In Season 31 (Bodnant Garden in Conwy) of Antiques Roadshow UK, one of our favorite Specialists (Graham Lay) was asked to bring in the two items in his collections which he most valued. One of them was a scrap of paper, written by an ancestor of his in a fine, clear hand. It read:
Honour virtuous men
Honour vi[r]tuous men
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Honour is purchased and maintained by industry.
Honour is purchased and maintained by industry.
Honour is purchased and maintained by industry.
Thomas Lay from Leek Staffordshire. 1795.
Graham didn’t know the connection between himself and Thomas Lay, just that the piece had come down through the family through many generations. A great chance to dig deeper, eh?!
The birth register for the Uttoxeter Quaker Meeting House in Leek shows that Thomas Lay, the son of Joseph and Sarah Lay, was born “near Leek” on “the fifteenth day of the eleventh Month, called November, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty Four”.
The Meeting death register notes the sadness of the family:
“Thomas departed this life at Plantation of the Destine Demerary in South America on 9m [Sept] 6th 1806 after 6 day illness, Aged 21 years and ten months.”
There is no record of his having been brought back and buried in their burying ground, and we can assume that Thomas Lay was buried where he died. Demerary (as the Dutch spelled and pronounced it) was a region in the Guianas on the north coast of South America, a Dutch colony at the time of Thomas’ death. This region is now part of the country of Guyana. I can find no record to explain his trip to Demerara.
Thomas’ parents were buried, according to The Friends’ Registers for Staffordshire, at Leek: 79yo Joseph in 1821, 66yo Sarah (nee Martin) in 1816.
There is a lovely page in the Uttoxeter Monthly Meeting book with a full genealogy of the Joseph Lay family, including birth dates and occasional notes. I think it bears transcribing, in case one of the family finds this entry and is still trying to connect themselves back to little Thomas.
Joseph Lay, son of Benjamin and Martha Lay, took to Wife, Sarah, Daughter of John and Sarah Martin of Dudley, and had Issue as under:
Benjamin, 2 Feb 1773, removed to Dudley
Martha, 11 Mar 1774
John, 6 Oct 1775
Sarah, 16 Jul 1777, married John Faulkner not of our Society
Elizabeth, 4 Apr 1779
Hannah, 23 Jan 1781
Samuel, 24 Aug 1782
Thomas, 15 Nov 1784 (note as shown above)
Jane, 16 Jul 1786
Ann, 13 Jan 1792
Sarah Lay, wife of Joseph Lay and Mother of the above children died at Leek the 14th day of second Month 1816 and was buried the 18th at Leek, Aged 66.
Sadly, as we readied to send this information to the BBC (to send to Graham Lay), we read of his death in 2016. May he rest in peace. And I’d be willing to bet that Thomas was the first to greet Graham on his passing. Sweet thought, indeed, for a man who shared so much joy with so many others.