vital records sources
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Thomas and his family are recorded in a family Bible, but not his parents. Before I started researching, it was known that he lived in London and was involved in watch-making. I found his marriage record not in London but far away in Uggeshall, Suffolk, which worked with a baptism at the nearby church in Stoven a month after Thomas was known to have been born. That Thomas was the son of John and Honour.

information about Thomas and Ann Gooch taken from a family Bible, courtesy of Patrick Verdier

Stoven (top) and Uggeshall (bottom) churches, photographs by Simon Knott, taken from a site I much recommend: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk

Thomas moved to London, where he apprenticed with Thomas Hailes, a watch case maker on Berkley (now Bisson) and Red Lion (now Britton) Streets, Clerkenwell.1 The apprenticeship began on 7 June 1778, when he was twelve. Hailes was a member of the "The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers" of London, a guild that maintained certain standards in making clocks and watches. On completion of his apprenticeship, Thomas would have been given the "freedom" of the city as a member of the company. Given the standard seven-year term, he would have been free to practice in London about 1785.
     The earliest mention of Thomas found in London as an adult is on a 1790 tax list, where it says he was on Bayne's Row in the Clerkenwell neighborhood.2 He took on Robert Notley as an apprentice in 1792 and is described as being of St. James (parish), Clerkenwell.3 On 1 April 1794 he registered a hallmark to be stamped on his products, address 23 Coppice Row in the same parish.4 Another apprentice, the second of only two on record, was Benjamin W. Heather, who went into Thomas's shop in 1797.5
     A notice in The London Gazette refers to the dissolution of a partnership of watchmakers in October 1799 between Thomas, Edward Bracebridge, William Pleace and Bartholomew No Need.6 When they became partners isn't said. The "Post Office" directories for London list the business of "Gooch & Harper, watch manufacturers, 12 Red Lion-st., Clerkenwell," in 1810 and 1811 and occasionally other directories have "Thomas, watch case maker, 23 Coppice Row," where he lived for at least forty years.7

Following are two court cases involving Thomas, and they cast a little light on his and Ann's lives and the business:

THOMAS PRYER was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 6th of October [1797], three ounces of silver turnings, value 14s. the property of Thomas Gooch .

THOMAS GOOCH sworn. - I am a watch-case maker; I have lost a vast quantity of turnings within these three months: the prisoner worked for me, with six other men; he was about some work which produced a large quantity of turnings. I sent to Hatton-garden for an officer, we went up to his apartments, where none of the other men that work in the shop can go, and in searching his box, we found, inside a pair of breeches, some silver turnings; and when he was taken to Hatton-garden he said he had never taken any before; he had lived with me about three years; knowing him to have bad parents, I took him in out of charity, he lived with me two years as an errand-boy, and in consequence of his good behaviour, I took him apprentice.

WILLIAM TINK sworn. - On the 6th of this month, when I went to work, I missed a quantity of turnings from my lathe, I told Mr. Gooch of it and he searched the prisoner's box.

GEORGE LONGDEN sworn. - I searched the prisoner's box; I found these turnings in a pair of breeches, wrapped up in a glove. (Produces them.)

Gooch. These are the sort of turnings that are produced in our work.

Prisoner's defence. My box was always open; I don't know how they came there.

GUILTY (Aged 16).

Transported for seven years1

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HENRY HUNT was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 6th of March [1811], a watch, value £16 a seal, value £1 l, 1 shilling the property of Thomas Gooch and Joseph Harper, and two other counts for like offence, the property of different persons.

ALFRED GOOCH. I am the son of Thomas Gooch No. 12, Red Lion, Street, Clerkenwell, his partners name is Joseph Harper , they are watch makers. On the 28th I saw a gold hunting watch, a metal hunting case, and part of a watch, and two gold seals on a black string, packed up to go to Norwich, they were directed to Mr. James Bennett, watchmaker at Norwich, they were given to Wright to take to the coach.

