Despite the considerable interest in the life and writings of Thomas Paine (1737 -1809) author of the Age of Reason nothing is known of his maternal grandmother. A letter written and signed by him in 1789 which was sold by auction in June 2010 (http://www.icollector.com/Thomas-Paine_i9511414), provides a vital lead.
The second paragraph of the letter reads:
My Grandmother’s maiden name was Hustler. She intermarried with Mr. Cocke an Attorney and Deputy recorder of the Borough of Thetford in Norfolk. – my Mother, who is still living, and Mr. Devereux Hustler of Hessett near Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk were Brother’s & Sister’s Children – I always understood that the family of the Hustler’s came many years before from Yorkshire.
The letter establishes that Thomas Paine’s grandmother was a Hustler and specifically his mother was a cousin of Devereux Hustler. It follows that Paine’s maternal grandmother and Devereux Hustler had one set of Hustler grandparents in common and this provides a vital clue to discovering Thomas Paine’s Hustler ancestors.
The wills of Samuel Hustler (1705) and his wife Dorothy (1714) establish they were the parents of Devereux Hustler (born ca 1701) and in turn the will of Thomas Hustler of Bury St Edmunds (1688) establishes that he was the father of Samuel. Thomas Hustler had three sons: Samuel, Thomas and Charles and two daughters, Elizabeth and Frances one of whom was therefore Thomas Paine’s grandmother. The parish records of St Mary’s Church, Bury St Edmunds provide the baptisms for four of these children (Elizabeth’s baptism has yet to be found) :
Samuel 29 Jul 1675
Thomas 2 Jan 1677
Frances 21 Feb 1679
Charles 26 Apr 1680
There was a fourth son, Henry, baptised on 10 Apr 1682 and buried a few days later on 21 Apr 1682.
Thomas Paine’s mother was Frances Cocke and she is believed to have been born ca 1697, daughter of Thomas Cocke. It follows that Thomas’ wife was either Frances Hustler or her sister Elizabeth Hustler, the daughters of Thomas Hustler (1646 – 1688). The answer is provided by a memorial inscription in the church of St Cuthbert, Thetford :
Thomas Cocke, gent. died Feb 19, 1710, aged 42; and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Thomas Hustler, gent. of Bury St Edmunds, died Dec. 31, 1736, aged 62
Source: The History of the town of Thetford, in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, from the earliest accounts to the present time by Thomas Martin, Richard Gough and J Nichols, 1779.
I have recently visited the church and found no sign of the inscription. I suspect it has been covered by the wooden flooring which was probably added since 1779.
A record of Thomas Cocke’s marriage to Elizabeth Hustler has yet to be found.
The marriage licence of Elizabeth Hustler’s parents is recorded in Publications of Harleian Soc, Allegations for Marriage Licences 1669 – 1679 ex Ancestry.co.uk – Thomas Hustler of St Marys Bury St Edmunds , bachelor, about 23 and Elizabeth Dalton of the same, spinster about 23. Boyd’s Marriage Index has the marriage at Westley (near Bury St Edmunds) on 7 Oct 1673. This fits with the baptismal records for Samuel, Frances, Charles and Henry Hustler and with the birth of their daughter Elizabeth in 1674.
Thomas Hustler’s wife Elizabeth died in 1683 (she was buried 24 March 1683 at St Marys, Bury St Edmunds). Thomas must have remarried as his will of 1688 refers to his dear and loving wife Abigail which fits with the marriage of Thomas Hustler of St Edmunds Bury to Abigail Garrat/Garret in 1686 (widow?) at St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney on 4 Aug 1686 (Source Citation: London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Dunstan and All Saints, Register of marriages, Jan 1631 – Sep 1686, P93/DUN, Item 266).
http://archive.org/stream/marriageregister02step/marriageregister02step_djvu.txt
So Thomas and Elizabeth Hustler’s children lost their mother in 1683 when they were between 3 and 8 years old and their father in 1688 when they were aged between 8 and 13. So were Thomas Paine’s grandmother Elizabeth and her siblings brought up by their step mother Abigail or by the extended Hustler family?
