Home · Foulkes line

Thomas Foulkes (candidate father, 1750s–1816)

Reported or candidate father of Jane Foulkes; not proved. Died at Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Best Evidence

1. Possible

   Geneanet and public-tree reconstruction identify Thomas Foulkes as Jane's father, with death at Shrewsbury on 24 November 1816, but this is not primary proof.

2. Possible

   The St Peter, Liverpool Jane baptism names father Thomas Foulkes, abode Argyle Street, occupation shipwright; it is not yet proved to be Thomas McKenna's wife.

3. Possible

   The Llanrhos 1780–1781 Thomas + Anne Foulkes cluster may be Jane's family or a near collateral line.

4. Possible

   The St Chad, Shrewsbury 1748 Thomas Foulkes + Anne Lloyd marriage may belong one generation higher unless the licence proves otherwise.

5. Negative

   No Foulkes regular-Army officer has surfaced in the 1816/1817 Army Lists, weakening a literal regular-military captain reading.

Next Targets

1. OpenPull the Findmypast or Ancestry image for Thomas Foulkes's 1816 Shrewsbury burial.
2. OpenPull the 1778 Liverpool baptism image for Jane and inspect the surrounding Foulkes entries, without assuming Liverpool is the target.
3. OpenSearch Llanrhos baptisms and the 1780 marriage original for witness and residence clues.
4. OpenOrder the 1748 St Chad marriage licence allegation / bond for Thomas Foulkes + Anne Lloyd.

Evidence Log

Shrewsbury and the Welsh border

Dying at Shrewsbury is consistent with either English or Welsh roots. Shrewsbury sits on the English side of the border but is the historic market and trading hub for north-east Wales; Foulkes is a common surname in Denbighshire, Flintshire, and Montgomeryshire just across the border (the name derives from ap Ffowlc, "son of Foulk", a Germanic / Norman given name carried over into medieval Marcher administration). A contemporary of Thomas's generation, Peter Foulkes (1676–1747) of the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, was a Fellow of New College Oxford and rector of several Shropshire parishes — confirming that Foulkes-surnamed clergy were embedded in Shropshire by the early-to-mid 18th century.

Family geography

With Anne tentatively linked to Chester/Handbridge, Thomas dying in Shrewsbury, and competing candidate records in Liverpool and Llanrhos, the Foulkes family now looks less like a single fixed parish problem and more like a mobile Irish Sea / north-Wales / border family. Liverpool, Llanrhos, Chester, and Shrewsbury are now the four documentary anchors to reconcile.

Exact-date Jane candidate — Liverpool, 1778

A May 2026 user-supplied parish-register transcript gives a St Peter, Liverpool baptism for Jane Foulkes, daughter of Thomas Foulkes, born 11 February 1778 and baptized 22 February 1778. The family abode was Argyle Street, and Thomas was noted as a shipwright. This remains a useful Jane-specific baptism candidate because it matches Jane's inherited birth date exactly. It is not proof: Liverpool itself is not confirmed for Thomas McKenna's wife, it conflicts with the inherited "Wales" birthplace, and it does not name Jane's mother. Working note: raw/jane-foulkes-liverpool-st-peter-baptism-1778-2026-05.md.

New Welsh family-cluster lead — Llanrhos, 1780–1781

A May 2026 user-supplied online parish-register transcript records a baptism at St Hilary, Llan-rhos, Caernarfonshire, on 25 December 1781: Mary Foulkes, daughter of Thomas and Anne Foulkes. This is a stronger clue than a same-name marriage by itself, because it places a Thomas + Anne Foulkes household in north Wales within a few years of Jane Foulkes's reported 1778 birth date.

A separate St Hilary marriage index gives a likely matching marriage in the same parish: Thomas Foulkes of Llanrhos married Anne Thomas on 31 July 1780. If the 1780 marriage and 1781 baptism belong to the same couple, Anne Thomas becomes the strongest live candidate for this Llanrhos mother. The caution is that Jane's current birth date, 11 February 1778, predates the marriage; the original Llanrhos baptism register needs to be searched for Jane Foulkes, Jane Foulke/Foulk, and possibly Jane Thomas. Working note: raw/mary-foulkes-llanrhos-baptism-1781-2026-05.md.

