Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Thomas Cato

1829 –1901

Tring Canvas weaver who died in Union workhouse

Relatives

Charlotte Cato — daughter

• Melanie Hilton

Unmarked grave Thomas Cato (1829-1901)

Thomas was born in Tring in 1829, the son of William Cato, a shoemaker born in Amersham, and his wife Charlotte (née Varney) from Tring.

In 1841 the family were living in Akeman Street in Tring and were still at the same address ten years later when Thomas was working as a canvas warper.

There was a significant industry in the production of cotton canvas in Tring and the name Cato had been associated with canvas production in the town from at least 1772. In the 1890s local historian Arthur Macdonald wrote, “William Cato commenced canvas making at The Oak in Akeman Street, and subsequently built the factory in Park Road which is now the only relic of the trade.” A Thomas Cato [not this man] is listed in the 1851 census as employing 11 men, and in Kelly’s Directory of 1869 as “manufacturer of open canvas for Berlin work, [i.e. large-stitch wool embroidery], and gunpowder canvas.”

Given that the name is not very common it seems likely that Thomas’s family was in some way related to these more prosperous Catos. (There is more about the canvas industry here: https://tringlocalhistory.org.uk/Tring_Industries/index.htm#02)

Thomas married Mary Ann Busby in Berkhamsted in 1851 and they were to have nine children: John (1855), Charlotte Elizabeth (1857), Eliza (1860), Thomas (1862), Rose (1865), Agnes (1867), Amy (1870), Frederick (1874) and Anne (1878).

In 1861 the family was living in Knight’s Yard off Akeman Street in Tring. Thomas is described in the census as “canvas warper and shoemaker”, so he was partly carrying on his father’s trade. Mary Ann was producing straw plait for the Luton and Dunstable straw hat trade.

Ten years later the family was living in Fox Road, Wiggington and Thomas was described as a cotton canvas weaver. Son John was a shoe maker and the two eldest girls were silk factory weavers – another of Tring’s industries.

By 1881 the family had moved back to Tring and were living at 4, Albion Place. Thomas was described as a cotton weaver, but ten years later he had reverted to shoemaking and he, Mary Ann, Thomas (also a shoemaker), Mary and Annie were living in the High Street, Berkhamsted. Mary Ann died a year later.

Their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth died in 1900 and is buried in this cemetery.

Thomas died in January 1901 in the Union Workhouse aged 72 and was buried 17 January.

[Thanks to Clifford Chalk, Thomas’s great grandson via Amy Cato for corrections to this record. Amy’s son J Ambrose Chalk was a very talented business man and musical conductor and was very involved in the choral life of Southampton and district.]