Thomas Hustler was appointed Undersheriff for Suffolk in 1675 see: Essex Archives Online ref D/DMh O2
Thomas Hustler’s burial record at St Marys Bury St Edmunds on 18 Dec 1688, reads Thomas Hustler, gent, Town Clerk. He was removed from the office of Town Clerk of Bury St Edmunds along with the Deputy Recorder in July 1688 having only been appointed in March that year. This coincides with the overthrow of King James II and the political upheavals associated with the Glorious Revolution and. It is tempting to think that some of this conflict of ideas filtered down to Thomas Paine.
The Corporation Minute Books of Bury St Edmunds 1652 – 1835 include:
“June 26, 1688.—Gentlemen, Some time since I received a letter from you very full of duty and loyalty to our King, which you desired I would communicate to his Majesty from your Corporation. I was extremely glad of so good an opportunity of serving a body of men I always much esteemed and ever had inclinations to be kind to. Your King was pleased to read your letter himself, seemed much satisfied to find such an alteration in Bury, commanded me to thank you for it, and to assure you from him that as he expects you will make good your word to him, so likewise his Majesty will most inviolably keep whatever he has promised in his Declaration.
“After having obeyed his Majesty’s commands, give me leave in my own particular to return my sincere acknowledgments for your kind expressions to me. If ever it be in my power to deserve it from you, assure yourselves I shall do it with all the readiness imaginable, and not more than you ought to expect from one that is so much, Gentlemen, your affectionate humble servant, “Dover.”
—, 19 July.—The deputy-recorder, John Sotheby, and the townclerk, Thomas Hustler, removed by order from the King and Council of 6 July, and Edmund Coleman and Jonathan Perry admitted by order of 7 July, without taking any oaths but those for the execution of their offices.
—, 10 Aug.—Edmund Coleman sworn in as Recorder with all the oaths according to the statutes, and a common-council man admitted in the same manner, taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and the oath mentioned in stat. 13 Car. II. cap. 1.
—, 23 Aug.—Two aldermen sworn in as assistant justices, taking all the statutory oaths.
—, 18 Sept.—Order from the Privy Council for removing two aldermen (Thomas Burrough and Thomas Hustler, of whom the latter had been appointed on 16 March) and four common-council-men (of whom two had been appointed on 14 May) and appointing certain others in their places without any oaths but that for the execution of their office.
—, 12 Oct.—Two addresses to the King submitted for consideration, of which one was passed by a majority, to be presented by some of the members with all possible expedition. It is ordered to be entered in the book, but the page which follows is left blank.
—, 22 Oct.—The King’s proclamation for restoring corporations is read, and entered at length; and the charter of surrender made to Charles II. not being enrolled in any of the courts, and all persons appointed since by any patent or grant being dismissed by the proclamation, Martin Spencely, gent., is elected alderman under the old charter, and all the surviving members of the old Corporation are restored and the places vacant by death filled up.
—, 12 Jan.—Sir Rob. Davers, bart., and Sir Tho. Hervey, knt., elected members for the convention-parliament.
—, 19, 24 Jan.—John Covell elected town-clerk; he takes the oath for due execution of his office, and signs the statutory declaration, but the Recorder refuses to administer the oaths of allegiance and supremacy “in regard King James had left the realm, and it was conceived those oaths would be abrogated and new oaths appointed in their stead.
1689 [–90], 6 March.—Sir Rob. Davers, bart., and Henry Goldwell, esq., elected for parliament.
—, 17 March.—The town music discharged from future service in attending the Corporation, nemine contradicente.
Thomas Hustler’s father, Samuel Hustler of Bury St Edmunds, was also involved in the local political scene and was appointed Alderman of Bury St Edmunds in 1665 at the time of the Great Plague.