Earlier candidate marriage — St Chad, Shrewsbury, 1748

A May 2026 user-supplied online parish-register transcript records a marriage at St Chad, Shrewsbury, on 28 April 1748: groom Thos. Foulkes, bride Anne Lloyd, by licence. This is a strong locality/name candidate because St Chad is already the leading candidate parish for Thomas's 1816 Shrewsbury burial, and Lloyd is a very plausible Welsh-border surname.

The date, however, creates a generation problem, and the Llanrhos cluster now makes that problem sharper. If this is Jane Foulkes's parents' marriage, the current Geneanet age estimates for both Thomas and Anne are probably too late: Thomas may have been born closer to the 1720s and died very elderly in 1816, while Jane's 1778 birth would be a late child of Anne Lloyd. The competing reading is cleaner on ages: the 1748 couple may be Jane's grandparents, with a younger Thomas Foulkes born in the 1750s later marrying a different Anne and fathering Jane.

Because the transcript says Lic., the next record to pull is the Shropshire marriage licence allegation / bond. That should give ages or "21 and upwards", statuses, parishes of residence, and possibly occupation or bondsman, and should tell us whether Anne Lloyd belongs on Jane's parent line or one generation higher. Working note: raw/thomas-foulkes-anne-lloyd-st-chad-marriage-1748-2026-05.md.

Where the 1816 Shrewsbury burial record actually is

A deep search pass in April 2026 (raw at raw/foulkes-deep-search-2026-04.md) pinned down why the Nov 1816 burial does not turn up in free online transcripts: the Shropshire Parish Register Society published its 25+ Shrewsbury-area transcripts with a hard cut-off at 1812 (the effective date of George Rose's Act, which imposed a new register format). All the melocki.org.uk and archive.org Shrewsbury transcriptions — including the 11-volume St Chad's set — therefore end in 1812, four years before Thomas's death. The post-1812 registers are indexed, but paywalled: Findmypast Shropshire Burials (ca. 800,000 records 1538–1900) and Ancestry "Shropshire, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials 1813–1900" both cover it. The candidate parish is most likely St Chad's new church (the large neoclassical rotunda on St Chad's Terrace built 1790–92 after the old tower fell), which continued the old St Chad's register and handled the bulk of Shrewsbury town burials in the early 19th century. Secondary candidates: St Mary's, St Alkmund's, St Julian's, Shrewsbury Abbey. Holy Trinity, Meole Brace, is ruled out (register begins 1840).

Parallel routes to the same record: a contemporary death notice in the Shrewsbury Chronicle (pub. since 23 Nov 1772) or the Salopian Journal for the week of 27 Nov or 4 Dec 1816, on the British Newspaper Archive (subscription); a will, if Thomas left one, at the Lichfield Record Office (the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry held probate jurisdiction over Shropshire until 1857).

The "Captain of the Yeos" claim

Donald James McKenna's family history calls Jane "Lady Jane who was the daughter of the English Captain", and Sue McKenna of Parknadoon, Listowel (a descendant in a separate line, per Richard Roche's 1998 Irish Times column) calls her father "the captain of the Yeos" — i.e. an Irish Yeomanry captain. This attaches an occupation to Thomas that the Geneanet record does not confirm.

The new Liverpool baptism candidate gives a different occupational signal: if it is our Jane, the candidate father Thomas Foulkes was a shipwright at Liverpool in 1778. That does not support a military captaincy, but it does fit an Irish Sea / port-world explanation for later movement between Britain and Ireland. It also raises the possibility that "English Captain" was a later family gloss, not a literal rank.

A 1 June 2026 Google Books / Play Books pass through open War Office militia and yeomanry list controls found a real Thomas Foulkes military entry, but not the one needed for the McKenna bridge. In the 1797 War Office list, Thomas Foulkes is a lieutenant in the Denbighshire Militia, commissioned 3 July 1796. The same page names John Powell Foulkes as a Denbighshire Militia captain, commissioned 25 September 1794; later 1809, 1820, and 1825 lists carry John Powell Foulkes forward as major and then lieutenant-colonel, while Thomas no longer appears. This is definite Welsh military-control evidence, not proof that Jane's father was the "captain of the Yeos."

