GENERATION 1: THOMAS QUINE AND ALICE LEWIN

‘Our’ Quine line begins with a Thomas Quine who is first recorded living in Onchan in 1723, when his third son Philip was baptised at the parish church. There were older sons William and Robert, not recorded in the Onchan registers. If Thomas was a landless farm worker, it would be likely that he would have moved from one parish to another, taking new employment at the annual hiring fair. This could explain why neither Thomas’s marriage, nor record of his two eldest sons, appears in the Onchan register. Against this, both Thomas and his wife Alice Lewin had names strongly associated with Braddan and Onchan. There were some Quines in Patrick and German, and also in Santon, Malew and Castletown, but the name Lewin was uncommon in those parts of the Island.. No surviving record of the marriage of Thomas and Alice has been found, although Braddan and Onchan registers do survive for the relevant period, suggesting they may have married in a parish whose marriage register does not survive, such as Marown or Lonan.

SEE - APPENDIX 1 POSSIBLE IDENTITY OF THOMAS QUINE

Thomas’s three youngest children were all baptised at Onchan;

ONCHAN BAPTISMS 24 Sep 1723 Philip 23 June 1727 Elinor 25 August 1724 Thomas RIGHT - Old Parish Church, Onchan

 

Elinor and Thomas were still under age when their father died in November 1741

The names of the witnesses, William Kissag and Thomas Christian, and the pledges Daniel Quark and Thomas Christian give some indication of where Thomas and Alice had been living, and this is corroborated by other contemporary documents mentioning the family. They all suggest that the family home was in the Glendhoo/Hilberry area of Onchan parish.

In 1743 the widowed Alice Quine alias Lewin married again, and moved to live in Lonan with her new husband John Cottier and his daughters. Alice survived her first husband by over thirty years, and lived to see all her children married and with children of their own. Her will has proved to be invaluable in proving the early lineage of our family.

It is significant that Alice left no legacy to William Quine, the first son mentioned in the will of her first husband Thomas Quine. However a William Quine did witness Alice’s will. He was sufficiently well off to stand as a pledge or guarantor for the executors. Could he have been a stepson to Alice? If this was indeed the case, it means that our ancestor Robert Quine was Alice’s eldest son, and he will be considered under Generation 2 below. The next son was Philip Quine. He settled in Lonan, marrying his stepsister Alice Cottier. They had four daughters, and may have lived with the Cottiers. Philip joined with his elder brother Robert in lending money to Robert Lewin of Ballachreetch in Onchan in 1753. Later he lent money on his own account to John Karran of Strenaby in Onchan. Philip died in 1763, and his widow Alice re-married to Thomas Cowin; both were mentioned in the will of Philip’s mother. The family retained their mortgage in Strenaby for many years, Thomas Cowin being paid out in 1788, and his step-daughters Isable, Mary and Ann Quine between 1774 and 1789. The youngest son of Thomas and Alice Quine was Thomas junior. His wife Jane Corlett was a daughter of William Corlett of Lonan (d. 1763) and was mentioned in her mother in law’s will. Thomas and his wife were probably settled as tenant farmers on the borders of Onchan and Lonan, and they both died in 1812. They had eight children; four sons and four daughters. It seems likely that their eldest son John Quine (baptised in 1770) who was his parents’ executor, was the man of that name living at Injaghyn, Onchan, with his wife Mary in 1841. In the census of that year John Quine (aged 60-64), an agricultural labourer, was listed there with Mary Quine (age 55-59) and John Quine, a manservant, (aged 25-29). The tithe commutation records indicate that John Quine was actually the tenant of some intack land there, extending to 122 acres. This land was owned by Daniel Cain.Ten years later the widowed Mary Quine (aged 70) was still living at Injaghyn with her son Thomas Quine and his wife Eleanor. Injaghyn is located west of Conrhenny, near the back road leading from Creg ny Baa to Glen Roy. The descendants of John Quine and Mary Gelling through their second and third sons Thomas and Robert were researched by Mrs Janet Narasimham for a Mrs Larkin and by a Mr Sam Harwood of Taunton, Somerset. The eldest son, John Quine (baptised Onchan 4th February 1816) may have married Jane Quine, heiress of Conrhenny, Onchan, on 18th December 1841 at Onchan. This couple’s descendants through their son William Quine (1844-1928) and grandson George Phillips Quine M.H.K. (c1886-1972) still live in Douglas. Elinor Quine, only daughter of Thomas Quine and Alice Lewin, was married to John Crow of Lonan. He died at sea in the herring fleet, in 1773, leaving two daughters by his second wife Eleanor. Later, Eleanor moved to Douglas, where she was living when her brother Robert Quine of Arderry died in 1789, leaving her a legacy of twenty shillings.

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