The Frederick Toomer Line

The Ancestral Home of Frederick Toomer

Frederick Toomer, the son of Charles Toomer and Elizabeth Dashwood, was born at Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset, in 1843. The Toomers were agricultural labourers. The Dashwoods were woodmen at Mapperton, near Almer, on or near the Drax Estate.

Charles and Elizabeth married at Winterborne Zelston in 1838 and moved frequently. Charles worked on the land all his life, as an agricultural labourer. By 1854 the family was at Bloxworth, where Charles died in 1855, aged 43. Whilst Charles was ill and dying, the Bloxworth overseers tried to have the family removed from the parish. After his death they tried again, against Elizabeth and her five children. Both removal orders were quashed, the second in 1856, and the family could stay. Frederick emigrated to Australia some time after 1856 and became a riverboat captain on the Murray River at Echuca.

Photographs Narrative ← Frederick Toomer ← All Emigrants
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Where the family lived

Charles Toomer, from his birth Elizabeth Dashwood, from her birth Charles and Elizabeth, from their marriage to Charles’s death

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors © CARTO

A small grey stone and flint church with a battlemented square tower and a red tiled roof, seen across a grassy churchyard with lichen-covered headstones, crosses and a low kerbed grave, under a clear blue sky. Click to enlarge
All Saints Church, Tarrant Keyneston, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Tarrant Keyneston is part of the Toomer heartland. Frederick Toomer’s grandfather John, the son of Thomas and Mary Toomer, was baptised at All Saints Church (1768). Frederick’s great-grandparents, Mary Toomer (1776) and Thomas Toomer (1788), were buried here as well as their infant son Thomas Toomer, aged one (1776). John Toomer’s siblings, Ann (1765), William (1770) and Betty (1772), were also baptised here. The font, along with the rest of the church except the tower, was replaced in 1853.
A flint and stone church with a battlemented tower, slate roofs and pointed windows, seen across a grassy churchyard with weathered headstones, under overhanging leaves and a cloudy sky. Click to enlarge
St Mary’s Church, Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset 24 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Frances Crocker White was baptised in Winterborne Whitechurch in 1775, the daughter of William and Jane White. Her siblings John (1772), William (1777), Jane (1780) and Robert (1782) were also baptised at St Mary’s Church. The church has been updated, but the central tower and font are original.
A flint and stone church with a battlemented tower flying a flag, a red tiled roof and a small gabled porch with an arched red door, seen across a churchyard with headstones and a tall dark evergreen tree, under a blue sky. Click to enlarge
Church of St Nicholas, Winterborne Kingston, Dorset 25 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
John Toomer moved from Tarrant Keyneston to the “parish of Anderston”, where he was listed when marrying Frances White at Winterborne Kingston (1797).
A small stone and brick banded church with a tiled roof, a tall narrow stone stack at one end, a pointed window and a small timber porch, standing in long grass with scattered headstones and a large tree behind, under a blue sky. Click to enlarge
St Michael’s Church, Anderson, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
John Toomer was on the Anderson & Tomson militia list of 1796 as a carter. John and Frances settled in Anderson, where they raised and baptised their family - eight children, five boys, including Charles, and three girls. John Toomer (aged 84) and Frances Toomer (aged 77) were both buried here in 1852. Their son Charles Toomer was “of the Parish of Winterbourne Anderston” at his marriage in 1838 to Elizabeth Dashwood. St Michael’s Church sits on private property and we were unable to access the interior. It was largely rebuilt in 1882 and is not the church where the family celebrated births and marriages and mourned the loss of their loved ones.
A grassy paddock with a white electric fence tape across the middle, trees and a tall conifer beyond, and the roof and chimney of a red brick house at the far left, under a blue sky with scattered cloud. Click to enlarge
Site of the Toomer cottages, corner of Marsh Lane and Church Lane, Anderson, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
In 1845 John and Robert Toomer occupied “3 Tenements & Gardens”, plot 7, 1 rood and 11 perches, with Robert Old. The 1841 census shows John Toomer and his son Robert (with his family) living next door to each other with Robert Old’s family next to them. They are listed as being at Bloxworth. The 1851 census lists Robert at Bloxworth part of Anderson living next door to Robert Old. John was living as part of Robert’s household in 1851. The buildings are no longer there. The plot is now a small part of a field on the south west side of the corner of Marsh Lane and Church Lane, on the parish boundary with Bloxworth.
A small stone church with a tall square tower topped by battlements and pinnacles, a stone porch and round-headed windows, seen over a stone wall and wooden field gate, under a blue sky with thin cloud. Click to enlarge
St Mary’s Church, Almer, Dorset 25 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Almer is part of the Dashwood heartland. Robert Dashwood was baptised here in 1771: “Robert S. of Anne Dashwood, base born”. He was buried here (1860), aged 88, “of Mapperton.” His wife Sarah (née Soper) was buried here (1846), aged 68, of Mapperton.
A lichen-covered stone church tower with battlements and a leaded window, beside a slate-roofed nave, seen across a churchyard crowded with old headstones, under a cloudy sky. Click to enlarge
