Little is known of Thomas with the exception of his marriages, family and a brief mention is made of him in Bernard Quinlan 's updated book on Chelsworth .

Thomas's first marriage was to Elizabeth Brown on the 24 December 1748 at the Chelsworth  church. It is assumed that Elizabeth was pregnant at the time of her marriage, as on the 19 March 1748/49 her son Thomas R47 was baptised at the same church.

Thomas was the first of four known children, see illustration 22 for an extract of the Raynham Tree .

Thomas was followed in quick succession by baptisms of William R48 in 1750, Ambrose R49 in 1752 and in 1754 John R50, sadly the latter was buried at Chelsworth  just two weeks after his baptism on the 5 November 1754.

Elizabeth also died in 1754 and was buried on the same day as her newborn son John was baptised on the 21 October. It is reasonable to assume that Elizabeth died after given birth to John.

With help from Jane McCallan [1] and from her late father's research it appears that Thomas remarried and on Tuesday1 November 1768 at Chelsworth  to Mary Stead . The parish records state that Mary was a widow at the time of the marriage. Their first child Robert R32, my direct descendant was baptised on Sunday19 February 1769; this looks like a close call judging from the marriage and baptism dates.

Life for Thomas and his family would have centred on the parish of Chelsworth  and his new family can be seen on the tree below.

Chelsworth can trace its history as far back as King Edgar, when in 962 it appears in a charter as "Ceorleswyrthe". [2]

Chelsworth  church has played a significant roll in the Raynham families; not only for their baptisms, marriages and burials but also later in the nineteenth century they became churchwardens to the church. In the Domesday Survey of the manor in 1086 it was described as "a church with 30 acres of ploughland and one meadow". The present Church of All Saints is of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries origins. There are no obvious traces of its Domesday predecessor, with the possible exception of re-use of the older building materials.

Thomas died in 1799 and was buried at Chelsworth  Church on Tuesday 28 May 1799. Mary appears to have lived until 1805 and presumed to have been buried at Chelsworth churchyard.

The church would have played a significant part of the Chelsworth  Raynhams life and the photo below provides a view of the church looking towards the south porch entrance; part of the graveyard can also be seen in the foreground.