Jane Thomas

1881 – 1972

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-04

Jane Thomas — Jenny to everyone, and thereby hangs a tale — was born on the 7th of December 1881 at 2 New Buildings, Great Thornton Street, Hull, the seventh of the eight children of George Thomas, a Brixham-born smack fisherman, and his wife Jane, née Ardington. Her father was at sea when the baby was christened, and came home to find her named Jane against his wishes; he declared she must be called Jenny, "which she was throughout her life". The story is her own daughter Ida's. Her birth certificate settles a quieter confusion: the family came to believe she was born in 1882 — the year on the register heading, for she was not registered until January — but the certificate, the censuses and the registration of her death all agree on 1881.

She grew up in the fisherfolk streets west of the docks — New Buildings, then Arion Terrace off Gillette Street — in a household where the census twice found everyone but the master: "not present, assumed away at sea". By 1901, at nineteen, she was a canvas net braider, one of the Hessle Road women who made and mended the fleet's trawl nets from hooks at the terrace ends.

Then came the turn of her life. She joined the Salvation Army, and on the 26th of November 1905, at St John the Baptist, Newington, she married a Salvationist — Alfred Crabb, a seaman then, a coal merchant in the making. "Both these acts were against the wishes of Thomas and his wife," her daughters remembered, "and they subsequently had very little to no contact with Jane, Alfred and their family." But the register hints the breach was never the whole family's: both bride and groom gave the same lodging address on Havelock Street — she had already left home — and one of the two witnesses who signed was her younger brother Harry. And whatever was said in 1905 had softened by the end: when her father died in the spring of 1916, he was living at 61 Edinburgh Street — two doors from No. 57, where Jenny was raising his grandchildren.

The 1921 census finds the family complete at 57 Edinburgh Street: Alfred, thirty-eight, coal merchant on his own account; Jenny, thirty-nine, "home duties" — the census's phrase for running a coalman's household with five children from Harry, thirteen, down to Hilda, three. Ida — the middle child — would carry the family's stories to her own daughter, which is how most of this page came to be written.

Alfred died in 1960, and the yard and house at No. 57 passed on within the family. Jenny's last years were spent at 162 Boothferry Road, Hessle — her daughter Ida's home, the house her granddaughter Janet had grown up in and married from. She died there on the 19th of September 1972, at ninety; the family's notice said ninety-one, and the record Mum inherited said eighty-nine — her birthday arithmetic defeated them all, as it had since 1882. The cortege left Ida's door for the Icehouse Citadel, the Salvation Army hall of west Hull, and she was buried at Northern Cemetery — a Salvationist to the last, sixty-seven years after the wedding that had once divided the family. She left £1,036, and a will.

The photograph at the foot of this page was taken in those Boothferry Road years: Jenny at nearly ninety, holding her great-granddaughter Jane Brock — the disputed name, three generations on, an heirloom.

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-04

Birth: December 7th 1882, Hull
Marriage: November 26th 1905 to Alfred Crabb, at St. John's Church, Newington
Death: September 19th, 1972 aged 89 years
Parents: George Thomas born Brixham, Devon Jane Ardington born Hemingbrough, East Yorkshire
Siblings: Robert Ardington Thomas born 1866, Hull George William Thomas born March 6th 1868, Hull Sarah E Thomas born 1870, Hull died 1871 Charles Albert Thomas born 1872, Hull Sarah Eleanor Thomas born 1874, Hull Arthur Thomas born August 13th 1877, Hull Jane Thomas born December 7th, 1882, Hull Harry Thomas born 1883, Hull
Children: Harry Crabb born March 29th 1908, Hull Alfred Crabb born March 24th 1910, Hull Ida Crabb born May 24th 1912, Hull Joseph Crabb born June 4th 1914, Hull Hilda Crabb born December 29th 1917, Hull
1891c: Living at 2 Gillette Street, Hull Jane Thomas, Seaman's Wife, born Hull George William Thomas, Son aged 22, born Hull Charles Thomas, Son, aged 19, born Hull Sarah Thomas, Daughter, aged 16, born Hull Arthur Thomas, Son, aged 13, born Hull Jane Thomas . Daughter, aged 9, born Hull Harry Thomas, Son, aged 7, born Hull Occupation of father: Seaman
1901c: Living in Hull George Thomas, 1841, Head, born Bricham (sic), Fisherman Jane Thomas, 1842, Wife, born Embrough (sic) Jane Thomas . 1882, Daughter, born Hull Harry Thomas, 1884, Son, born Hull, Box Maker Packing Address: 8, Arion Terrace, Gillette Street, Hull Occupation: Canvas Net Braider
1905: Marries Alfred Crabb

