Lucas Genealogy
Below are some Lucas family "highlights".
Cherry Ripe
The earliest Lucas,
Thomas Lucas, was married to
Phebe Wood, daughter of
Moses Wood and Phebe Marsh. Phebe (Wood) is the great-granddaughter of
Ralphe Wood, a colonel in King James' army. He was killed at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. It is said that he was known as "Cherry Ripe"!
Wood-Wedgewood Connection
Phebe Wood's uncle, Ralph Wood (grandson of Cherry Ripe), married
Mary Wedgwood, 3rd cousin of the famous
Josiah Wedgwood. Mary is allegedly a direct descendant of Henry I and William the Conquerer.
The history of the Wedgwood family is well documented, Josiah founded the famous Wedgwood pottery business and was the forebear of some famous descendants (Charles Darwin and Elizabeth Gaskell amongst them).
Ralph Wood (III)
![The Wood factory in the 1840s](../images/wood-factory.png)
Mary Wedgewood's husband (also called Ralph Wood) was quite famous in his own right. He invented the Toby jug and set up a factory with his cousin Enoch (pictured in the 1840s).
The Prize for the Largest Family goes to...
Equal first:
Thomas Lucas & Ellen Gantliff. If my records are correct they produced 17 children between 1861 and 1882. Their names were:
Frank,
Thomas,
Arthur,
Eleanor,
Jane,
Mary,
William Walter,
Jessie,
Eliza,
Ellen,
May (my great-grandmother),
Albert,
Henry,
Fanny,
Harriet,
Albert Gantliff,
Letitia.
That's 7 boys and 10 girls! Letitia is pictured bottom row, far left in the family photo at the top of this page. Her mother Ellen is next to her. Other members of this family are surely in the picture though I can't identify who is who.
Thomas & Ellen's daughter
Jessie was equally prolific. She married James Blakeman and they produced:
James Thomas,
Alice,
William Walter,
Elsie Victoria,
Thomas Lucas,
David,
George,
Elizabeth,
Jesse,
Arthur,
Edward,
Mary,
Harold,
Norman,
John,
Samuel,
Ronald Loos.
13 boys and 4 girls! I feel very inadequate in having produced a single daughter!