Thomas Fawcett
ID # 2808, (1840-1866)
| Father | Thomas Fawcett (1808-1859) |
| Mother | Margaret C. Shaw (1815-1847) |
| Birth | Thomas Fawcett was born in 1840 at Brock District, Upper Canada. |
| Marriage | He married Sarah Rosan Lawrason, daughter of Purvis Douglas Lawrason and Charlotte Temple Shook, on 16 December 1863 at Brant County. MS248 reel 5 Vol. 1, Page 116 Brant County Marriage Register, No. 189 Return of marriages solemnized by M. Fawcett a minister of the Wesleyan M. Church for the year ending 31st day of December, A.D. 1863 Thos. Fawcett, 24, born Oxford, residing St. George. Parents Thomas and Margaret. Sarah Lawrason, 24, born Dumfries, residing St. George. Parents Purvis D. and Charlotte. Witnesses M. X. Carr and Sophia Carr of Brantford. Date of marriage Oct. 16 (1863) The officiating minister, Michael Fawcett, was the brother Rev. Thomas Fawcett and the uncle of the groom. Rev. Thomas Fawcett, the father of the groom, died in 1859 of injuries he sustained while a passenger on a train that derailed. Both Michael and Thomas Fawcett were Wesleyan Methodist ministers and both served the church at St. George. The gazetteer of 1865-66 for Brant County places Rev. Michael Fawcett, W.M. minister in St. George as well as Thomas Fawcett, dentist. Sophia Fawcett Carr was Thomas' sister. |
| Death | He died in 1866. |
| Burial | He was buried at St.George Cemetery, St. George, South Dumfries, Brant Co.. |
| Note | For the present at least, we don't know a great deal about Thomas Fawcett Jr.. Apparently, he was dead by the time of 1871 census. He was the son of Wesleyan Methodist minister Thomas Fawcett and his first wife Margaret Shaw. At St. George, Brant, the 1865-66 Mitchell & Co Canada Classified Directory, page 241, shows Thomas Fawcett as a dentist. He does not appear in the 1869 directory. Sarah Lawrason Fawcett was living with her parents, Purvis Douglas Lawrason and Charlotte Shook, at the time of the 1871 census. She is shown as a widow and has with her two children, Emily and Thomas. By 1880 she is married to William Booth. In 1881, Emily is with Sarah and William, but young Thomas remained with his Grandmother Lawrason. Confusion, however, so far as Thomas Fawcett Jr. is concerned, is handed us by way of an inscription on a gravestone in St. George Cemetery. The stone for Purvis Douglas Lawrason and Charlotte Shook in St. George Cemetery has on one side the inscription: In Memory of Thomas, son of the Rev. Thomas Fawcett. died Feby. 14, 1886, aged 25 years, 2 months. This stone is a pillar stone, limestone, inscribed in relief, and it is worn. Unarguably, the year of young Thomas' death is given as 1886. Probably, the stone was not erected until after the death of Charlotte Shook Lawrason in 1885. The Rev'd. Thomas Fawcett, father of Thomas buried at St. George, was married twice. His second wife died in 1863. She treated her own children and step children the same in her will, indeed refers to them all as her children. She leaves a stove to Thomas Fawcett, her step son. (She did have a son, Hutchinson Clark Fawcett, born after her husband's death, but he died at age 9 months.) It would seem that an error was made with the year of young Thomas' death as it appears on the stone. Thomas, husband of Sarah Lawrason, is quite reasonably the Thomas Fawcett buried with Purvis Douglas and Charlotte Lawrason in St. George Cemetery. Likely the correct date of death was Feby. 14, 1866. Nothing else make sense in the context. Thomas Fawcett and Sarah Lawrason had a son Thomas Fawcett who also became a dentist and who died in Hamilton in 1896. It should be said that microfilm for the 1866 era issues of the Dumfries Reformer and the Brantford Expositor has been examined, but nothing has been found relating to the death of Thomas Fawcett, dentist, of St. George. Update to the above: See page 432 The Canadian Album, Men of Canada, or Success by Example, etc. Edited by Rev. Wm. Cochrane, D.D., Vol 1., Bradley, Garretson & Co., Brantford, Ont., 1891. This provides an attractive article with photo for son Thomas Douglas Fawcett. It tells how his father was a dentist at St. George and that he died in 1866. It also tells that his grandfather was the Rev. Thomas Fawcett, a well known Methodist minister. Given the inscription that appears on the gravestone in St. George cemetery which clearly identifies Thomas Fawcett as the son of Rev. Thomas Fawcett, we are on safe ground in saying that when the inscription was placed on the stone and Thomas, the husband of Sarah Lawson, is shown as being deceased in 1886, someone made a mistake. It is possible that the inscription for Thomas Fawcett was not added until quite some years later. |
Children of Thomas Fawcett and Sarah Rosan Lawrason |
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| Last Edited | 3 Aug 2022 |