Thomas Peckett

[sir douglas]

Some years ago i read somewhere that Thomas Pecket (1834-1891) of the engine company fame was born on Garden Street, Wakefield and the family moved to Bristol while he was young, but now i want to double check this so i didnt imagine it or mixing it up with someone else but i cant find anything about this online

Edited November 11, 2023 by sir douglas
Typo

[ardbealach]

Could you check the census records for the relevant years by typing in his name?  (Alisdair)

[Wickham Green too]

Depends how young he was when he moved - his first census would have been in 1841 when he was seven-ish.

[RichardT]

1834 is also before the start of civil registration (1837) so you’ll need to find his baptism - not birth - record. People had children baptised very quickly after birth then (high infant mortality) so the baptism record is a good proxy for date of birth.  
 

The baptism might be in the Church of England parish records but the West Riding in the 1830s was a non-conformist stronghold so his baptism may be in Methodist/Quaker/Baptist etc. records - do you have any information on Peckett’s religious affiliations? CoE registers are the place to start though, as many nonconformists (including even Jews and Roman Catholics) had their children baptised by the CoE (with their fingers crossed!) because of the higher legal status CoE baptism gave you. So, first step is to find out what parish Garden Street Wakefield was in and check the registers. Luckily the online family history providers (Ancestry, FindMyPast etc) have digitised huge quantities of church registers, and your local public library can usually give you access to these databases for free onsite (if you want web access you have to pay a subscription).

 

(The majority of historic information isn’t accessible via a web search and still needs looking up in books or archives, or via paid-for datasets.)

 

RichardT

(retired archivist)

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by RichardT
English not my strong point it seems

[Compound2632]

Grace's Guide has an entry compiled from census records:

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Thomas_Peckett

This confirms the Garden Street address but shows the family moved to Manchester at some date between the 1841 and 1851 censuses, Thomas moving to Bristol between the 1871 and 1881 censuses. From the place of birth of his eldest children, he appears to have lived in Bolton for a few years in the late 1850s, presumably moving out of the family home on his marriage.

 

Since the entry for Peckett & Sons:

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Peckett_and_Sons

gives the date of foundation of the firm by Thomas Peckett as 1864, it must presumably have been originally based in Manchester, until the take-over of Fox, Walker & Co. in 1881 (Wikipedia says 1880) - so perhaps that is the year he moved to Bristol?

Edited November 12, 2023 by Compound2632

[Compound2632]

On further reflection, I think the date of 1864 given for the foundation of Peckett & Sons is probably simply the date of foundation of Fox, Walker & Co.

[sir douglas]

Thanks Stephen, it must have been graces guide that i read then

 

pecketts was indeed started in 1881 after buying fox