38.25 – James and Nelly Weatherill

Todmorden and/or true crime and/or folk music enthusiasts will recognise the surname, so before you ask, this is Miles’s grandparents. But enough people have talked about him, so let’s briefly talk about his grandparents.

In Memory of James and Nelly Weatherill, Who after living together in each others affections for 54 years, departed this life as follows: James was killed July 5th 1859 Aged 75 years, Nelly died September 18th 1859 Aged 77 years.

Their bodies shall slumber in Jesus awhile

Till the trumpet resounds thro the sky

Then bursting the fetters of death with a smile

They shall enter the mansions on high

James was a stonemason, and much of his focus was on repairing and installing chimneys. The article below explains how James was killed. Still hard at work at age 76, he and another labourer, Abraham Crossley, were pulling down a chimney inside a building when a cave-in occurred and both were buried in rubble. Nelly died shortly after James, one can only speculate that she was unable to recover from the shock and grief.

Abraham Crossley is also buried at Christ Church at 56.44. A brief description of James from a later article, written in 1930, said that:

“James Wetherill was a quiet and inoffensive man, and withal a good and steady workman; he could crack a joke or “sit and tak his gill of ale” with mates, not being a teetotaler, but always a moderate man, never being known to get drunk.“