Thomas Shayle George d.1868

Born between about 1812 and 1818 in Wales; raised a family in Auckland, New Zealand; died 1868, Illinois, USA.

Thomas Shayle George:
- was the first Shayle George;
- practiced as a solicitor in Wales and in New Zealand
- migrated to New Zealand;
- married Frances Southwell [Shayle George], who is listed in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography as an early educator of girls.
Note that some of the following narrative has been inferred from circumstantial evidence. Anything particularly questionable is flagged as such.

Origins
Thomas was born in Monmouth, which is in the south of Wales: north of Newport and close to the border of England. His father, Thomas George, married Mary Shayle on 20th November 1811; they had a daughter, Eleanor, christened on the 18th of December that year. Mary Shayle's parents were William Shayle (an Ironmonger) and Margaret Rudge, married 20th November 1792. Shayle is an unusual surname, largely confined to Hereford, an English county bordering Monmouthshire.
According to Thomas' granddaughter Hinemoa Shayle George [Simmonds], my grandmother, "the Georges were definitely Welsh. both parents died early and they ie Thomas & Eleanor the children, were brought up in the Shayle household; the Shayles paid for their education as one of their own." Also: "they adopted the Shayle name in honour of the family that sponsored/adopted both his sister and himself". (source: CM)

Early years
The first documentary mention of Thomas is in the will of Sarah Shayle, who died in Monmouth, 1820. It looks like Sarah was Thomas' aunt. Amongst others, she bequeathed to her father William Shayle of Monmouth, Ironmonger (probably Thomas’ grandfather), and to brother and sister Thomas Shayle George and Eleanor George – when they come of age.
Sarah died before her father; it looks like she made the will when it was apparent she might die.
The Shayles must have been well-off, since Sarah also made bequests to servants.

Thomas became a solicitor, probably with the financial help of the Shayles.
The next mention of him is a vellum document [in possession of RWS]. Dated 5 October, 1839, it sets up an ironmonger partnership between Thomas Dyke and Frederick Kinsey Taylor, and it was witnessed by (signed in the presence of) Thomas Shayle George, Solicitor, Monmouth.


Hinemoa’s stories
She has indicated variously that "Thomas' father was a sea captain"; Thomas was descended from “Captain William Shayle of Monmouth”, “Lord High Sheriff of Monmouth”, “Lt-Col George” [who died in Sierra Leone] and “Eleanor Shayle”.
If there is truth to all of this, they may be referring to several different forebears.

Note that he definitely had a sister Eleanor, but Eleanor has also been variously stated as his wife’s [Frances Southwell] sister’s name.


What did he do in Auckland?
Within the first year or so, they paid forty pounds for a small house with five acres of land, about two miles out of town. He was admitted to the New Zealand bar on 10 February 1851. He was first recorded practicing as a barrister in March 1851. But according to DNZB, because his wife started the school later that year, it "seems doubtful that Thomas's professional career flourished in New Zealand".

He had one more son in Auckland - William - and three daughters, the last in 1863. No further word from him subsequent to that, apart from a terse obituary in the New Zealander in 1868, which made no mention of family.
FSG was quite active in education before Thomas died, “Arguing that girls should be educated so that they could, if necessary, support themselves and their dependants” [DNZB]. Possibly influenced by her personal experience - she was well-educated herself.


Then to America
We know is that he died in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1868. This is about 120 miles west of Chicago, near the border with Iowa and running into the Iowa city Davenport. During the Civil War, Rock Island held confederate prisoners-of-war. Thomas had a photo taken (below) in military regalia. The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865, and that and the uniform might suggest his departure was related to the war, except that a) he didn't return after it ended; and b) I cannot identify the uniform as being from the civil war.

Thomas Shayle George, Moline, Illinois

(photographer Charles Peal)

What was he doing there in the first place? It's possible he was visiting his sister Eleanor, who seems to have married a Phillips. Thomas' son William was in Rock Island five years later, and wrote of a relative, Mrs Phillips "about 18 hundred miles from here, in Montana territory, Virginia City". Virginia City, then a gold town, is now a ghost town.

Surname: George or Shayle George?
Although his wife styled herself Frances Shayle George upon marriage, the surname seems to have been simply George right through his children's generation.

However, his son Charles' children all had Shayle in their name, and may have treated the surname variously as George, Shayle George, or Shayle-George. Charles’ son Stephen Edward (Tup) hyphenated his name – thus Shayle-George lived on through Tup's three successive generations - one son per generation, with variously one or two daughters.


Another possible link
I’ve seen mention of one other unidentified person with that name: “Barry Shayle George” was mentioned as one of many sponsors of “Amigos Bravos” – Friends of the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, USA. That latter name could be either a coincidence, or a descendant of Thomas’ son William. Nothing was heard of William subsequent to the 1873 letters from Illinois.

Chronology
1811 Parents married in Monmouth.
1820 Bequeathed by Sarah Shayle (to be paid on majority).
1839 Witnessed document as solicitor, still in Monmouth.
1848-Oct-24: married Frances Southwell, officiated by FS’ half-brother George Southwell (an anglican priest) in his parish in Boyton Wiltshire.
1849-Sep-25: Son born in Newport, Monmouthshire
1850-Aug: The family of three left UK on Sir Edward Paget
1850-Dec-18: arrived in Auckland
1851: Bought house and land in Auckland, admitted to bar.
1851-Sep-21: son William ("Will") born
1852-Oct: wife opened co-ed primary school
1858-Oct-8: daughter Frances (“Minnie”) born (married Leonard Marshall 1902)
1861-May-19: daughter Helena born (married E W Klingender)
1863: daughter Evelyne (“Eva”) born (married Cecil Gardener 1882)
1863-Jul-22: Mother-in-law Martha (Farmer) Southwell arrives from England on the Portland.
1868-Apr: Died in Rock Island, Illinois.
1873: 2nd son William wrote letters from Illinois