Thomas Hall Ann Hughes1

Thomas Hall and Ann Hughes1 Thomas Hall, the son of Robert Hall and Elizabeth Miller, was born about 10 or 11 o’clock forenoon on 1 September 1816 in Bridgewater Street, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, and christened in St. Peters Church, 29 December 1816. The birth record shows his father’s occupation as “labourer.” Of his ancestry, we know little. His father was born about 1775 somewhere in Scotland, according to a history written by his son, Thomas and Ann Hughes Hall Samuel Parley. His mother, Elizabeth Miller, was born in Little Sutton, Eastham Parish, Cheshire, England, in October 1774 and christened 25 July 1779 in St. Mary’s, Eastham Parish. She was the daughter of Robert Miller and Mary Rowlinson. Her father was born about 1753 and lived in Chester, Cheshire. He was married to Mary on 8 June 1778 in St. Mary’s Church, Eastham Parish. Mary Rowlinson was born in Whitby, Cheshire, the daughter of Thomas Rolinson and his wife Hannah. Robert and Elizabeth Hall had nine children born to them in Liverpool: Thomas Hall, born 18 December 1801 in Walkinson Street and christened in St. Nicholas Church 17 January 1802; Jane Hall, born in Coventry Street and christened 28 August 1803; Mary Ann Hall, born 21 May 1806 in Bridgewater Street and christened in St. Nicholas Church 28 September 1806; Joseph Hall, born 4 October 1808 in Bolton Street and christened 30 Oct 1808; Robert Hall, born 19 December 1811 in Ben Johnson Street and christened 6 January 1811; Henry Hall, born 13 August 1815 in Bridgewater Street and died 1 October 1915; 1This history is based on the brief history written by Samuel Parley Hall, his oldest son, and includes information from Samuel’s own history and histories of others of the Hall children.. To this, I have added information from my own research and other sources. 1 Thomas Hall, born 1 September 1816; Robert Hall, born 2 November 1818 in Bridgewater Street, buried 23 February 1820; and Margaret Hall, born in George Street and christened 13 November 1827. The first Thomas Hall and Robert Hall apparently died in infancy and the names used again, a common practice then. Of the other children we know nothing, except for Joseph. Samuel Parley Hall records in his history the following: While we were in Cincinnati, my father gave financial aid to Uncle Joseph’s family, helping he and his family from England to this country. Uncle Joseph’s trade was the same as Father’s and Mr. Haslam’s [a family friend], that of iron moulder. Uncle Joseph died of cholera a short time after coming to this country and was buried at Covington, Kentucky. Father and I attended the funeral. Uncle Joseph’s wife, whose name was Catharine, married again and her daughter, who was named after her mother, was later married to a Cincinnati man. The name of their husbands I do not remember, but the husband of Uncle Joseph’s daughter was a man of wealth, the owner of large factories which were situated near Cincinnati. At a later date [1857], father called to see these people while on his way to fill a mission in Canada, but he said there was no sociability shown him so he did not stay with them very long. That is the last he ever heard of them. Being of humble parentage, Thomas, like so many children of his time, had no formal schooling. Both his mother and first wife, Ann Currey, made their mark on their marriage records instead of writing their names. When his father died in 1827, Thomas, at the age of eleven or twelve was apprenticed for seven years to learn the trade of iron moulder, a foundry worker who made sand molds from wooden patterns into which molten iron was poured Thomas Hall and Ann Currey Marriage Record to create iron objects. 2 On 20 December 1835 at the age of 19, he married Ann Currey at St.-Martin’s-in- the- Fields Parish church in Liverpool. Some stories about Thomas have him marrying at the young age of 16, but his marriage record confirms the older age. Ann Currey2, as her name was written by the minister who married them, was the same age as Thomas, having been born, according to the Wigan Parish Record of Baptisms, in Pemberton, Lancashire, a small town near Liverpool, and christened in the All Saints Church, Wigan Parish, on 31 January 1816. About five months after their marriage, Ann gave birth to a son they named Robert, who was christened in St. Peter’s Church, Liverpool, 29 May 1836. Ann died about a year later, and Robert apparently died in infancy as well. In his bible where he recorded his marriage with Ann Hughes and the births of Robert Hall’s Birth Record their seven children, Thomas