Nat Gould

William Tomkinson 1808-1885

William Tomkinson with his wife and stepdaughter

William Tomkinson was born in 1808 at Endon in Staffordshire, the son of Thomas Tomkinson 1780-1834 and his wife née Ellen Peake 1779-1859, and was baptised there on 17 May 1808.

He became a stockbroker in Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire.

Mary Tomkinson nee Batten

On 31 July 1852 William Tomkinson married Mary Marshal née Batten at St Pancras Old Church in London. Born on 11 January 1826 at Bethnal Green in London, she was the daughter of William Batten, and the widow of Alexander Marshal to whom she had been married in 1850.

Her daughter Mary Fanny Alexander Marshall 1851-1929 eventually became Lady Lodge, wife of Sir Oliver Lodge the famous physicist and pioneer in wireless telegraphy, and Principal of the University of Birmingham from 1920 to 1920.

William Tomkinson died on 13 February 1885 at Newcastle-under Lyme.

His Will was proved at Lichfield on 30 March 1885 (1).

His personal estate was £15,211 5s 5d. The executors were his widow Mary Tomkinson of Newcastle-under Lyme, Alfred Lodge of Cooper's Hill near Staines in Middlesex and of St. John's College in Oxford gentleman, and William Keary of Stoke-upon-Trent in Staffordshire solicitor.