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Thomas Rought was the son of Thomas Rought (an itinerant Methodist preacher from 1795-1836, ordained in 1804) and his wife Ann Cuttress. He was the eldest of at least nine children and was born, according to the 1871 census, at Lowestoft, although other records suggest Ely in Cambridgeshire as his birth-place (1).  He was educated at Kingswood School in Bath (notable for being founded by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism to provide an education for the sons of impoverished clergymen), and also at Woodhouse Grove School near Bradford, another Methodist boarding school (1, 2).  Thomas was then apprenticed to a Mr Mawer who was a watchmaker and ironmonger at Horncastle in Lincolnshire.  

Thomas eventually became an art dealer in London between 1831 and the late 1860’s.  He may originally have been a dealer in prints (3), and later had premises at 17 Regent Street.  He had dealings with Joseph Gillott who was an avid collector and patron of the arts from the mid 1840s, and there is a record of him selling Gillott two paintings “after Watteau” in January 1849.  The same month Rought bought from Gillott paintings of Venice by John Bellini (4).  Gillott also bought a painting “Columbus and the Egg” from Rought. 

At the time of both the 1851 and 1861 census Thomas was living in Myrtle Place Fulham and was unmarried (although I believe he had a wife at the time of the 1841 census who appears to have died in 1842).  He had a housekeeper Elizabeth Sansom during this period and he married her in late 1861 and she is recorded as his wife in the 1871 census.  By then they were living at Bushy Park House in what is now Budleigh Salterton but at that time it was at the edge of Littleham Parish.  He died in January 1872 and is buried in East Budleigh Churchyard.  His wife died in 1881 having moved to Chiswick after his death, and was living with her two daughters at the time. 

It would appear that Thomas Rought and Elizabeth Sansom had an illegitimate son in late 1853 before they married.  He was born in Mansfield which was his mother’s home town and was recorded as Charles Wraught Sansom (5).  After his parents married he seems to have reverted to calling himself Charles Rought and became a mechanical engineer.  He married Ada Isabel Gardner in September 1880 in a Methodist Church near Bristol and the entry confirms his father as being Thomas Rought (6).  

Charles and Ada are recorded in the censuses in 1891, 1901, and 1911 as living in Surbiton Surrey but there are entries in the Directories for Budleigh Salterton for a Charles Wrought occupying 5 Marine Parade from 1900 to at least 1910 and a Mrs Rought is recorded in the Directory between 1919 and 1926 also at 5 Marine Parade. Perhaps the house was rented out for much of this period and Wrought was a spelling mistake carried over from one Directory to the next.  There are no Wroughts or Wraughts listed in the census indexes later than 1841, so this is a mystery. 

Charles had a son Charles Gardner Rought (1885-1919) who became a member of Thames Rowing Club, and in 1909 and 1911 was a member of the crew that won the Stewards' Challenge Cup at Henley Regatta.  He was a member of the Thames Rowing Club coxed four which won the silver medal for Great Britain at the 1912 Summer Olympics.  He served during WW1 in the Royal West Surrey Regiment having entered the 28th London Regiment in 1914 as a private, and became a Lieutenant in the RWSR.  

His Medal Index Card contains the entry “Exonerated Officers List”. All those officers who were captured and who returned home after the war had to complete a report into the circumstances of their capture. The main purpose of these reports was to ascertain the conduct of the officers and ensure that he had not surrendered in suspicious circumstances.  After their repatriation report had been considered and accepted by the committee set up to examine such reports, the officers were then permitted to be awarded their campaign medals, should these be claimed.   

As he died in 1919 one wonders whether his time in a concentration camp had caused a decline in his health.  He does not appear to have married, therefore the Mrs Rought at 5 Marine Parade from 1919 is probably not his widow and his father died much later in 1943 in the Devon Central District (which included Budleigh Salterton) so she isn’t his widow.  Charles had lived in Surbiton until at least 1939 (telephone records). 

One of Charles Rought’s other children, born in 1888, was called Philip; it is very likely he came to live in Budleigh Salterton because a Philip Rought can be found in the telephone books living at 7 West Terrace between 1948-66, and then in Beach House from 1968.  He went to Marlborough College, leaving in 1905, and became a mining engineer (7).  Rought worked in India (1909-11) and in Nigeria (1913-14).  He served in WW1, joining on the same day as his brother as a private in the 28th London Regiment, then he transferred to the Artists Rifles.  

In 1915 he became a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers (174th Tunnelling Company), eventually making temporary Captain and receiving the MC in 1918. After the war in 1923 he joined a small London-based company called Minerals Separation Ltd which was involved in developing techniques for ore extraction (8). He stayed with them until 1930 then joined British American Mines Ltd. He presumably retired to Budleigh around 1948 and died in 1971. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010 

(1)www.wedmore.org.uk/scarnell/rought.htm

(2)Wikipedia

(3)1841 census

(4)www.lootedart.com

(5)FreeBMD.com

(6)FamilySearch.com

(7)Marlborough College Register

(8)Wikipedia

96 BS-B-00030 Biography any