Hastings - Thomas, JW & WA (2)

Click here to return to Home Page

Professional Photographers in Hastings (T)

John Wesley Thomas (1831-1908)

Part Two: 1888-1908

[ABOVE] The reverse of an 1890s carte-de-visite by John Wesley Thomas of 45 George Street, Hastings, featuring a design popular with photographers in the 1890s.
By 1888, John Wesley Thomas had passed his studio at 21 White Rock, Hastings to his daughter Annie and her husband Melancthon Moore. From this date, J. W. Thomas operated his photography business from his former studio at 45 George Street, Hastings.

In 1888, John Wesley Thomas had been in business as a professional photographer for thirty years - longer than any other photographer in Hastings. That same year, John Wesley Thomas, together with another veteran professional photographer Henry James Godbold, was involved in the setting up of the Hastings & St Leonards Photographic Society. John Thomas was unable to attend the Photographic Society's inaugural meeting on 22nd October 1888 and sent his apologies, but his twenty-one year old son, William Arthur Thomas was there to represent his father. Also present at the inaugural meeting was John Thomas's son-in-law, the photographer Melancthon Moore. The majority of the members of the Photographic Society were amateurs, but amongst their ranks were a few local professional photographers including George William Bradshaw, who had just taken over the Memorial Studio at 51c Robertson Street, Henry Bultz, the chief photographer at the Boning & Small studio in Verulam Place (recently acquired by Mrs Sophia Rogerson), George Pearson, who was well known as an outdoor and beach photographer, and Charles Ash Talbot, who, within a couple of years, was to establish his own studio in the neighbouring seaside resort of Bexhill-o-Sea. Another founder member, chemist Algernon Brooker, was later to set up a shop in Wellington Place, selling photographic materials.

 

[ABOVE]  A portrait of young woman wearing a traditional style dress and holding a tambourine. A cabinet format photograph by J. W. Thomas of 45 George Street, Hastings (c1892). Negative No.2238. [ABOVE]  A vignette portrait of young woman. A cabinet format photograph by J. W. Thomas of 45 George Street, Hastings (c1895). Negative No.5138.

 

John Wesley Thomas's Final Years

John Wesley Thomas had lived and worked at 45 George Street, Hastings since 1865. J. W. Thomas's only surviving son William Arthur Thomas (born 1867, Hastings) had worked as an assistant in the family photography business since he left school and, from the age of twenty-one, William took on a more active role at the George Street studio. By 1891, John Wesley Thomas and his wife Jane, together with their youngest daughter Alice Rachel Thomas (born 1870, Hastings) were residing at 1 Croft Villas, New Croft Road, Hastings, and William Arthur Thomas was based at the studio in George Street. At the time of the 1891 census, William A. Thomas was single and living at the family home at 451/2  George Street, Hastings with his unmarried cousin, forty-three year old Ellen Thomas, who served as his housekeeper.

Around 1899, John Wesley Thomas retired from the photography business and the day-to-day running of the George Street studio became the responsibility of his son William Arthur Thomas [see below]. When the 1901 census was taken, John W. Thomas is entered on the return as a "Retired Photographer", aged 69. By this date, all the surviving children of John and Jane Thomas had married. Annie, their eldest child, was the wife of photographer Melancthon Moore and their second daughter, Ellen, was living in Southborough, Kent, where her husband John Charles Dudeney (born 1862, Southborough, Kent) ran a grocery. The couple's only son William Arthur Thomas had married Agnes Shoesmith (born 1869, Hastings) in 1891. Alice Rachel Thomas, the youngest daughter, became the wife of William John Parker, a Hastings bank clerk, in 1892.

John Wesley Thomas was widowed when Mrs Jane Thomas, his wife of nearly 50 years, died early in 1905 at the age of seventy. John Wesley Thomas was seventy-seven years old when he died in Hastings in 1908 [ John Wesley Thomas's death was registered in Hastings during the third quarter of 1908].

