Ancestors

Thomas Roach

Thomas Roach was a gentleman of Glastonbury in Somerset, twice its mayor and a Major in the 2nd Somerset Militia. He was baptized at Glastonbury on 29 July 1767, the son of John Roach and his wife Ann. His monument gives his age at death in February 1835 as 67, which agrees.

His mother had been married before. As the widow of John Moxham she had two daughters, Ann and Hannah Moxham, when she married John Roach at St Benedict's church on 24 December 1766. Hannah was ten years older than Thomas and was his half-sister. He called her "my dear sister" in his will, and she called him "my late brother" in hers. His father was a gentleman of St John's parish, styled Esquire by 1779 and churchwarden in 1784. He was buried at Glastonbury in 1800.

Thomas was already a captain in the 2nd Somerset Militia when Ann Roach of Twickenham, a spinster of the family, made her will, probably in 1811. He later rose to major. The militia was the county's home-defence force, officered by local gentlemen. He was Mayor of Glastonbury from Michaelmas 1821 to Michaelmas 1822, and again from Michaelmas 1831 to Michaelmas 1832. As mayor he sat as the borough's magistrate. In 1832 witnesses were examined at the town hall "before me Thomas Roach Esquire, one of his Majesty's Justices".

He also collected antiquities. Richard Warner's history of Glastonbury Abbey, published in 1826, notes a fine Roman coin of the emperor Vespasian found at the foot of Glastonbury Tor and "in the possession of Thomas Roach, esq. of Glastonbury."

He belonged to a wider Roach family in the town. John Jeanes Roach, gentleman, who was mayor in 1816-17 and 1822-23 and died in 1828, was his cousin. Thomas's will calls him "my late cousin John Jeanes Roach". The two men were probably grandsons of John and Elizabeth Roach of West Pennard, a village near Glastonbury, whose sons Thomas and John were baptized there in the 1730s. That is inference; no record names the relationship.

His only known child, William Harris Roach, was born at Glastonbury about 1816. The boy's mother is not named in any record found. On 12 October 1819 Thomas married Elizabeth Naish at Weston, in Somerset, and the register describes him as single. Either an earlier marriage is missing from every index, or William was born before his father married. Nothing found settles which. Elizabeth was not William's mother. Their marriage settlement was signed on 8 October, four days before the wedding. Her sisters were Mrs Ann Naish and Grace Brodrip, and her nephew was William Benjamin Naish.

Thomas made his will on 19 February 1834, a year before he died. His son was then at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He left William £7,000 in trust, paid out at the age of 28, and the family's settled houses in Glastonbury went instead to his cousin's son, Thomas Harris Roach. He left his own house, his lands and his mortgages to William Benjamin Naish, in trust for Elizabeth for her life. He left his long-serving servant Richard Hanham and his family a string of houses and plots around the town. The rest of his estate went to Elizabeth, who was his sole executrix.

He died at Glastonbury on 24 February 1835, aged 67, and was buried there on 4 March. A white marble tablet at the end of an aisle in St John's church reads: "Sacred to the memory of Thomas Roach, Esq. Major in the 2nd Somerset regiment of Militia, who died the 24th day of February, 1835, aged 67 years." The will was proved in London on 26 March 1835. Elizabeth survived him by six years and died at Glastonbury on 12 September 1841. His half-sister Hannah outlived him by ten.

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Cite: Heirology, "Thomas Roach (1767-1835)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/thomas-roach-1767-1835-43f492.