Peter was born in Quethiock, Cornwall during 1793 [Baptismal record Petter Trease] the son of
Samuel and Mary nee Souther
and the grandson of
Peter and Joan nee Sharp.
As yet nothing more is known about him until 1814, when he was just over 21 years old and as Peter Treays, he married Margaret Olver in the
nearby town,
Liskeard,
Cornwall. From later information and by implication he was probably apprenticed as a cordiyer/shoemaker until then.
By 1819 they had moved to the Stoke Damerel/ Devonport area of what is now Plymouth, Devon where during 1822 Peter was recorded as a
Shoe-Maker in ‘King St., (Dock, Morice Town, Stoke, etc.)’.
Peter and Margaret appear to have had at least four surviving children, one son and three daughters, with three children dying in infancy. The two eldest children were baptised in
St. Ive and Quethiock resepctively and the following four in Stoke Damerel. Margaret appears to have died sometime within a year or two of 1830.
During 1831 Peter re-married in East Stonehouse to Susan/Susanna Phillips. Only one child of their marriage
is known, a daughter.
By 1841 Peter appears to have changed occupations and entered the Police Force, he then being recorded as a 'Policeman' and in 1851 as
a ‘Sargeant’. Susan died in Stoke Damerel during 1843 age 50: she thus appears to have been approximately the same age as Peter.
In 1851 Peter married for a third time: his new wife was Sybilla Burrow. Just prior to her marriage she is recorded in the 1851 census
as around 43 years of age and working in service with her older sister Tamzin for the Kurswell family which was headed by a GP (ex Royal Navy captain pensioner).
Her birthplace is given as
Lifton.
Peter died in Stoke Damerel in 1871 aged 77 years. Sometime after her husband's death, Sybilla went to live with her sister
Tamzin and her husband William Robson in Stoke Damerel as that is where she appears in the 1881 census. Sybilla died in Stoke Damerel
during 1883 aged about 77.
- Daughter Eliza was baptised in St.Ive in December 1815 as Eliza, daughter of Peter and Margaret Trays in this parish, shoemaker, and appears to have died
an infant before 1819 when a subsequent child was baptised Elizabeth.
- Daughter Jane was born in Quethiock, Cornwall during 1816 and was baptised there as Jane Treise. In the 1841 census she appears as Jane Trays
working with her sister Elizabeth in Morice Square in Stoke Damerel as a servant in the household of Henry Smith, Attorney. In the 1851 census she also appears
as Jane Trays living as ‘a friend/servant’ in a household in Princes Square, Plymouth St. Andrew, Devon. Later in 1851, as Jane Treays, she married John Rogers in Stoke Damerel.
John had been born in Devonport and was a seaman about 2 years older than Jane. John appears to have retired early as in the 1861 census he is recorded as a "seaman
retired" and living with Jane in Stoke Damerel. In subseqent census returns up to and including 1891, they are shown living in Stoke Damerel. In the 1881 return John is recorded as a
"Greenwich pensioner" and Jane is recorded as a grocer. Jane's death is possibly that recorded for a Jane Rogers, aged 75,in Plymouth in 1893. Her husband John's death may be that recorded
shortly afterwards in Stoke Damerel in 1893 for a John Rogers aged 78. There appear to be no surviving children from their marriage.
- Daughter Elizabeth
was born in Stoke Damerel during 1819 and baptised at the
Morice Street Wesleyan Church in Devonport.
[Surname recorded at baptism as ‘Trays’.] In the 1841 census she appears as Elizabeth Trays working with her sister Jane in Morice Square in
Stoke Damerel as a servant in the household of Henry Smith, Attorney.
In 1841, she married William Pearce in the Parish Church, East Stonehouse which was then the parish for Devonport. William had born in
Devonport in the same year as Elizabeth and, like her, had been baptized at the Morice St Wesleyan Church where his parents Edward Pearce and Sarah
Tucker had married in 1819. William had followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a seaman.
After spending the first years of their married life in the Devonport/Plymouth area
they moved to Portsea, Hants, where Elizabeth died in 1867, aged 47.
Between 1861 and 1871, William retired , and appears on the 1871 and 1881 census returns as a Naval Pensioner. He died in 1896 in Buckland,
Portsmouth following a bout of influenza. They had eight children.
- Son Peter was born in Stoke Damerel, Devon [Surname recorded as ‘Trease’.] during 1824 and appears to have died an infant
because a later son was also named Peter.
- Daughter Margaret Olvar was born during 1826 and was baptised at Devonport, Princes Street – Independent Chapel. [Baptismal
record ‘Trays’.] In 1846 she married Thomas Pearn Sambell in Stoke Damerel. Thomas appears to have been the son of Benjamin Sambell and Clarissa
Mary Pearn and worked as a shipwright. Around 1854 they moved from Devonport to Deptford and returned back to Devonport sometime between 1863 and 1871.
They had at least 5 children, two boys and three girls. Margaret died in Stoke Damerel in 1884 and Thomas died there in 1902.
- Son George was born during 1828 and was baptised in the Morice Street Wesleyan Chapel/Church in Devonport, with his brother
Peter (see below), probably his twin. He died age 4 months and was buried in Stoke Damerel.
- Son Peter was born during 1828 and was baptised
in the Morice Street Wesleyan Chapel/Church in Devonport, with his brother George (see above), probably his twin. [Baptismal record ‘Trayes’.]
In 1854 when he was 25 years old he married Catherine Amelia Buchan. Catherine appears to have been about two years older than Peter and to have been born in Devonport. However their marriage took place in
Poplar, London (better known now as the
Canary Wharf
area of London’s Docklands). In the 1871 Census Peter’s occupation was recorded as
‘Shipwright’ and in the 1881 Census as ‘Shipwright (Leading Man)’, at both times the family were living at Minster on the
Isle of Sheppey,
Kent.
Peter and Catherine appear to have had at least three children, one son and two daughters, but one daughter died in infancy. Peter
died in Camberwell (possibly the hospital there) during 1886, aged only 57. Catherine died on the Isle of Sheppey during 1902, aged about
74.
- Daughter Emma was born during 1833 in Stoke Damerel and was baptised in the Morice Street Wesleyan Chapel/Church in Devonport
[Baptismal record ‘Treayes’.], the only child of Peter’s second marriage. After her mother Susanna died, she appears to have lived with her
widowed father certainly until 1851. In 1855, as Emma Treays, she married John Foster in Plymouth. John was about a year older than Emma
and had been born in North Hill, Cornwall. In the 1861 census he is recorded as John Forster, a metropolitan police constable, living with Emma and two
children in Stoke Damerel.
The next record we have of Emma is in the 1871 census return where she is recorded in the Devon County Lunatic Asylum in Exminster as
'Emma Foster, patient, married, age 36, housewife, born Devonport'. She appears there in the 1881 census as 'Emma Forster, patient, married, age 47,
wife of a policeman, born Devonport' and in the 1891 census also as 'Emma Forster, 57, single, no occupation listed'. She appears to have died there
in 1901 aged 67 before the census for that year was taken.
The census returns until 1891 show that her husband John continued working as a policeman living in Stoke Damerel in 1871 and living in East Stonehouse
in 1881 and 1891. In the 1891 census he is, like Emma, recorded as a single person. John and Emma appear to have had two children who survived infancy,
Mary Emma who married and had children, and John Richard who died when he was about 16. It is not known when and where Emma's husband died.