Born: Alhampton, Ditcheat, Somerset baptized 23 April 1816
Parents: Lawrence Lansdown Bond 1786-1829 and Sarah Oram 1786-1860
Married: Elizabeth Francis 1823-? on 29 December 1842 at Alford, Somerset
Siblings: James Bond 1824-?
Offspring: Lawrence Bond 1843-1916; Mary Jane Bond 1846-?; Joseph Bond 1848-before 1891; Isaac Bond 1850-1919; Sarah Bond 1852-1933; Thomas Bond 1855-1929; Benjamin Francis Bond 1857-?; William Bond 1859- 1928; James Bond 1861-1911; Eli Bond 1866-1933; Elizabeth Bond 1871-
Died: Died Sutton, Ditcheat, buried 14 March 1877 at Ditcheat, Somerset
Early Years
Sarah and Lawrence’s son Thomas Bond 1816-1877 was baptised on 23 April 1816 and the register states that Lawrence was a labourer living in the hamlet of Alhampton within the parish of Ditcheat. At the time of the 1841 census Thomas may have been living with his mother and brother Joseph 1824-? in Alhampton.
Marriage
Thomas married Elizabeth Francis 1823-? on 29 December 1842 in Ansford, also called Almsford. Thomas was living in Alhampton, Ditcheat and Elizabeth, daughter of labourer James Francis was living in Ansford.
Elizabeth’s illegitimate daughter
Thomas and Elizabeth’s 1851 census return includes Ellen F Bond born in Ansford in 1841 so prior to Thomas and Elizabeth’s marriage. Ellen was marked as the illegitimate daughter of servant Betsy Francis when she was baptised in Ansford on 13 March 1842 having been born on 14 March 1841.
Family and later life
The census records show that the family moved around the area, no doubt wherever agricultural labourer Thomas could find work. Their eldest offspring Lawrence and Mary were born in Alhampton in the parish of Ditcheat. In 1851 they were living in Sparkford where Joseph and Isaac were born and Elizabeth was a glover. By 1861 the family had returned to Alhampton where Sarah, Thomas, Benjamin, William and James were born. By 1871, the last of their parents’ census records, Eli had been born in the hamlet of Sutton in Ditcheat parish where Thomas died. A 61 year old Thomas Bond, living in Sutton, was buried in Ditcheat on 14 March 1777. Researchers suggest that Elizabeth had died in 1873 in the Shepton Mallet Registration District of Somerset. The family’s genealogical tree shows how many of Thomas and Elizabeth’s many descendants work in the Lancashire and South Wales coalfields and the Bristol tobacco industry.