Jane Thompson

Died 28th September 1849

                                                  Above: The 1841 census entries for Jane, John and their children

We know that Jane died in the cholera outbreak, and that she was then 60 years old. Much about her is, however, less clear.

For example, we learnt from her obituary in a Newcastle newspaper that Jane was married to John Thompson, a “joiner”. This was somewhat misleading or possibly “fake news”, as there was only one John and Jane Thompson about the right age in Alnwick by the time of her death, and he was a tanner. It could have been a case of misreading, illegible writing. We don’t know.

There were also two different Janes married to a John Thompson at the time we were interested in. A Jane Young married a John Thompson on 13/6/1811, so she would have been about 21 then or  Jane Caldwell married a John Thompson on Christmas Day 1811, and she would have been 21 at that time as well!

John Thompson the tanner and Jane had two children at least. The only two on the 1841 census (see above) were sons Henry Thompson, born 1828 and  David Thompson, born 1831. The family was all living in Green Batt. note that for this first census only, adult ages were confusingly rounded to the nearest 0 or 5, so for example, both John and Jane appear (wrongly) to be exactly 50 years old.

Jane Thompson died on 28th September 1849, when the cholera outbreak in Alnwick was at its worst. She was living in Percy Street at the time.

Two years later on the 1851 census, John the tanner was recorded as widowed, which fits in. Son Henry had left for work in Cumberland, ending up in Carlisle. John had only David at home in Pottergate now.

John died in 1860 and David went to live in Bishopswearmouth in County Durham. By coincidence, both Henry and David had sons who became joiners.