Nicholas was born in Mawgan, Cornwall in 1821 to Nicholas snr and Jane. He was baptised at St Martin in Meneage, a Methodist church. There is a tangle of Lukies in Cornwall in the 1700s but it seems that his father was an “Ag Lab” – an employed farm worker - his whole life.
Mary Anne Matthews was born and grew up in Breage, Cornwall. Her parents were William and Jane Matthews nee Hosking. In the 1851 census, when she was 21, her father was a “farmer of 60 acres employing 4 labourers” (Possibly Nicholas was one of those labourers). Nicholas and Mary-Anne were married in Breage later that year – his Rank/profession was “labourer”. They rented a farm of their own and went on to have 8 children. In 1861 they were living at “Tregew” in Breage and Nicholas was a “farmer of 70 acres employing 2 Ag. Labourers”. They moved to the bigger “Trethevern” (152 acres) in St Kew, Cornwall in around 1866 where the family lived for the next 23 years.
In 1889, Nicholas and Mary Anne moved around 450ks to Essex, northeast of London with their 3 unmarried adult children – Thomas, Frederick and Bessie. Nicholas and his son Thomas rented a 400-acre farm in Hatfield Broadoak called Cammas Hall. All 8 of their children were farmers and all (except our William Charles, who emigrated to Australia in 1876) ended up living and farming in the Essex/Hertfordshire area. Its noteworthy that three of the Lukies children – Mary Jane, Frederick and Bessie - married Pinch siblings - Lewis, Mary Alice and Pearse respectively.
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| Cammus Hall farmhouse |
Nicholas died in 1898 aged 77 and Mary Anne in 1914 aged 83. Their 3rd son, Thomas, took over the farm. He bought it from the landlord and continued their successful operation. The farm is still owned and run by the Lukies family today https://www.cammashall.co.uk/about/
