Mysterious Mary – we think we know but there’s always room for uncertainty!
Mary probably-Butterworth was born on the Lancashire side of Todmorden in 1811. Because of the difficulty that banns present to us (no ages, no fathers, no premarital situations or addresses or occupations) we are guessing to some extent when we say that she was the eldest child of mason John and his wife Nancy (Greenwood) Butterworth. That Mary Butterworth married a William Crowther at Christ Church in 1836, with her younger brother Joseph acting as one of the witnesses. Was it the William of this story? For the purposes of having something at all to write, let’s suppose that it is.
William Crowther had no occupation on his banns but in 1841 he and Mary were living at Stackhills and William was the gatekeeper for the toll-bar there. The turnpike tolls in Todmorden had once apparently been near where the roundabout is now, one on Halifax Road and one on Burnley Road, and in 1834 they were both moved to apparently great satisfaction…
…and while William wasn’t the toll collector, he at least got to swing about on the gate all day long letting people through or telling people to pay up or go home. That’s what the job entailed right? Maybe that’s wishful thinking on our part.
William didn’t stick at the job forever and by 1851 he was living at Sutcliffe Buildings, where Waterside Lodge is now, working as a greengrocer. He and Mary had no children, which was a surprise. Mary was fifteen years his junior and they’d had as many years in which to start a family, but it wasn’t on the cards. By 1861 the couple were living on Rise Lane, with William working as a gardener, and Mary still keeping what must have been an empty house.
In 1865 she died and was buried here, with a small but pretty gravestone, and William moved on both figuratively and literally. He had been born in Cliviger and after Mary’s death he went back there and married widow Margaret Walker, who was an impressive 37 years his junior. He also went back to his old job of toll operator, this time also collecting the tolls at Bull’s Head on Red Lees Road. This was actually Margaret’s job, not his, and how a 35 year old spinster with an illegitimate son came to be the toll collector on the Tod to Burnley Turnpike is a story we’d love to tell but sadly will have to leave to someone else. He died there in February 1876 and Margaret buried him near her at St. John the Divine. That’s why Mary is here alone.