Coastal Women - Diversity of Roles

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The Thoms Family

The Rooms Provincial Archives, VA 152-92, Mrs. Thoms and seven of her nine children, Fox Harbour, 12 July 1893 /, Eliot Curwen, Eliot Curwen fonds

Additional Information  On 12 July 1893, Eliot Curwen noted in his journal: [Mrs. Thoms] is a widow…They are wearing all the clothes they possess…[Mrs. Thoms] looked a fisherman [emphasis added] and seemed to enjoy her dirty work on the stage, cleaning & splitting fish.' Later in the summer, she remarried and the economic resources which she brought to the marriage were underscored by Curwen: 'Widow Thoms who owns half a schooner and half a house & fish stage married a Mr. Wakeham, a gentleman utterly devoid of property…'