}
A happy home at Ashton Court
When Thomas Smyth inherited Ashton Court in 1627 he was determined to set up a happier family household than the one he had grown up in.
His father Sir Hugh Smyth had been a melancholy, difficult man who had been reluctant to go out or to receive any visitors at Ashton Court. Thomas's mother Elizabeth was very loving and caring, but her letters to her son also reveal her loneliness and the difficulties with her husband - his illness, depression and uncertain temper: 'here comes not any but such as are sent for and coler (anger) doth as much abound with us as ever it did, God increase my patience to endure it still.' Family members criticised Sir Hugh for isolating his family at Ashton Court and tried to stir him but without success.
By contrast, the household of his son Thomas Smyth, who married Florence Poulett in 1627, was a happy one judging by the charming letters sent between husband and wife while Thomas was away on business as an MP or Florence was visiting her family at Hinton, Somerset. The letters show a great deal of affection and how the household was a bustling one â€"they had 3 sons and 6 daughters, and 29 servants including a jester.
'Honest Tom', as Thomas was known, was also at the heart of the whole extended family, and was forever helping out relatives, friends and neighbours with any problems they might have. Ashton Court was clearly a different home from the previous generation.
His father Sir Hugh Smyth had been a melancholy, difficult man who had been reluctant to go out or to receive any visitors at Ashton Court. Thomas's mother Elizabeth was very loving and caring, but her letters to her son also reveal her loneliness and the difficulties with her husband - his illness, depression and uncertain temper: 'here comes not any but such as are sent for and coler (anger) doth as much abound with us as ever it did, God increase my patience to endure it still.' Family members criticised Sir Hugh for isolating his family at Ashton Court and tried to stir him but without success.
By contrast, the household of his son Thomas Smyth, who married Florence Poulett in 1627, was a happy one judging by the charming letters sent between husband and wife while Thomas was away on business as an MP or Florence was visiting her family at Hinton, Somerset. The letters show a great deal of affection and how the household was a bustling one â€"they had 3 sons and 6 daughters, and 29 servants including a jester.
'Honest Tom', as Thomas was known, was also at the heart of the whole extended family, and was forever helping out relatives, friends and neighbours with any problems they might have. Ashton Court was clearly a different home from the previous generation.