It is now believed that George Insole, a Cardiff agent, was one of the chief architects of her success, though this does not diminish Thomas's position as one of the few women coal owners in industrial Britain.
[1] In 1824, Robert Thomas took up an annual tenancy from Lord Plymouth for the opening and mining of a small coal level at Waun Wyllt, near Abercanaid, south of Merthyr.
[2][4] In November 1830, George Insole (in partnership with Biddle) had arranged the shipment of 414 tons of steam coal from Waun Wyllt to London.
Lucy Thomas was granted letters of administration for the estate (having co-signed a surety bond with her son William and George Insole).
[1][12] Wilkins had a penchant for imaginative touches and his account gives the impression of Thomas as an enterprising woman who looked to set up new markets, whereas evidence now suggests that this work was conducted by her agents.
[1] Despite the evidence available today, the myth of Lucy Thomas as "the mother of the Welsh steam coal trade" has endured,[1] probably in part due to the image of a lone, illiterate but doughty widow engaging in a near-totally male dominated industry but also because the business did grow more than ten-fold under her hand in the fourteen years from her husband's death.