Today we review the Petition by Prudence Babb for Assistance from the Trinity House in 1804. The petition carries a detailed account of Thomas’ demise and the type of trade he conducted in his years as a Ship Master.

This document unveiled the name of Thomas’ wife Prudence, now a widow. It also reveals that the two had a child, but does not give any additional information about them.

Prior to this find we did not have much detail on Thomas’ life. This petition seems to have read much more intensely than the others. Perhaps it is due to the fact that it is entirely handwritten.

There are only several of these documents with the Trinity House, but they provide genealogical and biological data that we would have no other way of knowing.

Thomas’ Ancestry

Thomas belongs to a line we know as Devon Pedigree (Thelbridge 1684), which is quite large at 411 members currently. His Ancestry is c