Thomas Freeth of Liverpool

We know little about the early life of Thomas Freeth, except what we can glean from birth records of his children.

Born	most likely between 1723 and 1738
Married	unkown
Died	unknown

Family

Children of THOMAS FREETH are:

1. Thomas Freeth, b 17 November 1758, Liverpool; d 4 Feb 1826, London.
    
2. Phebe Freeth, b 6 July 1760, Liverpool.
    
3. Charles Freeth, b 19 January 1762, Liverpool.

Notes

The Parish Registers from St Nicholas Church, Liverpool show:

Born 17 November 1758. Thomas, S of Thomas Freeth, Stanley Street, Goldsmith. Baptised 28 November 1758.
Born 6 July 1760. Phebe, D of Thomas Freeth, Tythe Barn Street, Goldsmith. Baptised 18 August 1760.
Born 19 January 1762. Charles, S of Tho Frith, Tythe Barn Street, Goldsmith. Baptised 16 March 1762.

Hence we know that Thomas Freeth was a goldsmith in Liverpool in the late 1750’s, living at Stanley Street and Tythe Barn Street. The baptism entry for Charles Frith above shows there was sometimes confusion between Freeth and Frith.

The origins of Thomas Freeth are unknown. Checks of the Parish Records for St Nicholas Church from 1779 back to 1705, have not yielded success in connecting any of the Freeths/Friths with Thomas. None of them were silver/goldsmiths and the first mention of a Freeth is the baptism of Thomas in 1758. One possible conclusion is that the family moved to Liverpool and their stay was only for a few years.

A Freeth hotspot, during the mid 1700’s, was Standish in Lancashire. Standish is near Wigan and is only about 20 miles from Liverpool and this is a possibility. John Freeth has visited the Lancashire Records Office, in Preston, but has not been able to find a connection with the area. Robin Chantry’s theory is that he possibly originated from Kings Norton. The absence of any clues makes it like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the search continues.

Linkage to the London Freeths

The link between this Thomas Freeth with the rest of the Freeth family is not conclusively proven, but is a reasonable deduction from the marriage records of Thomas and Phebe Freeth. The records show they were born in Liverpool in 1758 and 1760, respectively, and their father was a Thomas Freeth who was a goldsmith/silversmith. Phebe was a witness at Thomas' marriage, as was Richard Wise. Phebe eventually married John Wise, and Thomas Freeth was a witness using the same signature as at his own marriage.

From Liverpool to London

There is sufficient evidence to indicate that Thomas Freeth moved to London some time between 1762 and 1773, bringing his family with him. The children would have been no older than 15 years. The baptism of Charles Freeth in 1762 shows that Thomas was still in Liverpool. The first Liverpool Street Directories started in 1766 and Thomas is not listed. However, in 1773 a Thomas Freeth appears in London, registered as a silversmith and living in St Martins Church Lane, The Strand and subsequently 24 Clerkenwell Close, Islington from about 1792.

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