Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/571

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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Their children are: Malvin Curtis, Eliza- beth Elton. Milton Kreider, Hazel Jane, Mary Olivia and Christian. The second daut^hter is the wife of Dr. J. W. Reed, and mother of James \\'eaver Reed.

Thomas Ernest Edgecumbe Pearse.

Thomas Ernest Edgecumbe Pearse, civil engineer of Newport News, is descended from a very ancient English family which has become identified with \'irginia in com- paratively recent times. The family origi- nally came irom Hatherleigh in Devonshire. Their sons and grandsons scattered through Devonshire and Cornwall, Captain John Pearse was granted a coat-of-arms and armorial bearings by Henry VIII, for doughty deeds which he performed. There are effigies of this John Pearse and his wife Jane in Bigbury Church. Bigbury is be- tween Dartmouth and Torquay, on the South Devon coast. The inscription on the tomb is as follows :

Here lie the corpes of John and Jane his wife

Surnamed Pearse, whom Death bereaved of life,

Oh! lovely Pearses; until Death did them call.

Their objects were to live in generall.

Living they lived in Fame and Honestie

Dying they both left to their Progenie;

.■Mive and Dead always this Charitie.

Hath, doth and will help less povertie.

By nature they were two, by love made one

By death made two again with mournful moan.

Oh cruel death for turning good to even

Yet blessed death in bringing both to Heaven.

On Earth they had one bed, in earth one tomb.

And now their souls in Heaven enjoy one room.

Thus Pearse being pierced by death doth peace

obtain. Oh happy Pierce, kind Peace is Pearses gain. John died loth day of Dec 1660, Jane died 28th day of Ocf, 1583

John and Jane Pearse were the parents of John Pearse, born in 1532, whose son, Thomas Pearse. born 1557, had a son. Rob- ert Pearse. born 1585. His son, William Pearse, born 1618. was the father of John Pearse, born 1643, whose son, Robert Pearse, born 1662, was the father of Robert Pearse, born 1700. The last named had a wife Elizabeth, whom he married at Hather- leigh, Devon, and their son, Robert Pearse. was born there in 1730, He married, Feb- ruary 29, 1752, in Hatherleigh Church, Grace Edgecumbe. They were the parents of fotirteen children, of whoin the eighth, \\'illiam Pearse, was born October 6, 1766, at Hatherleigh. He married, July 2, 1788,

in Launceston, Elizabeth Dymond. Their son, Thomas Pearse, was born December 27, 1799, and was identified with the Man- ganese Iron Mines of Cuba, with Parish it Comj^any. He was very successful in his undertakings, and became wealthy. The second child of Robert and Elizabeth Pearse, a sister of Robert who married Grace Edgecumbe, was born November 18, 1754, in Hatherleigh, and christened Eliza- beth. She became the wife of Richard Edgecumbe, who was closely related to the Earl of Mount Edgecumbe. Their daughter, Margaret Edgecumbe, married Henry Ni- colls, and their daughter, Margaret Nicolls, was married, October 11, 1827, to Thomas Pearse, of the Cuban iron mines. Their fifth child, Edgecumbe Pearse, was born March 14, 1836, in Kent House, Liverpool, England, and was twenty-five years of age when he accompanied his father to Cuba. Subsequently he came to the United States, and took up land in the present state of Kansas. During the Civil war he was a member of the Home Guard of that state. Subsequently he removed to Chicago, Illi- nois. Thence he proceeded to Peterbor- ough, Ontario, Canada, and soon became a clerk in the city treasurer's office, later be- came clerk and treasurer, which positions he filled for thirty-five years, until his death in 1892. He married, April 21, 1864, at St. John's Church, Peterborough. Ann Sarah, eldest daughter of the Rev. John Shilton, late of Perth, Canada. Children : Thomas Ernest Edgecumbe, of further mention ; Charlotte, wife of Ernest Sherwood ; Edith, deceased; Lillie ; William, deceased.

Thomas Ernest Edgecumbe Pearse, son of Edgecumbe and Ann Sarah (Shilton) Pearse, was born April i, 1865, and baptized September 24 following, by the Rev. \\'. R. Beck, rector of St. John's Church, Peter- borough, He was educated under private tutors and at the Collegiate Institute at Peterborough, after which he was employed in the office of a chief engineer of the Mid- land division of the Grand Trunk Railroad, from 1S87 to 1892. In 1892 he entered the service of the Canadian government, in charge of topographical work on prelimi- nary sewerage on Trent \'alley Canal. In 1893 ^^ joined a firm of engineers in New York City, and this association continued until 1898. when he settled at Newport News, Virginia. He became resident engi-