When Tom was in his late twenties a series of personal disasters struck. His mother Charity was removed to Cornwall Lunatic Asylum in 1827, and she died there. Then, in 1828, his business premises in Pydar Street burnt down. Tom claimed the insurance and was able to rebuild the premises. At the Quarter Sessions held at Bodmin on 15 July 1828, Tom applied successfully for the return of £304 paid in excise duty on malt destroyed in the fire at his malthouse on 17 June 1828. In 1831 Tom received treatment from a surgeon for an "attack of insanity" but recovered sufficiently and the following spring sailed from Truro to Liverpool with a cargo of malt. He wrote to his wife from Liverpool to tell her he had sold the malt, and wrote to her again from Birmingham to tell her he was going to France. Nothing more was heard from him until over a year later, when his family heard that a man who fitted his description and went by the name of Sir William Courtenay was being held in Maidstone prison.