Written by Ian Davis. Last updated 7 September 2026.

Related question: Was William Tew (c. 1752-1812) the son of Corbett Tew (?-1794)?

Background

Corbett Tew’s wife was Sarah. She was the mother of the children baptised at Shalstone from 1755 and was buried there in 1789, five years before Corbett. Her maiden name has never been established from any record.

Established facts:

• Sarah married Corbett before about 1755, the year their eldest recorded child was baptised. The marriage didn’t take place at Shalstone, and we haven’t found it elsewhere.
• Her children were baptised at Shalstone: Corbett (known as Corby) on 9 May 1755, Mary on 21 Aug 1757, Ann on 14 Jul 1765 and Thomas on 5 Mar 1769. Our own ancestor William Tew, born about 1752, may have been an elder child, born before the couple reached the parish.
• A Sarah Tew was buried at Shalstone on 13 Nov 1789, which we’ve attributed to her; no other Sarah Tew is known in the parish at that date.
• We haven’t found a baptism for her, at Shalstone or elsewhere.

The maiden name “Allen”:

• “Allen” is the only name attached to her in earlier research and on the online trees, but we’ve never found the record it rests on.
• The trees that give it also cite a Sarah Allen baptism in 1731 and a Corbett Tew and Sarah Allen marriage in 1752. Neither appears in the Shalstone registers, and we haven’t traced either in any original source.
• We haven’t found an Allen family in Shalstone or the neighbouring parishes who could be her parents.

On present evidence “Allen” is an unsourced tradition, not an established fact, and Sarah’s origins are wholly open.