Death of Thomas Cook

​​On this day in 1892 Thomas Cook, preacher, business man and forefather of English tourism, died at his home in Leicester.

​Thomas Cook was born in 1808 in the Derbyshire town of Melbourne, he began his working life at the age of ten in a local market garden and later as a cabinet maker. In his mid twenties he came involved with the Temperance Movement, a society that promoted moderation and abstinence in the use of alcohol, he organised meetings and anti drink marches. It was while Cook was "walking from Market Harborough to Leicester to attend a meeting of the Temperance Society" that he came up with the idea of the excursion which led to the foundation of his company Thomas Cook and Son in 1872.

Photograph Credit: Paul Slater 

Also born and living in Melbourne at the same time as Cooks family, were my 3x great grandparents George and Ann Tivey. A incident in Anne's life, a generation before Thomas Cook was born, would bring Ann in her later years into the Temperance Movement, Anne knew too well the perils drunkenness could bring. 

Ann and George's marriage was a short one, the entry in the Melbourne burial register  explains why: 

                      “George Tivey was kill’d by a fall in ye belfry, being taken up by ye rope as he was ringing.  He languishe’d
                                                     about 30 hours after ye accident. N.B. He was in Liquor.”   ​

There is no other written evidence regarding Georges accident, therefore we can only speculate whether or not he was a serious drinker or how it affected Ann and their marriage.  George would have certainly died at home, leaving her a widow at twenty-five and a baby to bring up, however, what would keep Anne going was the church.  The growth of Methodism in the second-half of the 18th century, the teachings of the Baptist church and its involvement with the Temperance Movement would have been a comfort to Anne, she had, as we have seen, good reason to be been keenly involved with this movement and its attempts to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed within a community and in society.

Most of the movement's main supporters would have been women who were opposed to the domestic violence associated with alcohol abuse, and the large share of household income it could consume, which was especially burdensome to the low income working class. Anne remarried, she went on to have six children with her second husband John Calow. 

As if to prove her commitment to the church, six days before they were married, Anne and John were baptised at their local baptist church.