Thomas Dimes

  General Notes:

THOMAS DIMES (1786-1832) Of the ten children of Nathaniel, Thomas was the fourth born and for much of his adult life seems to have been on relief. He and his younger brother Daniel had married sisters, Martha and Sarah Miles respectively. Thomas and Martha were married in Crondall at All Saints in 1814. John (b 1816), William (b 1818) and James (b 1821) were the first of eight children to be born to the couple. By 1822 Thomas had fallen into debt and owed the parish 7s 9d in unpaid poor rates. They were soon to be on the receiving end of this welfare.

By the following year neither Thomas nor his brother Daniel could make ends meet and they jointly went to the Monday meeting of the Select Vestry and requested relief. Daniel's pleading was successful and he was granted 6s 4d a month (strictly speaking every four weeks as the year was divided up into 13 equal periods of four weeks). Thomas's request was refused on the grounds he was not considered to belong to the Crondall parish - a puzzling conundrum seeing that he was a third generation Crondallite!

In March 1822, Thomas was again behind with his rate payment, but managed to pay off the debt of 3s 10d in the following year. In March 1826 he again owed 4s 3d and applied again for poor relief. This time he was awarded a one off payment of 9s 3d.

On 8th December 1828 Thomas once more asked the Overseers for relief. He was given 2s 6d and was formally examined as to his place of settlement. The Crondall Overseers had no wish to saddle themselves with regular expenditure on this growing family if they could prove they were someone else's responsibility. The Poor Book records "9th December 1828 - John Snuggs expenses re Thomas Dimes examination - 5s." By 22nd of the month it was decided that Crondall did have responsibility for the family which had grown to six at this time and relief was agreed at 1s 6d per week. From this time until his death in August 1932, the name of Thomas Dimes appeared on the pension book every four weeks. The amount he received fluctuated dropping to 2s in the summer and rising to 6s in the winter.

In August 1829 Thomas fell ill and received an additional 11s a fortnight. This continued until the end of the year when it increased to 14s and even further to 18s in December 1830. The family were becoming even more costly to maintain.

In July 1831 the records show a charge of 8s "for Thomas Dimes to go to London." This could possibly be for a hospital consultation. Again March 1832 "allowed for expenses for a mixture for his eyes - 3s 6d."

As Thomas's health deteriorated throughout the year of 1832, there were more and more handouts culminating in August 11th - 9s and August 13th - 12s. This was the period leading up to his death. He was buried on 16th August 1832 in Crondall.

Martha was now widowed with eight children. She was given £1 11s 3d at the beginning of September and £1 18s 6d in October but by then she had fallen ill. On 29th September the Overseers granted " Mutton for Martha Dimes - 1s 4d." She was unable to look after the children herself so the parish paid Mary Parfett, another pauper, 8s a fortnight "for doing for Thomas Dimes family." On 27th October the Overseers allowed 1s 6d extra to "Widow Dimes ill." It was the last gesture to her. She was buried on 31st October. The parish paid the rent on the cottage for the last quarter of the year, £1, and turned their attention to the care of the children.

Mary Parfett continued to look after the children until 19th November when the Select Vestry recorded that " Jas Smith's wife agrees to take Dimes six children for 14s a week, the parish to give them some clothes to start with." The clothes cost 7s 10d. The six children were the youngest namely James 11, Thomas 10, Martha 7, Charles 5, Nathaniel 3 and Jesse 9 months. Every 4 week period £2 8s was paid for their upkeep until August 1834 when James reached his 13th birthday when the amount fell to £2: it remained the same until May 1835 when under the new Poor Law relief Act came into operation and responsibility passed to the newly established Union.

The two eldest sons were treated differently. The first-born, John, was 16 in 1832 and expected to earn his own keep. William the second son who was 14 in 1832 when his parents died was taken in by his Uncle Daniel and Aunt Sarah. Sarah was allowed 2s a week for his keep and managed to get the Overseers to pay 7s towards a pair of shoes for him. William was still living with the family when the 1841 census was taken.

Thomas married Martha Miles, daughter of Thomas Miles and Sarah Baigent, on 5 Feb 1814 in Crondall, Hampshire, England. (Martha Miles was born in 1792 in Crondall, Hampshire, England and died on 31 Oct 1832.)