Morgans living at Cobhill Farm

Cobble cottage in 2003 showing the setting in a small wooded gully between two fields. Thomas and Ann Morgan, Thomas' brother Joseph, and their three children were living in this cottage at the time of the 1851 census. This green, wooded setting on a farm in Herefordshire was a far cry from the dry desert sagebrush plains Thomas and Ann Morgan would later homestead in Utah.

In the 1851 census for Bishop's Frome Thomas Morgan III, his wife Ann Watkins Morgan, and their children Edward, Elizabeth and Eliza are listed as living at Cobwell. Thomas' younger brother Joseph was living with them. Thomas, Ann and Joseph are categorized as agricultural laborers. Census records were recorded in chronological order as the census taker moved from farm to farm and a study of the record reveals that Cobwell was actually Cobhill farm. (It is common for names to have been altered due to mispronunciation or mishearing). The cottage where Thomas and his family were living in 1851 is a modest Tudor (timber framed) cottage located in a small wooded gully between two fields. Originally one room on the ground floor and one room up in the roof or loft space, it had three adults and three children living in it in 1851. In 2003 it was called Cobble Cottage. It has been only slightly altered and the overall appearance is much as it was in 1851. It still has the original large external stone fireplace and bread oven at the east end. The thatched roof has been replaced and a gable and porch added. It has been restored, of course, and was occupied in 2003, but the restoration was clearly done with the intent of preserving the original character of the cottage. It is an interesting side note that Cobble Cottage is very similar in size and shape to the adobe house Thomas built many years later in Leamington, Utah.

Cobble Cottage, viewed up close, in 2003. Thomas and Ann Morgan were living in this cottage at the time of the 1851 census. Let your mind wander back in time for a moment and visualize Thomas Morgan's wife Ann Watkins Morgan baking bread in the large stone baking oven beside the fireplace. Rocks were heated in the fireplace and placed in the baking oven with the bread to be baked. Thomas and Ann lived in this cottage with Thomas' younger brother Joseph and three children.

Thomas and Ann Morgan in Herefordshire page 11

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