39.20 – John and William Crossley

These Crossleys would have had us well and truly stumped without the help of Bluetit1802’s Ancestry tree, which has long been a gentle prod in the right direction for us when we’ve gotten stuck. It’s fair to say that for every mystery we’ve solved without help, there have been ten or more that we wouldn’t have solved without this tree’s assistance. These brothers definitely qualify.

John Crossley was the older brother, although we should technically refer to him as John Farrar, since he was born two years before the marriage of his parents Eli Crossley and Sally Farrar. Eli and Sally would marry in 1797 and go on to have another six children, including James in 1798 (who you’ve already met) and William in 1803. After Sally’s death in 1809 Eli would swiftly remarry and have another five children but that’s a story for another day…anyway, both John and William became weavers, but then both departed on slightly different paths.

John would marry, for one. In 1821 he married Betty Judson, a widow whose maiden name and previous condition is unknown. At that point he was still a weaver and living in Lancashire, probably Walsden where his family originated from. Later though he moved to Lineholme to work alongside his father and brothers in their weaving concern. In 1841 he was working there as an overlooker, with Betty and her daughter Maria from her previous marriage. At some point in the 1840s John moved to Manchester, became a picker maker, and Betty died – which came first we don’t know, some mysteries don’t get solved by anyone it seems! – and in 1849 John remarried, this time to spinster Margaret “Peggy” Dearden of 24 Hanover Street. John lived at number 26. Neighbourly affection indeed. The couple then moved to Southowram near Halifax but we only know this because in 1850 John died there after suffering from jaundice and liver disease for a few months. He was brought back here and buried on his own from what we can tell.

Now William never married – a lifelong bachelor, but perhaps of troublesome habits. Tracking him down in 1841 proved impossible but by 1851 he had either gone to live with, or taken in, his stepmother Alice. Eli had died in 1849 and so William found himself at Lineholme with Alice and working as a picker maker alongside James. William’s single life might have had something to do with his habits. After Alice’s death in 1852 things started to slip for him. He was robbed after meeting a random stranger named James Marshall at a beerhouse known as “Widow Barker’s” and falling asleep from drink, and then in 1854, those habits caught up with him at last.

William was found dead on the road at Lydgate one Thursday evening, after what another newspaper referred to as “some months” of heavy drinking. He joins the small coterie of burials here with “visitation of god” causes of death. Not god, not really – the cause is obvious! – but maybe this was out of some respect for the family.

It does strike us as interesting that these two brothers are buried together, with no one else, and they were the two with one definite and one possible alcohol-related cause of death. Was this the final reproach from their siblings? Or just a coincidence?

Some mysteries still remain here; where is John’s first wife buried, and what happened to his second wife? Good questions left unanswered. We also never found William in 1841. Never mind; as we’ve researched other members of this family more information has come to light, so we’ll keep looking.