The Connection

The Family Connection

Freedom of Mevagissey Schooner connection to the Hall /Cloke Family.  Draft October 1 2005

Thomas Ley, 1795 Mevagissey, Cornwall Master Mariner …one of the first partial owners and master of the schooner Freedom of Mevagissey 1832… Thomas Ley 1795 had a son who also was a master mariner  Thomas Ley 1824  and he carried on with partial ownership of the Freedom and was onboard when it sank and broke up on the Binks at the mouth of the Humber river, April 8th 1878. 

     Son Thomas Ley 1824  married Emmeline Kymbrel 1822 and they had 2 notable familly connections' had a son Thomas Ley 1858 1926 who came to Canada and was involved with our familly and a daughter  Emmeline Ley who married a John Francis Cloke 1858.

  Together Emmeline Ley and John Francis Cloke had a son John Francis Cloke 1885  Hall)   grandfather .  John Francis Cloke 1885 married Laura Ann Cloke and had a daughter my mother Marjorie  E Cloke 1912 - 2006 in Vancouver B.C.

John Francis served on the Freedom at some point  and eventually got his master mariner papers in  the year   ……verified by documents of ships logs copies in procession of Tom Hall.

They had a number of children.. One of them being another John Francis Cloke who married Laura Ann Cloke

John Francis Cloke and Laura Ann Cloke had a number of children, one of them Marjorie Hall. Marjorie lived in Sidney B.C. a small coastal town outside of Victoria.

Marjorie Hall recalls John Francis Cloke her father witnessing the death of Thomas Ley the ships carpenter in Vancouver B.C. in 1925.. Tom Hall has the verifying death certificate with the mother named EK Ley. Doug Hall is following up on Thomas Ley of Vancouver. He has located the grave site.

At some point a stone was laid in the Mevagissey graveyard in remembrance of the  drowned son John Francis Cloke. This was uncovered and photographed in September of 2005, by Stephanie,Roger Quin  and Tom. The Chapel is now a fine woodworking shop which uses (Columbia Pine) which is B.C. Douglas Fir. Within 25 feet of the Chapel in line with the Bell and up hill is the granite stone of Thomas Ley and Emmaline and 25 feet further up the hill is a black marble stone of John Francis Cloke and  Emmaline. At the base of their headstone is a small free lying sandstone measuring approx. 9inches by 20 inches and 11/2 inches thick. It states “and their son John Francis Cloke drowned off Canada 1945” The marble Cloke  stone and the granite stone of Thomas Ley are  of the 10 most impressive stones on the hill.

These last facts were gathered by Tom Hall and his cousin Stephanie Quinn and Roger. Stephanie is a Mevagissey Cloke, and now lives in Truro Cornwall. There are at present 2 other John Francis Clokes relatives in Canada. The story of the Freedom and the Clokes,Leys and Leleans   is an interest of Tom and brother  Doug Hall. Tom has been doing some recent reseach in Spurnhead, Hull, Grimsby, Fowey, Falmouth and Mevagissey

some edits in 2024 by tom hall

The Connection    Thomas Ley  Ships Carpenter  …1825 – 1926 

And John Francis Cloke D. 1945

John Francis Cloke ..of Anyox BC  traveled  to Vancouver B.C. at the event of his nephews death and signed the death certificate. I have a copy of that certificate which verifies the following. The B.C. Archive registers the death also.

Thomas Ley !858 – son of Emmeline Kymbrell 1822  and Thomas Ley  1824 Master Mariner  of Mevagissey Cornwall.  Date of birth April 12 1857. Date of death May 2 1926      Burial place Mt View Cemetery in Vancouver B.C.

Their was a statement of immigration of 30 years previous. 

My mother Marjorie Hall /  Cloke recalled her father John Francis Cloke 1885  traveling   from Anyox to Vancouver to attend this event. At some time in their lives the picture, a sea chest and some stocks came into the procession of John Francis Cloke and thus Marjorie Cloke.

My brother Douglas Hall of Sydney Victoria B.C. is researching  events of Thomas Ley 1858, the son in Canada.

Thomas Leys chest, courtesy of Christopher Hall