Toby Jones

Toby Jones is one of Britain’s best-loved actors. Both of his parents were actors: his dad was the first in his family, while his mum comes from a long line of actors. Toby wants to discover more about this maternal acting dynasty but is also intrigued by his dad’s stories about a mysterious connection to India.

Toby starts on his mum’s side and visits his brothers to see what they remember. Between them, they trace back five generations, all of them actresses, to Toby’s great-great-great-grandmother Sarah Thorne, who, the story goes, ran a theatre in Margate.

Toby heads to the Theatre Royal in Margate, which is being restored, and meets project manager Haley White. Toby learns Sarah’s father was an impresario and that she first began acting as a teenager. He also discovers Sarah set up one of the first drama schools, making a huge contribution to the professionalisation of acting. Toby is struck by how drama school also transformed his father’s life.

Turning to his dad’s side, Toby goes to see an old family friend, Hilary. She shows Toby a census that takes him back to his great-grandfather, Henry Enoch Jones, who worked as a saggar maker in the potteries in Stoke-on-Trent. Toby’s next stop is the Gladstone Pottery Museum, where he meets Ben Miller. He learns the saggars his grandfather made were containers used to protect ceramics during firing. Ben also has documents to show Toby. A census from 1861 reveals the names of his great-great-grandparents, John and Jane Jones, and shows Jane was born in India. Their marriage certificate places them in Meerut in northern India. Toby wonders whether there is some truth in his dad’s stories of Indian heritage.

The marriage certificate records that John Jones was a private in the British army. In Meerut, Toby meets writer Gillian Wright, who explains how John came to India from Stoke. Military records show John enlisted in Newcastle-under-Lyme, not far from Stoke. A memoir written by an officer paints a vivid picture of John’s over 500-mile journey from Calcutta to his station in northern India. Determined to learn more about his great-great-grandmother Jane, Toby hopes Dr Amit Pathak can help.
Toby and Amit meet in the cemetery of the former cantonment – the military base from which the British army enforced its rule in India. Amit has several documents relating to Jane. Her first marriage certificate shows she was married to a man named Michael Gilder. He died in Umballa (now Ambala), where Toby’s great-great-grandfather John was based. Jane and John married three and a half months later. Amit explains how as a widow, Jane would have been very vulnerable, relying on charity and goodwill from the regiment. Marrying again gave her greater protection. Toby also discovers she had four children. Tragically, two of the children died in a cholera epidemic and the other two disappeared from the records. Toby is touched to hear they would have been buried in the cemetery where they are sitting. He then learns John and Jane’s first child also probably died at just a month old and, sadly, at that time Jane was alone, as John was involved in suppressing the 1857 Uprising, now known as the First War of Indian Independence.

In May 1857, an uprising against the rule of the British East India Company broke out in Meerut. It soon spread throughout much of India and centred on Delhi. John and his regiment were ordered to march on Delhi. Toby follows in his footsteps and meets Professor Rudrangshu Mukherjee to learn more. Toby discovers the uprising was brutally supressed, with atrocities committed by both sides. He reads an account by an officer in John’s regiment that gives a graphic description of breaching the Kashmiri Gate. Toby reflects on the effect of being involved and witnessing such violence would have had on John. He learns John was sent back to Stoke with an injury.

Before he leaves India, Toby wants to see if he can solve the mystery of how his great-great-grandmother Jane came to be born there. He meets Dr Merin Simi Raj to see if she has managed to take the search any further. Merin shows him Jane’s baptism record, which details her parents, Toby’s great-great-great-grandparents Samuel and Mary Burns. Toby then sees their marriage record, revealing Mary is recorded as ‘Indo-Briton’. Toby is astonished when Merin tells him that one of Mary’s parents must have been Indian. She then shows Toby his DNA report, confirming he has Indian ancestry. Toby is delighted to discover his late father’s story of Indian heritage was true. Although he can’t tell him, he concludes it is the stories we tell that make us who we are - and now he has even more stories to pass on to his children.