spelling of her name varies of records - Thomasin, Thomasine, Thomazin, Thomazine etc - but as she left only her mark on her record of marriage, implying she couldn't write, not even her name, I have decided to go with the more commonly written form of the name, Thomazin.

Thomazin was born around 1811 in Sampford Peverell, Devon, to John Kerslake (about 39), a lime burner and labourer, and Jane 'Jenny' Kerslake (nee Stephens) (about 36).

Thomazin was baptised on 17th April 1811 in Sampford Peverell.

Thomazin was the seventh of ten children (three sons and seven daughters):

• Robert  1796 -
• Mary  1799 -
• Elizabeth  1802 -
• Elizabeth  1804 -
• Thomazin 1804 -
• Jane  1808 -
• Thomazin  1811 -
• John  1813 -
• Thomas  1818 -
• Ann  1820 -

Thomazin had two elder sisters called Elizabeth, and she herself was the second of her name, implying the older Elizabeth and Thomazin may have passed away in infancy and their younger sisters were then named for them; however, I cannot find burial records for girls. Maybe, being so very young and small and poor, they weren't officially buried in the churchyard. It seems very unlikely a couple would had have more than one child living with the same name.

In 1837, Thomazin, aged about twenty-six, gave birth to an illegitimate daughter. On 9th April 1837, she was baptised as Jane Mutter Kerslake, in Sampford Peverell. Jane's father was lime burner and labourer, thirty-two year old, William Mutter. William had the same occupation as Thomazin's father John - maybe they worked together down at the lime kiln. 

Sometime around 1840, Thomazin, William and their daughter Jane moved about five miles west from Sampford Peverell to Tiverton. There, on 9th April 1840, Thomazin (about 29) and William (about 35) married. On their record of marriage, both left only their mark, implying neither could write. I wonder why they did not marry earlier, back before their eldest child was born. Was there a specific reason they could or did not?

Thomazin and William had two children (one daughter and one son):

• Jane  1837 -
• Robert  1843 -

In Tiverton, Thomazin and her family lived in the unusually named Hit or Miss Court.

1841 Census:

1851 Census:

In Jan/Feb/Mar 1857, when Thomazin was about forty-five, her husband William passed away, aged about fifty-two, in Tiverton. Thomazin, widowed, lived with and was supported by their teenage son Robert, who worked as a farm labourer. Unfortunately Thomazin is listed as a pauper on the 1861 census.

1861 Census:

Come the 1871 census, Thomazin was living with her daughter Jane, her husband William Boobier and their sons, down in Exeter.

1871 Census:

Unfortunately the 1871 Census is the last record I can find concerning Thomazin. We leave her, aged sixty, living with her growing family.