[ABOVE] A portrait of Mrs Jane Thomas (1869-1905), the wife of the Hastings photographer John Wesley Thomas.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Sue Peyman-Stroud

 

[ABOVE]  A portrait of young woman standing by an elaborate cane chair. A cabinet format photograph by J. W. Thomas of 45 George Street, Hastings (c1899). Negative No.6,915. [ABOVE]  The back of  the J. W. Thomas' cabinet portrait of the young woman shown on the left. Note the "Five prize medals" for photography and the negative number of 6,915.

 

Click on the link below to view early examples of the photographic work of John Wesley Thomas

The Photographic Work of John Wesley Thomas

 

William Arthur Thomas (1867-1927)

[ABOVE] A portrait of the photographer William Arthur Thomas (1867-1927). The son of the veteran Hastings photographer John Wesley Thomas (1831-1908), William Arthur Thomas took over his father's studio at 45 George Street, Hastings around 1900.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Sue Peyman-Stroud

William Arthur Thomas was born in Hastings, Sussex in 1867, the son of Jane and John Wesley Thomas, a professional photographer. [The birth of William Arthur Thomas was registered in Hastings during the second quarter of 1867]. William Arthur Thomas was the third boy born to John and Jane Thomas, but he appears to have been the only one of John Wesley Thomas's sons to reach adulthood.

William Arthur Thomas probably served his apprenticeship as a photographer under his father John Wesley Thomas and we can assume that he assisted his father at his studio at 45 George Street, Hastings until John Thomas retired from the business around 1900, when he was in his late sixties. At the age of twenty-one, William Arthur Thomas was a founder member of the Hastings & St Leonards Photographic Society which held its inaugural meeting at the School of Art, Claremont, Hastings on 22nd October 1888.

When the 1891 census was taken on 5th April 1891, William Arthur Thomas was residing at 45a George Street, the living quarters attached to the photographic studio at No. 45. William A. Thomas, an unmarried man of twenty-four, is entered as a "Photographer" on the census return. William Thomas shared his home with Ellen Elizabeth Thomas (born 1848, Hastings), an unmarried cousin who served as his housekeeper.

Towards the end of 1891, William Arthur Thomas married Agnes Shoesmith (born 1869, Hastings), a daughter of Ann and John Shoesmith, a furniture broker with business premises in High Street, Hastings. In 1894, the couple became the parents of a boy named Arthur Wesley Thomas [Arthur's birth was registered in Hastings during the second quarter of 1894].

After his father retired from the photography business around 1900, William Arthur Thomas took over the photographic studio at 45 George Street, Hastings. From 1900, the studio carried the name of "William A. Thomas". When the 1901 census was taken, William and Agnes Thomas and their six year old son, Arthur, were recorded at 45 George Street, Hastings. Interestingly, William A. Thomas is described on the census return as a "Photographer (Professor)", aged 34, working "at home" on his "own account" (i.e. self employed).

When the 1911 census was taken, William Arthur Thomas, his wife Agnes and their teenage son are recorded at 45 George Street, Hastings. William Arthur Thomas is described on the census return as a "Photographer", aged 44. William's sixteen year old son, Arthur Wesley Thomas, gives his occupation as "Pupil Teacher of Handicraft in Elementary School".

The studio of William A. Thomas at 45 George Street, Hastings was still in business in 1918, but is not listed in local trade directories after 1922.

 

William Arthur Thomas and the Shoesmith Family of Hastings

[ABOVE] The wedding portrait of the photographer William Arthur Thomas (1867-1927) and his bride Agnes Shoesmith (1869-1951). This cabinet size photograph was taken in 1890 at 45 George Street, Hastings, the studio owned by William's father, John Wesley Thomas (1831-1908)

PHOTO: Courtesy of Sue Peyman-Stroud

During the 4th Quarter of 1891, William Arthur Thomas married Agnes Shoesmith (born 1869, Hastings), a twenty-two year old assistant school mistress. Agnes Shoesmith was the daughter of Ann and John Shoesmith, a furniture broker with business premises in High Street, Hastings.