In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook

Family

Parents

GTFatherGeorge Henry Thomas1840–1916 JAMotherJane Ardington1842–1904

The children of George Henry & Jane

· · · · · · Jane Thomas b. 1881this page ·

Marriage

ACSpouseAlfred Crabb1883–1960

Children

ICChild · the line continuesIda Crabbmain line1912–1989

Photographs

3 photographs are with the family — family sign-in

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1881

Born

7 December 1881 at Hull

Seventh December 1881, 2 New Buildings, Great Thornton Street — Jane, girl — father George Thomas, fisherman — mother Jane Thomas formerly Ardington — informant Jane Thomas, mother, 2 New Buildings, Great Thornton Street, Hull — registered sixteenth January 1882.— Her birth certificate — the year settled

Jane Thomas — birth registered January–March 1882, Hull district, Yorkshire; mother's maiden name Ardington. (Volume 9D, page 240.)— Birth registration — GRO index (Q1 1882)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Her birth certificate — the year settled — GRO certified copy of an entry of birth, BXA 886083 (application R7501), issued 19 October 1983 — ordered by Mum, and kept with her page. Entry no. 370, registration district Hull, sub-district Myton: born 7 December 1881; registered 16 January 1882 by her mother. Mum's page reads 1882 — the register-heading year, the year of registration; the 1891 census (aged 9), the 1905 marriage register (aged 23) and the 1921 census (39 years 6 months) all side with the certificate. read at the image
Birth registration — GRO index (Q1 1882) — England & Wales civil birth index (findmypast BMD/B/1882/1/AZ/000563/255): Hull district, March quarter 1882, volume 9D page 240 — and the modern index carries the mother's maiden name, Ardington. The index-level confirmation of the certificate: born 7 December 1881, registered in the new year. index entry — original not yet seen

1891

Gillette Street, aged nine — her father at sea

1891

Living at 2 Gillette Street, Hull Jane Thomas, Seaman's Wife, born Hull George William Thomas, Son aged 22, born Hull Charles Thomas, Son, aged 19, born Hull Sarah Thomas, Daughter, aged 16, born Hull Arthur Thomas, Son, aged 13, born Hull Jane Thomas . Daughter, aged 9, born Hull Harry Thomas, Son, aged 7, born Hull Occupation of father: Seaman
— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1901

8 Arion Terrace — the net braider

1901

Living in Hull George Thomas, 1841, Head, born Bricham (sic), Fisherman Jane Thomas, 1842, Wife, born Embrough (sic) Jane Thomas . 1882, Daughter, born Hull Harry Thomas, 1884, Son, born Hull, Box Maker Packing Address: 8, Arion Terrace, Gillette Street, Hull Occupation: Canvas Net Braider— From Janet Brock’s research

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1905

Married Alfred Crabb

26 November 1905

No. 182. 26
November 1905, the parish church of Newington: Alfred Crabb, 22, bachelor, seaman, of 5 Havelock Villas, Havelock Street — father Isaac Crabb, railwayman — and Jane Thomas, 23, spinster, of 5 Havelock Villas, Havelock Street — father George Thomas, fisherman. Married after banns; signed Alfred Crabb and Jane Thomas, in the presence of Edith Wood and Harry Thomas.
— Marriage register — St John the Baptist, Newington (1905)

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Marriage register — St John the Baptist, Newington (1905) — Newington St John the Baptist marriage register, page 91, entry 182 (East Riding Archives & Local Studies, PE34/32) — read in the register image on findmypast (Yorkshire Marriages) and held in the family archive, 3 July 2026. read at the image

1915

Registered under the National Registration Act — 57 Edinburgh Street

1915 at 57 Edinburgh Street, Hull

This is to Certify that (a) Jane Crabb, (b) Household Duties, (c) of 57 Edinburgh St, Hull, has been Registered under the NATIONAL REGISTRATION ACT, 1915. God Save the King.— Her National Registration card (1915)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Her National Registration card (1915) — National Registration Act 1915 certificate, stamped City of Kingston-upon-Hull — the original kept with Mum's page. Every civilian aged 15–65 was registered in August 1915; Jenny's card places the family at 57 Edinburgh Street a year before her father's death two doors away at No. 61 (they had been at 43 Massey Street in 1911 — the move to Edinburgh Street came between). read at the image