1674 Samuel Hustler Borough Magistrate *
1675 Samuel Hustler Chief Burgess *
see http://www.stedmundsburychronicle.co.uk/Chronicle/1539-1699.htm
1665 The Great Plague broke out in London, and soon spread. Many villages around Bury were stricken. People leaving London who were already infected spread the disease to friends or relatives in the country.
One of the worst hit local places for plague was Needham Market. Chains were set up at either end of Needham and the inhabitants isolated themselves from the outside world. Food was delivered to the barriers in exchange for money left there by the inhabitants. Local tradition states that the dead were buried in two local fields. Normally the dead of Needham would be buried and registered at Barking, but during the plague this could not happen.
This isolation seems to have been fairly successful. Nearby Stowmarket escaped entirely, and there must have been an acceptance by Needham people that they would not try to leave their own village despite the death toll. Ipswich also suffered from the Plague.
At Bury emergency measures were also taken in the town. Thomas Bull, owner of the Angel, and a common carrier, was forbidden to take his usual waggon runs to London. A watch was posted at each town gate to keep out travellers, and it seems that these measures actually worked.
Despite the effective measures put in place in Bury against infection, in this plague year three Aldermen were elected in Bury one after the other, as each in turn refused to accept the office, because they would be tied to the town if plague should arrive. Fines of £35 and £50 were imposed for their refusal to accept, and only the fourth elected person, Samuel Hustler, accepted the office.
In Bury, the Guildhall Feoffees built the Pest House as an isolation hospital in Sexton’s Meadows. They were not needed in 1665, as they had succeeded in keeping plague out of Bury. After this time the Plague seems to have died down. But by 1677 another deadly disease, the Smallpox, would terrify the town.
Samuel Hustler was buried at St Marys, Bury St Edmunds on 23 Dec 1677 – Mr Samuel Hustler, a principal burgess. There is a strong possibility that he was a victim of smallpox. In his will of 1677 he refers to “my grandchildren, sons and daughter of my son Thomas: Samuel, Thomas and Elizabeth” and gifts them £50 apiece. His granddaughter, Frances, and grandson, Charles, were born 2 – 3 years after his death and as such were not included.
This establishes that Paine had a least three generations of Hustlers associated with Bury St Edmunds who were deeply involved in local politics.
Cocke Family
Thomas Paine’s maternal grandfather was Thomas Cocke who was appointed Town Clerk of Thetford in 1701 (source John Keane). The memorial inscription at St Cuthberts, Thetford establishes new information i.e. that Thomas Cocke died in 1710, aged 42 ( born 1668). He was therefore Thomas Cocke baptised at St Mary, Thetford, 20 Sep 1668, son of John and Margaret Cocke. There was another son, John Cocke also baptised at St Marys 18 Mar 1669. John Cocke, the father, married Margaret Snelling (widow) at St Peter and Cuthbert, Thetford 5 Nov 1667. Margaret had previously married Robert Snelling. The Snellings had several times been mayor of Thetford (John 1599, 1603 Robert 1613, 1617, John 1624, Robert 1627, John 1634, Robert 1636, Thomas 1642).
Several authors have speculated that Thomas Cocke was descended from John Cocke who was Deputy Recorder of Thetford 1629 and this appears very likely. The will of John Cock, Gentleman of Thetford, Norfolk, 17 February 1643, refers to his wife Margaret, his messuage and tenement in Thetford and Watton, his daughter Anne, his oldest son Robert and his son John who was to receive all the books in his study when 21 intending him to become an Attorney
The son John referred to in the will could very well be the father of Thomas Cocke or perhaps his grandfather.
July 2014
Jottings on my Family History 
I have been tracing my tree along a different path and have Devereux Hustler born 1700, Barton, Cambridgeshire but living in Denham as a young man. He married to Elizabeth Ray of Denham Hall, Suffolk. My 6x Gt Grandparents. They are both buried at Norton St Andrew’s, Suffolk. I have taken the Ray side several generations further back.