Agnes Shoesmith was born in Hastings during the 3rd Quarter 1869. Agnes was the second youngest of 9 children born to John Shoesmith (1831-1902) and Ann Honeysett (1832-1908). When John Shoesmith married Ann Honeysett (born 1832, Dallington, Sussex) in 1851, he was working as a labourer, but around the time Agnes was born in 1869, he had set himself up as a furniture dealer in the High Street of Hastings.

Agnes Shoesmith had at least 8 siblings: Martha (born 1852, Hastings), John Shoesmith junior (born 1854, Hastings), Ann (born 1856, Hastings), Frank Shoesmith (born 1858, Hastings), Lydia (born 1860, Hastings), George Shoesmith (born 1861, Hastings), Benjamin Shoesmith (born 1865, Hastings), Frederick Shoesmith (born 1867, Hastings) and Ellen Shoesmith (born 1871, Hastings).

When the census was taken on 5th April 1891, twenty-one year old Agnes Shoesmith was employed as a school teacher. (The census return records Agnes Shoesmith as an "Assistant Mistress", aged 21). Agnes presumably gave up her teaching career when she married William Arthur Thomas towards the end of 1891.

In 1894, Agnes gave birth to a son named Arthur Wesley Thomas [ Arthur's birth was registered in Hastings during the second quarter of 1894]. Arthur Wesley Thomas did not become a photographer like his father and grandfather, but chose instead to pursue a career as a school teacher, as his mother had done before her marriage. By 1911, sixteen year old Arthur Thomas was working as a "Pupil Teacher of Handicraft" at a local "Elementary School". Sue Peyman-Stroud, Arthur's niece, reports that Arthur Wesley Thomas later became a school teacher in London.

[ABOVE] A portrait of Agnes Shoesmith (1869-1951), the young school teacher who married the Hastings photographer William Arthur Thomas in 1891.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Sue Peyman-Stroud

 

Photographs from the Studio of William Arthur Thomas of 45 George Street, Hastings

[ABOVE] Small photographic portrait on an embossed mount by William A. Thomas of 45 George Street, Hastings (c1904)

[ABOVE] The trade stamp of William A. Thomas printed on the reverse of the photograph above.
[ABOVE] The reverse of a carte-de-visite produced by William A. Thomas at 45 George Street, Hastings (c1902). At this date, William Arthur Thomas was continuing to use his father's sequence of photographic negative numbers (i.e. 62,071), but within a few years he had started his own negative register, with numbers running from 0001 to 12,000 and beyond. [ABOVE] The reverse of a carte-de-visite produced by William A. Thomas at 45 George Street, Hastings around 1903. The photographic mount carries the negative number of 62,479. The publicity on this trade plate refers to an establishment date of "1858" and  "Seven Prize Medals"( five of the prize medals were awarded to the photographer's father, John Wesley Thomas). [ABOVE] A carte-de-visite portrait of an unknown man photographed by William A. Thomas of 45 George Street, Hastings (c1903). The negative number of 62,479 has been pencilled on the reverse of the photograph. (See illustration on the left). By 1903, carte-de-visite portraits were going out of fashion, being replaced by other formats e.g. postcards, small photos on embossed mounts
 
 

Click on the link below to view further examples of the photographic work of William Arthur Thomas

The Photographic Work of William Arthur Thomas

 

Click here to go back to  John Wesley Thomas - Part One (1858-1887)

 

Click here to view examples of The Photographic Work of John Wesley Thomas

 

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Sue Peyman-Stroud who kindly provided the portraits of John Wesley Thomas, his son William Arthur Thomas and their respective wives. Sue Peyman-Stroud is the great grand-daughter of Annie Shoesmith, the sister of William Arthur Thomas' wife Agnes Shoesmith (1870-1951). 

[ABOVE] A portrait of the veteran Hastings photographer John Wesley Thomas (1831-1908).

PHOTO: Courtesy of Sue Peyman-Stroud

Click here to return to Home Page