1921

The 1921 Census — 57 Edinburgh Street

1921 at 57 Edinburgh Street, Hull

57 Edinburgh Street, Hull — Alfred Crabb, 38, coal merchant, own account; Jane Crabb, 39 years 6 months, home duties; Harry, 13; Alfred, 11; Ida, 9; Joseph, 7; Hilda, 3 — all born Hull.— The 1921 Census — 57 Edinburgh Street

Confirmed in index record Evidence

Found in an index or transcript — the original page not yet read:

The 1921 Census — 57 Edinburgh Street — TNA RG 15, piece 23635, schedule 193 — RD 521 RS 4 ED 22, South Newington ward, Hessle sub-district, taken 19 June 1921. findmypast GBC/1921/RG15/23635/0389/02, transcript verified 4 July 2026; the schedule image awaits the download batch. The return, signed "Mr A Crabb", gives her age to the month — 39 years 6 months — one more contemporary witness for December 1881. index entry — original not yet seen

1972

At her daughter's — 162 Boothferry Road, Hessle

19 September 1972

CRABB Jane of 162 Boothferry Rd Hessle Yorks died 19 September 1972 Probate Leeds 25 October. £1036.— Probate — the calendar entry (1972)

Jane Crabb, female, born 7 December 1881 — death registered July–September 1972, Howden district, Yorkshire. (Volume 2A, page 340.)— Death registration (Q3 1972)

CRABB.—September 19, Jane, aged 91 years, beloved wife of the late Alfred, dearest mother of Harry, Alfred, Ida, Hilda and Joe, in-laws, grand and great-grandchildren. Cortege leaves 162, Boothferry Road, Hessle, Friday, 10.40 a.m., for service at Icehouse Citadel, 11 a.m., prior to interment Northern Cemetery. Resting [at R.] Robinson and Sons Rest Rooms, 424, Hessle Road (hours 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.).
— The family's notice — Hull Daily Mail (20 September 1972)

CRABB.—Jane, died September 19. Dear aunt of Ada. At rest. Deepest sympathy to the family.— Ada and family.— A niece's notice — Hull Daily Mail (21 September 1972)

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Probate — the calendar entry (1972) — England & Wales probate calendar, 1972 (C volume, page 437) — read in the calendar image on findmypast (Government Probate Death Index, GBOR/GOVPROBATE/C/1972-1972/00052802), 4 July 2026. read at the image
Death registration (Q3 1972) — England & Wales civil death index (findmypast BMD/D/1972/3/AZ/000227/048): Howden district — the post-1969 district that took in Hessle — volume 2A, page 340. The modern index carries her date of birth: 7 December 1881, the certificate's date exactly. She was ninety; Mum's "aged 89" followed the 1882 belief, and the family's notice said 91 — the certificate splits the difference. index entry — original not yet seen
The family's notice — Hull Daily Mail (20 September 1972) — Hull Daily Mail, Wednesday 20 September 1972, page 3 (Deaths) — read from the digitised page, 4 July 2026. All five children named; the funeral was the Friday, 22 September. read at the image
A niece's notice — Hull Daily Mail (21 September 1972) — Hull Daily Mail, Thursday 21 September 1972, page 3 — the notice findmypast indexed (FN-D-A015C63D-2030-4ABC-A7D1-EE15CBD32D3C). Which of Jenny's nephews' or nieces' families Ada belongs to is an open thread. index entry — original not yet seen

Our research

Jenny's open threads

Open research · Hull & Hessle

The baptism where she became Jenny — Ida's story turns on the christening (early 1882, parish untraced; St Luke's was the family's 1871 parish, Newington their later one). The register would date it — and date one of George's shore leaves. To do: Hull parish registers on findmypast/FamilySearch.
"Dear aunt of Ada" — the second Hull Daily Mail notice (21 September 1972) is from a niece, Ada, and family. Which sibling's daughter — or one of Alfred's side? To identify.
The grave at Northern Cemetery — the notice gives interment there, presumably with Alfred (1960). Hull's burial registers would give the plot. To do: Hull History Centre / deceased-online.
The 1921 household image — the transcript is verified (RG 15/23635 schedule 193); the schedule image itself joins the download batch for the family archive. To do: batch download.
1960–1972 — where Jenny lived between Alfred's death and her years at 162 Boothferry Road (5 Etty Grove appears in the Crabb notes); the electoral registers for Hessle in the 1960s would show the year she joined the Drewery household. To do.
Her sister Nellie — Sarah Eleanor Thomas (born 1874), the net braider of 1891, photographed at Mansfield's of Anlaby Road (on this page) — her marriage and later life belong to the wider Thomas family story. To trace.