John Thomas Scott (1857 - ) and Sarah Thomas (1862 - 1958)

John Thomas Scott born October 29, 1857 was the eldest of the children of John Thomas Scott and his wife Martha Jacobs.

We know little of his life, other than that which is provided by census records.

1861 and 1871 Census Records

In both of these census years, we find John Thomas living with his paternal grandparents William Scott and Mary Hyder and the census entries can be seen on the biography we have written on their lives.

1881 Census

Probably sometime in this decade John posed for this photo, perhaps even at the time of his marriage in 1881:

1891 Census

1901 Census

1911 Census

The Marriage

John Thomas Scott married Sarah Thomas at Holywell, Flintshire on 14 September 1881 (Granddaughter Jean Scott Reed, FreeBMD).

The Family

According to the 1911 census, John and Sarah had eight children all of whom were living at that time. The following table lists these children.

Name	Birthdate	Born At	Baptism	Career	Date of Death/ Marriage	Place of Death/ Marriage	Notes
Frederick T	1883	Hammersmith, London		served in RN, then became policeman, then publican	marr. Frances Gwyther Jones	2 Sept. 1907
Agnes M	1885	Hammersmith, London			marr. Jack Goord
John Thomas	22 November 1887	Hammersmith, London		served in RN	marr Dorothy (White) Teece	April 1935
George Henry	1888	Hammersmith, London	23 November 1888 St Saviour's, Shepherds Bush	emigrated to Canada and was homesteader in Saskatchewan	killed at 2nd battle of Ypres, April 22, 1915	Ypres, France body not found, commemorated on Ypres Menin Gate Memorial	known as 'Joe'
Archibald Charles	1890	Hammersmith, London		Seaman, RN	marr. Jenny Horne (widow)
Martha Lilian	1891				marr. Arthur Kearn
Ellen Sarah	1895	Fareham, Hants		nurse	never married	died 1988/9 buried Porchester Castle	known as Sally or Nell
Edmund Roy	1899	Fareham, Hants			married, no children		known as Roy

Later life

The lives of John and Sarah started to diverge after the death of their son George Henry at the 2nd battle of Ypres on 22 April 1915. John was next of kin for his son and shortly after George's death he went to Canada to settle his sons estate. It is not clear what happened then. In one account he was supposed to send for his wife and children after settling in Canada. That did not happen and for all intents and purposes he just 'disappeared' as reported by his granddaughter.

By this time of this separation/departure the youngest child, the son Edmund, was in his mid-teens and would likely have been working. Our treatment of their lives of John and Sarah is separate from this point on.

Sarah in later Life

At present we have little information on Sarah in later life. At some point she moved from the home at 51 Paxton St. to a home that was apparently purchased for her by two of her sons.

Sarah (Thomas) Scott with her daughter Sarah Ellen (Sally) and son John Thomas circa 1955
at the gate to her home at 117 West Street, Porchester, Fareham, Hants.

Sarah was 96 when she died. She is buried in the churchyard at Porchester Castle.

John in later Life

What we have of John in Canada is, at this point, mostly taken from the military file of his son George Henry. We do nont know exacctly when he travelled to Canada. Since he was listed on the attestation papers of his son as living at Fareham in September of 1914 we can conclude that he was in England at that time. The son was killed in the following spring. Had the father already proceeded to Canada before then to look after the farm or did he leave after that to settle the estate. On one form from his son's file we see that John is living at 276 - 2nd Avenue South in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, that address having been pasted over the Fareham address with an authorization annotation with the date 18 June 1916.

In another document in the file (above) we see a new address 1237 Ave F North Saskatoon, which is not dated. This address is repeated on a card which indicates the disposition of his medals, of "P&S" and of the Memorial Cross. That card's most recent date is 13 Dec 1921 and John appears in the Saskatoon city directory for 1921, but not for 1922. So this is the most recent date that we have for his being anywhere.

The annotations on the medals card are interesting. The "P&S" represents "Plaque and Scroll". The indication is these were forwarded to John. More interesting is the disposition of the Memorial Cross, a medal which was issued to the wives or mothers of those who were killed in the Canadian Forces. We see that John has advised the authorities that the mother has died and so the Memorial Cross is forwarded to him. It is clear that by this date he has 'erased' the family in England from his life. It is likely that he stayed in Canada for the rest of his life and certainly possible that he has 'taken up' with another woman.

Acknowledgements:

Jean Reed, granddaughter of John and Sarah for much of the information on the family
Maureen Batchelor for photograph of John
Findmypast.co.uk for 1911 census image
Ancestry.com for other census images
FreeBMD.org for various marriage, birth and death records.

Last updated 22 August 2010