At a glance
The Grave
Life story
Further information
Death
Census and miscellaneous information
Living at 14, Highbury Grove Villas, Islington, Middlesex. Thomas Morris, 46yrs, General Agent, wife, Mary, 48yrs, 3 children, Frank Howe, 17yrs, Mary E. Howe, 16yrs, and Lucy Howe, 14yrs, plus 3 domestic servants.
Living at Croft Lodge, Paignton, Devon - Thomas Morris 56yrs, with wife, Mary and 3 children, Frank Howe, 28yrs, Mary E. Howe, 26yrs, and Lucy Howe, 24yrs.Occupation - Landed Proprietor. They had 2 servants, Mary Bloomfield, housemaid and Sarah Elliott, cook.
Living at 25, Gratwicke Road, Worthing - Thomas Morris 76 yrs. with his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Howe Morris -46 yrs. He is a widower, living on 'Income from dividends'. They have 3 servants, Mary Castle, cook, Mary Farmer, housekeeper, Emily Twigger, kitchenmaid
Warwickshire County Records : CR.1709/356/1-8 1884; 1864-1897
Thomas Morris of Hockley Villa, Avenue Rd.Leamington Priors, gent. probate of his will, 1884, containing the following documents: List of Thomas Morris' children, 1864; declarations by two of these children regarding the heirship of Thomas Morris the younger, 1866; marriage certificate of Thomas Morris and Mary Tann (1792), 1866; death certification of William H.Hyde of Horsham (d.1891), 1897; cremation and burial certificate of Richard Hyde of W.Kensington, 1895; succession account of Mary E.H. Morris of Earlsdon Lodge, Gratwicke (Rd) Worthing, Sussex, to property of T.Morris being Earlsdon Lodge (as above), 2 messuages in Smith St., Warwick and No.32 Cross Cheaping, Coventry, 1884.
Worthing Gazette, Wednesday 3rd September 1890
Freehold Residence with Stabling and Excellent Grounds - Mr E.C. Patching has received instructions from W.H. Hyde, Esq., who is leaving the town, to sell by public auction, at the Town Hall, Worthing, on Thursday 18th September 1890, at three o'clock precisely, the very desirable substantially built detached Freehold Residence, standing in its own well shrubbed and excellent gardens and grounds known as "Earlsdon", Gratwicke Road, Worthing. The house contains: on the Ground floor: large dining and drawing rooms, moring room opening into conservatory, housekeeper's sitting and bedrooms, kitchen and first-class commodious offices and cellarage. Half space: Two servants bedrooms, housemaid's closet, w.c., and back staircase. First Floor: Four good bedrooms and dressing room. Gas and water laid on; The outhouses comprise coal cellar, two w.c.'s, aviary, tool house, summer house, and good conservatory; the stabling, which is of an unusual description, consists of coach house, stable, and large loose box, with covered court yard outside, fodder house, and chicken house; flower and kitchen garden and tennis lawn; paddock in rear with a frontage of about 150 feet to an entrance from Tennyson Road. The property will be submitted to public competition in one lot; failing a purchaser, however, in its entirety, it will be put up in three lots. This charming residence is so admirably situated, well planned and dry, and its well laid out and secluded flower and kitchen gardens so surround it to form a perfect "Bas in Urbe" a desideratum so rarely met with as to make this property one of the most desirable in this favoured residential portion of the town. Particulars and Conditions of Sale may be obtained of Messrs. Twist & Sons, Solicitors, Coventry; or of the Auctioneers, of whom also cards to view can be obtained at his offices, Chapel Road, Worthing.
After Earlsdon Lodge was sold it was renamed Heatherlea and continued to be a private residence for some years. It became a Nursing Home and today Fernbank Nursing Home is on the site.
Mary Elizabeth Howe Morris
One year after his death, Thomas's sole surviving child, Mary Elizabeth Howe Morris, married, aged 49yrs. Her husband was a retired Royal Navy Paymaster, William Henry Hyde, of Horsham, Sussex. Mary was widowed just 6yrs later in 1891 and she died in 1898 in St. Leonard's on Sea, Sussex. She left estate (value 2021) in excess of £3m.