Who was Thomas Simson Scammell’s father?
Q My great grandmother’s unmarried sister Emma Isabella Simson had an illegitimate son a few months before her death from typhoid in May 1872. His name was Thomas Simson Scammell and his place of birth was New Barnet, somewhere with no connections to my family. He was born in about 1871. I think the father might have been 23-yearold Thomas Scammell of 21 Upper Marylebone Street, London, because Emma was lodging there in 1871. How can I prove this when there is no birth or baptism record?
Rob Webb
A If Emma did register a child without the father named, then it would be indexed under her name of Simson. However, there is no likely entry to be found (nor under Scammell or any likely variation), so it is possible that the birth just wasn’t registered. The name and surname he was brought up using would be for his mother to decide.
Emma (as Simson) is listed in the
Scammell household in Marylebone in the 1871 census with the 23-year-old Thomas and his father, also Thomas. Her child being named Thomas and using the surname of Scammell, although circumstantial, does strongly suggest that one of them could be the father. The consistent later use of the surname may also suggest that his parentage was known and acknowledged.
As you point out, if Emma had no family in New Barnet, then why was Thomas apparently born there? It is possible that Emma was sent there for her confinement, to a midwife or mothers’ home, and we could speculate that perhaps the father may have paid for that. Conveniently, the younger Thomas Scammell married on 27 September 1871, in Streatham, to another Emma (Thompson), but she died in
1873, leaving a child who was also called Emma.
I would recommend looking at probate records for the Scammell family to see if Thomas Simson Scammell is mentioned. Thomas Scammell junior died in 1925 and left no will (an administration was granted to his daughter Emma), but what about Thomas senior, his father, who died in 1900? He left a will and over £3,000, a substantial amount back then. Could he perhaps have left provision for a grandson – or maybe even a son?
Antony Marr