Thomas Harman was born 1787 in Rotherfield and died 3rd August 1854 at Uckfield Workhouse aged 67. He was the son of Thomas Harman and Hannah Latter (a widow, nee Hyder). He married Philly Gaston born 1820 in Rotherfield and died 3rd October 1866 in Rotherfield aged 46.

What facts we have been able to trace show that Thomas was a bricklayer and that in 1841 he was in residence at Rotherfield aged 53. Both his parents Thomas and Hannah had seen their lifespan out. Whether Thomas, the son was living at Rotherfield in 1841 in his father and mother's house we do not know, but what we do know is that Thomas married on 14th November 1843 to Philly Gaston, a spinster aged 23 who was the daughter of John Gaston, a labourer, at St. Denys, Rotherfield. The age of Thomas is not given in the marriage entry only ('of-age') and no wonder - he was 55 years old! The witnesses at the marriage were James Akehurst and Ann Fox with the service being conducted by Neville Greame, curate.

In 1844, a baby daughter Ann Maria was born to Thomas and Philly and baptised on 24th August 1844, nine months after the marriage. Unfortunately, the girl Ann Maria was buried on 30th April 1847 aged two years. After the death of Thomas and Philly's daughter in 1847, Thomas must have commenced to lose his sight.In the census taken in 1851, four years later, he is lodged in the Union poor house at Uckfield as: Thomas Harman, blind bricklayer, aged 64, married. Three years later, on 3rd August 1854, Thomas was buried at aged 67. Thomas probably lost his sight with the lime used at times in bricklaying.

It may make you think! Why could not his brother James or his sisters have had Thomas when he was going blind? But remember the times, each person had their own family's survival to contend with. Additional mouths to succour could eventually mean the family not surviving. Thomas did not marry until late in life and he may have been responsible for Thomas and Hannah while they were alive as no records show them obtaining poor relief. We also know it was he who reported his mother's death and was issued with the death certificate.

Philly Harman nee Gaston we know that she was twenty-three years old when she married Thomas and would only have been thirty-four when Thomas died. Widows of that age remarried. Don't forget Hannah married Thomas his father at the age of thirty-three having had two children and having eight more by the time she was fifty yet she still lived to the grand old age of eighty-four. Philly Harman however remained a widow and was buried in Rotherfield on 3rd October 3rd 1866 at the age of 46. A widow for twelve years after the death of Thomas.