Thomas Healey

Emory Clarence Smith's Great Great Grandfather

Thomas Healey

Even though our direct ancestors, James and John, were born in Heanor, Derbyshire, England, and their parents, Thomas Eley and Mary Eggleyshaw, also were of the same place, it is a tradition in the family that they formerly were from Ireland. As was the custom in Ireland in the early days, the oldest child inherited the property of the parents and the younger children had to move out to find a place to live in. Soon all the property was used up and they had no place to go, so they moved to England. We have no record between that time and September 30, 1782, when John Eley and Martha Martin (parents of Thomas Eley) were married in Heanor, Derbyshire, England. There are many Healeys from Cork County, Ireland, so perhaps the Healeys crossed the St. George’s Channel in the Irish Sea and settled in England. There are also a lot of Healeys settled in Yorkshire, England, and we find the name changed at Derby to Eley.
Thomas Healey was born October 25, 1784, in Heanor, Derby, England, near the border of Nottinghamshire, nine miles north east from Derby in the parish of that name. It was a population of about 2672. This town is pleasantly situated on a hill on the road from London to Matlock and in the neighborhood are several coalmines, and some extensive iron works, affording employment to a considerable portion of the inhabitants.
Thomas was the son of John Eley, born about 1756, and Martha Martin, born about 1755. They married September 30, 1782, and Thomas Eley was born October 25, 1784, so perhaps the first child. He had a sister, Elizabeth, who was christened March 21, 1790. There is another child listed but no date is given. Thomas was christened 5 November 1784 in Heanor, Derby, England.
We know nothing about his early life until he was married 4 November 1806, when he was twenty-two years old, to Phoebe Wilds, who was christened February 7, 1785, at Marpool, Derby, England. To this union was born five children: Hannah, Mary, John, Ann, and Thomas.
They were only married thirteen years when his wife died, January 23, 1820. She lacked only one month of being thirty-five years old. This one so very young to die and leave a small family. This was indeed a great tragedy and a responsibility to be left to be both father and mother to his family.
How he met his second wife and exactly when he was married again is not known, but it must have been in 1821. He married Mary Eggleshaw, about nineteen years his junior, daughter of Thomas and Mary Kirkham Eggleshaw, of the same place. They had eight children: Benjamin, James, Phoebe, John, Richard, Joseph, George, and Jane.
Mary took most of the responsibility of the family, as Thomas wasn’t very strong. He earned what he could from teaching and writing music. They were very poor and so his wife had to be very conservative. She was known to have walked three miles to save one cent on a loaf of bread, and out of necessity, allowed each member a certain amount of food a day. Members of the family had to go out to work at a very early age to help support the family. James and John worked in the coalmines near by, James started when we was only eight years old. His work was opening and shutting the doors as the donkeys passed through with their loads. He would enter the mine before daylight and leave after dark, never seeing the sun for years, except on Sunday.
His son, John, went to work in the mine when fourteen years old.
Thomas died at the age of sixty-one years, February 13, 1845, in Heanor, Derby, England, leaving Mary, his wife forty-two years of age, with a family to raise alone. Her youngest child being seven years old.
Their son, James, was married the same year as his father’s death. Three of the eight children had died, leaving James, Phoebe, John, Joseph, and Jane to survive their father, plus his children by the previous marriage. Mary died just four years after her son James went to Utah with his family, on February 5, 1858 at Heanor, Derby, England. She was survived by James, Phoebe, John, Joseph, and Ja