The second-iteration deep search (April 2026, raw/foulkes-deep-search-iteration-2-2026-04.md) has now materially constrained the claim with three negatives:

• No "Foulkes" commissioned officer appears in the British monthly Army Lists for January 1816 or January 1817 (archive.org, full-text searched). Thomas was therefore not a regular British-Army captain at the time of or just before his death.
• No "Foulkes" appears anywhere in the Royal Kalendar 1819 — military, civil, ecclesiastical, or colonial sections (archive.org, full-text searched).
• No "Foulkes" among the named Shropshire Yeomanry officers 1795–1828 documented by the Shropshire Regimental Museum (Col. William Cludde 1795; Capt. Sir Baldwyn Leighton c. 1823–28; Col. Wingfield; Lt.Col. Lloyd). Not a full roll, so not conclusive — but another negative.

Live routes that could still sustain the "captain" claim are now narrower: the Listowel Yeomanry Corps account book at NLI N.6491 / microfilm POS 8125, the Feale Cavalry account book at NLI N.6205, P.6942, FamilySearch/Armagh DGS 7242463 for the full 1797 Dublin Castle Irish district-corps alphabetical index, original Irish militia/yeomanry commission material, and family/probate/settlement records. Georgian Army Officers and the open Google Books list controls are useful negatives and controls, but they have not produced a Jane/Mary/Thomas McKenna bridge.

Fowke / Ormathwaite correspondence leads

The Fowke spelling should stay as a lead, not a conclusion. British Library Mss Eur D546 is a real Fowke/Benn/Walsh correspondence collection tied to the Ormathwaite network, but its public handlist has no Foulkes, Thomas Foulkes, Jane Foulkes, McKenna, Ballyduhig, Kerry, Liverpool, or Shrewsbury hit. These people are therefore network leads to track, not proved relatives of Thomas Foulkes.

Do not confuse the Benares Resident Francis Fowke with the later Captain Francis Fowke, Royal Engineers (1823-1865). The later man was military, but he is outside the period and family cluster being tested here. The Boughrood Jane Fowke test is now logged separately, with a negative result for Jane Foulkes McKenna. Working notes: raw/bl-mss-eur-d546-handlist-crawl-2026-05-28.md, raw/boughrood-jane-fowke-test-2026-05-28.md, raw/evidence/royalcollection-rcin-735077b-wimbledon-captain-fowke-iiif-proof-2026-06-01.md, and raw/evidence/googlebooks-war-office-militia-yeomanry-foulkes-control-pass-2026-06-01.md.

Shrewsbury Foulkes continuity — 17th to 19th century

Two open-access findings from the second-iteration pass establish that our Thomas is part of a standing Shrewsbury-area Foulkes lineage, not a transient Welsh-border migrant:

• Elinor, wife of Thomas Foulke, buried at St Chad's Shrewsbury, 25 December 1684 — per Mel Lockie's transcription of the Shropshire Parish Register Society's St Chad's Shrewsbury Part 2 (melocki.org.uk/salop/StChadShrewsburyPart2.html). The "-e" is a standard 17th-century variant of the "Foulkes" spelling. This is the earliest documented Foulkes presence in Shrewsbury on any free online source — 132 years before our Thomas died there.
• Thomas Foulkes, Entrances in 1810 — per the Shrewsbury School Register 1734–1908 (G.W. Fisher ed., 1908; archive.org shrewsburyschool00shreuoft). No father's name or address is recorded (pre-1836 entries in that register are notoriously sparse). Age-plausibility: a school new entry in 1810 would typically be 11–14, implying a birth year of ca. 1796–1799. A son of our Thomas-d-1816 born in that window would fit; he could also be a grandson or same-named nephew. The Shrewsbury School archives (Taylor Library) hold the original admission books which may record father's name even though Fisher's 1908 published register didn't.
• FreeREG's St Mary Shrewsbury unique-names index contains FOULK, FOULKE, FOULKES (and FOWKES / FOWKS variants) — confirming the surname is present in St Mary's register ca. 1584–1900 though the hit-list itself is JS-gated.
• Later 19th-century: an Edwin Foulkes of Castle Ward Within appears in Bagshaw's 1851 Shrewsbury Directory, and a William Foulkes was landlord of the Swan Inn, Shrewsbury (date not captured; Shrewsbury Chronicle inquest notice).