WILLIAM ARNOLD WRIGHT. I am a workman in the employ of Gooch and Harper, I packed up the articles to go to Mr. Bennet, a gold hunting watch, two seals, a metal case and part of the works of a watch, I took it on the 28th about seven o'clock to the Swan and Two Necks, Lad Lane. I directed the parcel myself, I delivered it into the hands of the bookkeeper, and got a receipt from him. (The receipt read.)

SAMUEL PERRY. I am clerk to the Swan and Two Necks, Lad Lane.

Q. Do you recollect the last witness bringing any parcel to you at your office. - A. I do not, I have my book here, in it there is a receipt of a parcel to Mr. Bennett at Norwich, on the 28th of February. When the coach is loaded my porter puts the parcels on the counter, the porter takes the large parcels, and the coachman takes the small, this was a small parcel by the charge, and the prisoner was the coachman of that day for the Norwich coach.

JAMES BENNETT. I am a watchmaker at Norwich.

Q. Did you after the 28th of February, on the 1st or 2d of March, receive a gold watch from Messrs. Gooch and Harper - A. I had sent a watch, and to that watch there were two seals, one of them was the arms and crest of Mr. Gurney, a banker, and the other a cypher of J. G. I have not received that, nor the two seals. I had ordered a gold hunting watch, I never received it.

Q. to Mr. Gooch. Look at that watch, is that the watch that was made by your father and sold to Mr. Bennett - A. It was. It is a new watch, it was charged in the bill sixteen guineas.

GUILTY, aged 30.

Transported for Seven Years.8

The Gooch & Harper partnership was dissolved on 12 December 1812,9 but Thomas continued his business at Coppice Row and Red Lion Street. Later in life he became a real estate developer. He owned the leases for one hundred seven houses by the time he died, mostly in Clerkenwell. He was one of the primary financial backers for high-end building around Pembroke Square, Kensington, through complicated loans and mortgages.
     Thomas's will was written on 15 November 1831 and proved on 5 June 1832. Thomas was of Turnham Green Terrace, which still exists. The Turnham Green neighborhood was known as a place for country and retirement homes, but the Terrace is now lined with later 19th century rowhouses with storefronts. No property there is mentioned in his will, so he may have subleased a house. The rest of the properties were mostly in Clerkenwell and mostly gone.10 Judging by the few that remain they were likely middle income residences in areas that declined and were cleared for new development. There were exceptions, most notably Pembroke Square in the Kensington neighborhood of London, which he was known to have had a hand in financing.

Historical information online says that Thomas invested in the development of Pembroke Square through a series of complicated transactions. He bought or claimed the leases of 7 of the houses there, including the top two and the closest one in the bottom photo.

Thomas specified that the shares of his estate given to his wife and daughters were to be held by them for their own use, and in the case of the daughters, exclusive of their husbands. If any of the children should attempt to use the share or find them subject to being taken due to debts or bankruptcy, their share would be divided among the rest of the heirs as though they had died. He also bequeathed £500 each to his unmarried children Emily, Maria, Henry, Eliza, Ann and Edward Frederick. Charles, Thomas and Horace were specifically said not to be entitled to any of the residue of the estate.
     On 11 April 1832 The Times of London reported Thomas's death: "on the 9th inst., at his residence at Turnham-green, Thomas Gooch, Esq., in the 67th year of his age." About eight months before he died, Thomas left evidence of things people do that are usually not recorded. St. Nicholas Church, Chiswick, has the baptism on 15 June 1832 of Eleanor Susan Gooch, the "base" child of Mary Alford of the Chiswick Workhouse. Mary offered the name of the father for the record: Thomas Gooch, Turnham Green, gentleman, deceased. It's possible that Mary worked out of the workhouse during the day and was a servant in the Gooch household. Eleanor married and has living descendants.