St Mary’s Church, Winterborne Zelston, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Sarah Soper, Elizabeth’s mother and Frederick’s grandmother, was baptised at St Mary’s in 1778, daughter of James Soper and Sarah Dashwood. Sarah’s four brothers and her sister were all baptised at this church. Her mother, Sarah Dashwood, was the sister of Anne Dashwood. Sarah Soper married her first cousin Robert Dashwood. The tower of the church dates to the 15th century. The rest of the church was rebuilt in 1866. The font is 19th century and likely replaced when the church was rebuilt.
A long fence of woven hurdle panels made from thin grey branches threaded between upright stakes, running beside a grassy path with trees and a hedge beyond, under a cloudy sky. Click to enlarge
Near Pinnock Farm, Didbrook, Gloucestershire 14 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Robert Dashwood was listed in the Militia Lists for Almer and Mapperton for 1796, 1798 and 1799. He was single in 1796, and in 1798 married with two children, twins Harriet and Charlotte. Charlotte died at about one month old, and a second daughter was baptised Charlotte (1799), so in 1799 he was again listed as married with two children. In the 1799 Militia List Robert is listed as a hurdle maker. Hurdles are panels of woven branches from trees like hazel, willow, oak or chestnut. These modern hurdles near Pinnock Farm, Gloucestershire, are woven in the traditional way and represent the kind Robert made.
A plain octagonal stone font with a carved arched pattern and a wooden lid with an iron handle, decorated with sprigs of green leaves and white fluffy flowers, in front of wooden pews and a red-carpeted aisle. Click to enlarge
St Mary’s Church, Almer, Dorset 25 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Elizabeth Dashwood - Frederick’s mother and the daughter of Robert Dashwood and Sarah Soper - was baptised here in 1814, as well as her ten sisters and four brothers, including her twin brother William. Elizabeth and William are listed with their abode as Mapperton and their father’s trade as woodman. The font is a 13th-century Purbeck marble bowl.
A wide mown grass field edged by hedges and two large trees, opening onto a ploughed field and distant tree line, under a blue sky streaked with high cloud. Click to enlarge
Site of Robert Dashwood’s cottage, Mapperton, near Almer, Dorset 25 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
The Dashwoods probably lived at Mapperton for half a century. The walk from Mapperton to St Mary’s Church at Almer is about one kilometre. Robert Dashwood appears in the 1844 tithe apportionment as occupier of a “House + Garden” (1 rood 14 perches) on the Drax Estate - Lot 85. In 1851 Robert, 80, widower, “Woodman”, was living with his sons Robert and William, both woodmen. There are two Robert Dashwoods in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. In 1841 Robert (1771), aged 65, is at Almer and his son Robert, aged 30, is at Winterborne Zelston. In 1851 the two are living together. This makes it most likely that Robert (1771) is the Robert Dashwood on the 1844 Mapperton tithe. The cottage is gone and is now a small part of a field between other houses.
A tall red brick archway with stone bands, topped by a dark statue of a stag with antlers, framing iron railings and trees behind, with ivy on its piers, beside a road under a pale blue sky. Click to enlarge
Stag Gate, Charborough Park, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Stag Gate is one of the gates to Charborough Park. It was built around 1841-2. It is about one and a half kilometres from Almer church, so the Dashwoods would have seen it being built. It is also significant as Robert Dashwood occupied land from the Drax Estate that owned (and still owns) Charborough Park.
A long white-painted thatched cottage with a red brick gable end covered in ivy, brick chimneys, a small brick porch and a wooden field gate, beside a lane and grass verge under a cloudy sky. Click to enlarge
The Street, Winterborne Zelston, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Charles Toomer married Elizabeth Dashwood at St Mary’s Church, Winterborne Zelston, in 1838, the same church at which Elizabeth’s mother, Sarah Soper, was baptised sixty years earlier. The 1839 tithe apportionment for this parish lists Charles Toomer and Thomas Freeman as occupiers of plot 50, “Cottage Tenements and Garden”, 11 perches. The house appears to be still standing on The Street in Winterborne Zelston opposite the River Winterborne.
A carved pale stone font with a tall dark pointed wooden cover topped by a finial, inside a church with pointed stone arches, wooden pews and a stained glass window beyond. Click to enlarge
St Mary’s Church, Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset 24 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Nearly seven decades after Charles’s mother’s baptism, Charles was baptising his children Edmund (1841), Frederick (1843) and Mary Dashwood (1846) at this church. The church has been updated, but the central tower and font are original.
A long white-painted thatched cottage row with brick chimneys, a small porch and low iron railings behind a hedge, beside a quiet village road under a grey sky. Click to enlarge
Lower Street, Winterborne Whitechurch, Dorset 24 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
The Toomers were listed as living in Lower Whitechurch for Edmund’s, Frederick’s and Mary’s baptisms and Edmund’s burial between 1841 and 1846. The 1841 census lists their address as Whitechurch. The 1840 tithe map shows four cottages on plot 164 in Lower Whitechurch owned by James Shave, which he occupied with others as a single long building. The 1841 census shows Charles Toomer living next door to Richard Shave with Robert Shave two doors up from Richard. The building is possibly the one the Toomers lived in.
