Here’s one of those tricky graves where the most popular surname in Todmorden’s past runs into two of the most popular forenames; we did our best, and we can’t be certain of every detail, but this is – hopefully – the true and accurate story of a mother and son.
Mary Jackson, as she was at first, was born in 1786 in Wakefield. How she came to the Rochdale side of Todmorden is unknown, but in February 1818 she and carder James Greenwood had their banns read at St. Chad’s in Rochdale. The couple then moved to Heptonstall. It seems likely that James had been married before, although it isn’t impossible that he and Mary had been spending time together long before their marriage. There’s a daughter in the household – Sarah, born around 1814 – but whether she’s Mary’s daughter or not we don’t know. But after their first marriage more children followed.
William came in 1819, Joseph in 1822, and finally Benjamin in 1824 – and that’s all we know really until 1841, when the family can be found at Waterloo in Shade. Waterloo was the name for a set of back to back cottages at the base of Swineshead Clough, at Guerning Dog Bridge.
Why did we say first marriage? Because in January 1821 James and Mary had their banns read again, at St. Mary’s in Todmorden. There must have been an error with some paperwork somewhere. You’ll notice that James is quite a bit older than Mary, and so it won’t be much of a surprise to hear that he died later in 1841. He’s buried at St. Mary’s according to the registers.
William, who was also working as a carder, got married himself in 1844 to fellow wool worker Maria Hirst. Maria already had a young son, John, who had been born in 1840. Was he William’s? Good question, and one we can’t answer. The couple also settled at Waterloo and attempted to start their own family, to no success. A single child, Samuel, was born in 1848 and died quickly after; so quickly that his burial isn’t recorded. He was a week old and they never managed to get him baptised, you see, so he joined the army of babies buried here (or maybe St. Mary’s?) in unknown locations. His cause of death was convulsions.
1851 found Mary living with her son Joseph, who the census tells us was deaf, and William living with Maria and John, not far from each other in Shade. In 1852 Maria died from phthsis and was also buried at St. Mary’s. John Hirst went to Manchester to live with his mother’s family and would settle there for the rest of his life. William seems likely to have moved in with Mary and Joseph. By 1855 though both Mary and William were unwell, and their deaths occurred in the summer of that year only a month or so apart. Mary died first, from “hemiplegia” aka a stroke of some sort. William followed afterwards with phthsis. He had been suffering with it for nine months, echoing Maria’s own seven month struggle with the illness.
By this point whatever family graves James and Maria went into must have been full, so the two were buried here together.
Look at the 1851 Census picture again, and you’ll see William Firth, the informant for both deaths, living two doors up from Mary and Joseph in 1851. We don’t know what happened to Joseph afterwards – no Joseph Greenwood of the correct age dies in Todmorden until the 1880s at the earliest, and then there’s a few so knowing which is which has proved impossible. In fact it was only Mary’s death registration giving her occupation as the widow of James Greenwood that allowed us to begin picking this story apart to begin with. Common names come with their drawbacks.