Open questions

• Where exactly was Thomas born? Somewhere in north-east Wales or the Shropshire / Cheshire borders is the most plausible guess, unresolved.
• Best next lookup — paid/subscription: Findmypast Shropshire Burials for Thomas Foulkes Nov 1816 Shrewsbury. The image often records age and occupation, which would simultaneously confirm birth-decade and settle the "captain" question.
• Resolve the Liverpool baptism as a candidate. The St Peter entry matches Jane's exact birth date and gives Thomas Foulkes as a shipwright of Argyle Street. Pull the original image and surrounding entries to check mother omission, occupation, and family cluster, but do not treat Liverpool as confirmed.
• Resolve the Llanrhos cluster second. The 1781 Mary Foulkes baptism proves a Thomas + Anne Foulkes household in north Wales; the likely 1780 Llanrhos marriage points to Anne Thomas. Search St Hilary baptisms around 1777–1782 for Jane Foulkes / Jane Thomas and other siblings, but treat it as secondary to the exact-date Liverpool record for Jane herself.
• Resolve the 1748 St Chad marriage by licence. The 28 Apr 1748 Thos. Foulkes + Anne Lloyd marriage remains relevant, but now looks more likely to be earlier-generation unless the licence proves otherwise.
• Fowke / Ormathwaite archive route. The named Boughrood Jane Fowke is currently adverse for Jane Foulkes McKenna, so estate papers, correspondence, and original probate/Chancery records are stronger next steps than a simple Jane Fowke identity chase.
• Irish district-corps index. FamilySearch/Armagh DGS 7242463, Film 1279329 Item 25, is now the best access route to the unread 1797 Irish district-corps alphabetical index; no Thomas/Fowke/Foulkes/Ffoulkes names were readable in the current web pass.
• Will at Lichfield Record Office, if any.
• Tipperary-Cromwellian identification — now weakened. Was Thomas connected to the "Cromwellian-origin south-Tipperary Foulkes family" (Simon Foulkes, 1766 Clonmel jury; 18th-c. Foulkeses in Clonmel and Piltown) that Richard Roche's 1998 column speculatively associated with Jane? A focused April 2026 follow-up pass (raw/foulkes-tipperary-hypothesis-test-2026-04.md) returned four convergent negatives: no Foulkes in Bassett's 1889 Clonmel directory, no Foulkes estate in Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland or the Landed Estates Database, Foulkscourt (the Piltown locale Roche cited) was Hely property from 1697, and Simon Foulkes does not appear on the Irish Times Irishman's Diary petit-jury list of the 1766 Sheehy trial. No documentary link between our Foulkes candidates and any Tipperary or Kilkenny Foulkes has surfaced in two full deep-search passes. The Liverpool and Llanrhos leads point back to the Irish Sea / north-Wales / English-border search zone, not to Roche's south-Tipperary hypothesis.
• Foulkesmill (Co Wexford), Foulksrath Castle (Co Kilkenny), and Foulkscourt (near Piltown, Co Kilkenny) as Foulkes-family seats: all three ruled out. All derive from the medieval Norman Christian name Foulk; none was held by a surname Foulkes family in the 18th century (Foulkesmill: zero Foulkes in Bassett 1885; Foulksrath: Swifte family per Burke's; Foulkscourt: Hely from 1697, planned village 1770).

Primary source: Geneanet public tree "peterterren", profile p=thomas&n=foulkes. Verbatim copy at ../raw/geneanet-peterterren-thomas-foulkes.md. Deep-search pass (April 2026): ../raw/foulkes-deep-search-2026-04.md and second iteration ../raw/foulkes-deep-search-iteration-2-2026-04.md. Exact-date Liverpool baptism candidate: ../raw/jane-foulkes-liverpool-st-peter-baptism-1778-2026-05.md. New Llanrhos family-cluster lead: ../raw/mary-foulkes-llanrhos-baptism-1781-2026-05.md. New 1748 St Chad marriage candidate: ../raw/thomas-foulkes-anne-lloyd-st-chad-marriage-1748-2026-05.md. Boughrood Jane Fowke negative test: ../raw/boughrood-jane-fowke-test-2026-05-28.md. Current Mary/Jane/Fowke/Foulkes recheck: ../raw/evidence/current-web-mary-jane-father-recheck-2026-06-01.md. Google Books War Office militia/yeomanry control pass: ../raw/evidence/googlebooks-war-office-militia-yeomanry-foulkes-control-pass-2026-06-01.md. FamilySearch/Armagh yeomanry access route: ../raw/evidence/familysearch-armagh-yeomanry-1797-1825-access-route-2026-06-01.md. Eriviat Foulkes authority page: ../raw/Foulkes family, of Eriviat - National Library of Wales Archives and Manuscripts.html. Richard Roche, Irish Times, 11 Aug 1998, at ../raw/irish-times-richard-roche-1998-brave-united-irishman.md.