Thomas Yeo (1797–1845, son of Thomas Yeo and Grace Ashton, was a jeweller and clock maker in Holsworthy. He married Mary Cole at Pyworthy in 1820 and had four children:
– Laurence Ashton Yeo (see below)
– Matthew Cole Yeo (see below)
– Francis Ashton Yeo (1829–1842)
– John Cole Yeo (see below).
Laurence Ashton Yeo (son of Thomas Yeo and Mary Cole) was baptised at Holsworthy in 1821. He moved to London, where he married Eliza Hicks in 1851. By 1864 he had deserted Eliza, and bigamously married Jane Williams, with whom he had two children:
– Eliza Ashton Yeo (see below)
– Walter Ashton Yeo (see below).
Matthew Cole Yeo (son of Thomas Yeo and Mary Cole) was baptised at Holsworthy in 1824. He worked as a dentist in London and in Malta, where he died in 1873. Matthew married Mary Ann Negus and had one daughter.
John Cole Yeo (son of Thomas Yeo and Mary Cole) was baptised at Holsworthy in 1835. He emigrated in 1858 to New South Wales, where he worked as a shopkeeper. John married twice. With his first wife Selina Mary Dawson he had three children, none of whom had children of their own:
– Thomas Dawson Yeo (1864–1945)
– Evelyn Sarah Yeo (1865–1934)
– John Wickliffe Walter Yeo (1869–1959).
With his second wife Mary Kirk Paterson, John had two children, who also had no children of their own:
– Mary Elizabeth Jessie Yeo (1880–1954) [note 1]
– James Cole Yeo (1882–1964, married Vera Kathleen Thompson).
Eliza Ashton Yeo (1852–1926, daughter of Laurence Ashton Yeo and Jane Williams) married John Thomas Brown at Holsworthy in 1878 and emigrated with him to New Zealand. Her granddaughter Beryl Mary Harley Smedley [note 2] took a great interest in family history and we hold copies of her research papers.
Walter Ashton Yeo (1854–1904, son of Laurence Ashton Yeo and Jane Williams) was a tailor. He moved to Brighton and married Blanche Elizabeth Fossey there in 1879. They had nine children:
– Walter Laurence William Yeo (see below)
– Mabel Frances Beatrice Yeo (1882–1960, no children)
– Cecil Hubert Vivian Yeo (1885–1966, no children)
– Wilfred Horace Ashton Yeo (see below)
– Eustace Alwyne Ashton Yeo (1887–1959, married Frances Mabel Chubb in 1946)
– Evelyn Maude Marie Yeo (1889–1972, married Ebenezer Short)
– Constance Yeo (1891–1891)
– Montague Harry Ashton Yeo (1893–1972, married Ethel Roberts, three children)
– Vera Marjorie Gwendoline Yeo (1902–1988, no children).
Walter Laurence William Yeo (born in Brighton in 1880, son of Walter Ashton Yeo and Jane Williams [note 3]) married Florence Annie Baxter in 1902. Their three children were:
– Walter Cyril Yeo (1903–1929, died in Australia)
– Mabel Evelyn Yeo (1904–1995, married Kenneth Arthur Criddle)
– Florence Elizabeth Yeo (1905–2002, married Percy Fawcett Wade).
Wilfred Horace Ashton Yeo (born in Lewes in 1886, son of Walter Ashton Yeo and Jane Williams) married Alice Maud Victoria Bartlett in 1919 and had four children.
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Notes
1. Mary was a schoolteacher and keen family historian, who travelled to England and to New Zealand to carry out research; we have copies of many of her papers.
2. Née Brown, 1922–2011. Beryl married Harold Smedley, a diplomat who was knighted in 1978. She too was a keen family historian; we have copies of many of her papers and photographs.
3. Walter – who also used his wife’s surname Baxter – served in the Royal Army Medical Corps between 1898 and 1902.