St. James Church, Clerkenwell, London, which still stands. Thomas and Ann baptized 6, maybe 7, of their children here



Spa Fields Chapel, Clerkenwell. Six of their children were baptized here. This was a "nonconformist" chapel and part of a network of congregations created by and in the name of the Countess of Huntingdon after 1783. This building, replaced by a later church, was built as an entertainment venue, which explains it's odd shape. It was (and still is) an evangelical, Calvinistic sect. What led the Gooch's to switch from St. James to here and then back again isn't apparent.

Children of Thomas Gooch and Ann Woodroffe:

i. Albert Woodroffe b. 10 Jan. 1790, bap. 30 Mar. 1790, St. James
ii. Juliana b. 13 Oct. 1790, bap. 17 Apr. 1792, St. James
iii. Horace Gooch b. 14 Feb. 1792, bap. 28 Jun. 1793, St. James
iv. Louisa Ann b. 25 May 1793, bap. 1 Jul. 1798, Spa Fields
v. Caroline b. 12 Feb. 1795, bap. 1 Jul. 1798, Spa Fields
vi. Charles Henry b. 14 Dec. 1798, bap. 5 Jan. 1799, Spa Fields
vii. Emily b. 16 Jan. 1800, bap. 7 Apr. 1802, Spa Fields
viii. Thomas b. 25 Feb. 1801, bap. 7 Apr. 1802, Spa Fields
ix. Maria b. 16 Mar. 1802, bap. 7 Apr. 1802, Spa Fields
x. Henry b. 19 Jul. 1804, bap. 17 Feb. 1809, St. James
xi. Eliza Ann b. 15 Aug. 1807, bap. 11 Apr. 1809, St. James
xii. Ann, b. 12 Dec. 1808, bap. 11 Apr. 1809, St. James
xiii. Edward Frederick b. 6 Jan. 1812, bap. 4 Apr. 1817, St. James

Child of Thomas Gooch and Mary Alford:

xiv. Eleanor Susan, b. 28 May 1832, bap. 15 Jun. 1832, St. Nicholas, Chiswick (went by the name Eleanor Susan Alford)

vital records sources: His birth, marriage and death dates are in a family Bible in the possession of Patrick Verdier. The baptism of Thomas, son of John and Honour, is in the parish records of Stoven. The Bible marriage date of Thomas of London was found in the parish records of Uggeshall. His death was reported in the 11 Apr. 1832 issue of The Times of London.

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6. 7 Oct 1799 (London) Gazette, 8 Oct 1799, 8.
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10. The real estate leases were bequeathed in this way: to his son Charles, eight houses at 46-52 Exmouth St. in St. James Parish (Clerkenwell) and 16 Judd St. in St. Pancras Parish; to his son Thomas nine houses, 6 Margaret (now Margery) St., Clerkenwell, and eight houses on Park St., Blackheath, Charlton Parish; to his son Horace, five houses at 23 and 24 Coppice Row and 2-4 Vineyard Walk, Clerkenwell; to daughters Emily and Maria, seventeen houses at 79-81 Margaret St., 30-32 Bagnigge Wells Rd., 37-42 Exmouth St., 2 Mawly? St., 1-4 Middleton St. (corner Rossman St., meaning Rosomon), Clerkenwell; to children Albert, Juliana and Caroline, twenty-six houses at 9-20 Easton St., 12 and 13 Bagnigge Wells Rd., 8-11 Margaret St., 1-4 and 7-11 Margaret Pl., Clerkenwell;, to children Louisa and Henry, sixteen houses at 77-79 (south side) Margaret St., 14 and 15 Tysoe St., 60 and 61 Exmouth St., 30-33 Easton St., Clerkenwell, and 58 Judd St., St. Pancras; to his children Eliza, Ann and Edward Frederick, eighteen houses at 4-12 Yardley St., Clerkenwell, 2, 12, 18, 19, 45, 46 and 50 Pembroke Sq., Kensington, 11 Wilson St., Pancras, 24 York Pl., City Road, Islington Parish.