does not list either Ann Currey or a son Robert. This bible, which I have in my possession, has an 1839 publication date and suggests that Thomas may have had growing spiritual and religious inclinations. It is also the year he and Ann Hughes were married and a year prior to their baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a small, inexpensive book 61/2 by 4 inches distributed by the British and Foreign Bible Society for a minimal price. But he obviously valued it, covering it with a black oilcloth to protect it and inscribing his ownership of it in beautiful and decorative handwriting on the beginning blank page in his own hand. This is not the writing of an uneducated man whether or not he ever attended school. The inscription includes the date, December 27th, 1840, exactly nine months after his baptism by John Taylor. It also includes a Latin phrase, and his address, Bridsons Buildings, Seel Street, Liverpool. Also tucked inside are six leaves sewn together with a few stitches and containing scriptures in his handwriting on both sides of the page. They quote Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Psalms, The Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants, 2Other records from the Wigan Parish in Lancashire show that the family name was most likely Currey rather than Correy or Corey as many histories and stories about Thomas written or copied over the years would have it. 3 focusing on the promised gathering of an apostate and scattered Israel, the role of the gentiles in bringing them to the gospel of Christ, and the re- establishment of Zion. Obviously, something he would use in his missionary endeavors. We do not know when or where he met Ann Hughes, but stories from the Joseph Smith Hall family suggest it was through her brothers who worked in Liverpool and met Thomas. Ann may have worked there herself because she became skilled at making women’s hats, a trade she practiced later in America. Her sisters were dressmakers. Liverpool was England’s second largest seaport at the time located at the estuary of the River Mersey where the river flows into the Irish Sea and did a thriving business in the cotton trade. Hawarden is a small Welsh town near the River Dee about 4 miles from the English border. The Wrissal Peninsula created by the two rivers separates Bible Inscription Hawarden from Liverpool. Today, the driving distance across this peninsula is only 18 miles. So Ann and Thomas lived quite near each other. His bible records their marriage in Hawarden, Flintshire, North Wales, on 30 December 1839. This was ten days short of four years after his marriage to Ann Currey. Ann told her granddaughter, Florence Wiltbank Hall, in 1894 about the night Thomas came to ask her parents for her hand in marriage. Ann, of course, knew the purpose of his visit, so she hid in the large grandfather clock where she could hear but not be seen. Florence described her grandmother as a large, tall woman, probably five feet, nine or ten inches. She was fair in complexion with a keen sense of humor and was fun to be around. Thomas’ bible lists Ann Hughes’ birth as 30 December 1817 in Hawarden, Flintshire, North Wales. Her parents were Samuel Hughes and Hannah Beaven. Following their marriage, Thomas and Ann took a flat in the Bridsons Building on Seel Road Map Hawarden to Liverpool 4 Street in Liverpool, where they were living when Samuel Parley was born on 14 March 1841 at 3 o’clock afternoon. It was apparently in Liverpool that they met the Mormon missionaries and were baptized and confirmed members of the Village of Hawarden Church, he on 27 March, and she on 17 June 1840 by Apostle John Taylor. On 21 August 1843 at 3 o’clock a.m., Ann gave birth to another son, Joseph Smith Hall in Hawarden, where she went to her parent’s home to have her baby. Desiring to join the Saints in Nauvoo, Thomas and Ann with their son Samuel, now a little over two years of age, and Joseph only five months, sailed from Liverpool on the bark, Fanny of Boston, with 210 souls aboard on 20 January 1844. Thomas Steed, a passenger on the vessel, recorded that the voyage cost $25 dollars per person, including food they cooked themselves. Another member of the company, William Adams, describes their crossing of the Atlantic: Everything being ready, provisions water and baggage being on board, with two hundred and ten souls, men, women and children. We were towed out [of] Liverpool the twentieth of January 1844, and steamer returned after taking us into the Irish Strand Street and Liverpool Docks 5 Channel.

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