Rusty corrugated iron roofs of low farm buildings half hidden in long grass and dried seed heads, with trees, hedged green fields and wooded hills rolling away under a cloudy sky. Click to enlarge
West Holway, near Cattistock, Dorset 24 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Charles and Elizabeth moved from Winterborne Whitechurch prior to Dorcas’s birth at Holton and her baptism at Lytchett Minster (1848), when Charles was recorded as a shepherd. From Holton they continued moving and were at Cattistock, where Tom was baptised in 1850. St Peter and St Paul at Cattistock has been completely rebuilt and the font appears to have been replaced since Tom’s baptism. On census night in 1851 the family was at “5 West Holway”, in the village of Holway, parish of Cattistock. West Holway in the 1890s was a collection of four buildings near Holway Farm. The location is a walk off the road and the buildings are very dilapidated, but the view is beautiful.
A flock of white sheep grazing on a green field, with hedgerows, trees and rolling hills behind, under a blue sky with large white clouds. Click to enlarge
West Holway, near Cattistock, Dorset 24 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Sheep still graze the hills around Holway. When Dorcas was baptised in 1848, Charles was recorded as a shepherd, and sheep were part of farming life throughout Dorset.
A grey stone church with a battlemented tower flying a flag and a stone-slate roof, seen across a sunlit churchyard of headstones, with the dark branches of a large yew tree on the left under a deep blue sky. Click to enlarge
St Andrew’s Church, Bloxworth, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Frank was registered as being born in Yetminster in 1853. The family headed to Bloxworth, where they sought poor relief from the parish as Charles was ill. Bloxworth parish did not want to support the family and sought to put a removal order in place to move the family to Sturminster Marshall. On 29 August 1854, this order was suspended as the sickness of Charles Toomer would produce a permanent disability as per witness examinations. The removal order was adjourned in September 1854 and again in January 1855. Charles died 8 February 1855 and was buried at Bloxworth.
A pale painted courtroom seen from the public gallery, with tall arched windows, a royal coat of arms above the judge’s seat, wooden panelling, and the enclosed dock in the foreground. Click to enlarge
Shire Hall, Dorchester, Dorset 24 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
The removal order was quashed in April 1855. Bloxworth parish raised a new removal order to move the family to Anderson in March 1856. In April 1856 the second removal order was quashed. The court proceedings happened in one of the two courthouses at Shire Hall, Dorchester. The courtroom shown is now part of the Shire Hall museum. It may not be the court where the family’s case was heard, but at least one of the hearings is likely to have been held there.
A three-storey red brick Georgian building with a hipped slate roof, tall chimneys and white sash windows, a double segmental staircase rising to a columned porch with a gilded coat of arms and a Union flag above, and the old wooden wool scales in front partly hidden by a café umbrella, with café tables and planters along the quay under a clear blue sky. Click to enlarge
Poole Quay, Poole, Dorset 22 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Frederick Toomer left home after 1856 and headed to sea. No crewlist has been found with his name or his master’s certificate, but he was acknowledged as a master on the Murray River in Australia. His most likely path was through Poole. The Custom House at Poole Quay was rebuilt after a fire in 1813. Every crew passed through this building, and even if Frederick did not become a sailor at Poole, he would have seen this building.
Old laundry equipment on a stone floor: a ribbed galvanised dolly tub, a stack of oval tin wash tubs with handles, a wooden-framed metal washboard, an enamel bucket holding wooden dolly pegs, and enamel bowls on a shelf behind. Click to enlarge
Museum of East Dorset, Wimborne Minster, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
In 1861 Elizabeth was living with Dorcas, Tom and Frank at Dugdale Row in East Morden and had taken in a boarder. Mary had moved to Lambeth and married. In 1871 Elizabeth was working as a laundress and living with Frank at West Street, Morden. Dorcas moved to London and would later marry. Tom married and moved to Hampshire. In 1881 Elizabeth was living with Frank, now at Cockett Hill near Morden. These laundry tools at the Museum of East Dorset represent those Elizabeth would have used as a laundress.
A churchyard in dappled light under a large tree, the ground carpeted with small pink cyclamen flowers, with scattered headstones and a stone cross, a low brick wall and hedges beyond. Click to enlarge
St John the Baptist Churchyard, Spetisbury, Dorset 23 September 2026 ◉ Show on map
Frank married in 1882 and ultimately moved to Westbury in Wiltshire, where he found work labouring in an ironworks. In 1891 Elizabeth was living with her twin brother William. William had married and transitioned from being a woodman to a grocer. The twins were also living with William’s wife and sister-in-law. All four of them were aged between 70 and 85. Elizabeth died on 16 March 1894 in Morden with Mary in attendance. A burial record for her has not been found. The photograph shows the churchyard of St John the Baptist, Spetisbury, where William is buried.

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