Two adults and two little ones. Even the adults weren’t that old though…
Liverpool is our first port of call on this story. John Johnson Jr. (the Jr. is important, it’s on his gravestone after all) was born there in 1846, in Kirkdale parish. He was the second of five children, all boys, born to his parents John Sr. and Mary. It’s hard to be sure because of it being such a common name, but the Johnsons may have been Catholics. John Sr. and Mary were from Chorley and Preston respectively and John Sr. was a loom shaft oiler. All the Johnson boys became spinners or weavers and slowly the family made its way east, first to Shuttleworth and then to Todmorden. Once in Todmorden they settled at Pickles Court, with the 1871 Census showing only the second youngest as not working as a spinner or weaver. His excuse was that he was a soldier.
Here John met Ruth Bleazard, a Walsden lass whose father Richard was a shepherd living at New Bridge. She was six years younger than John but was also the second child, and while the Johnsons had all boys the Bleazards had all girls. Richard’s wife Betty was originally a Barker and by 1861 there was a large congregation of Barkers and Bleazards living at Pot Houses which was next door to Pot Oven, along Foul Clough. The Barkers and Bleazards were a mix of farmers and colliery workers which is unsurprising given their surroundings. By 1871 they had moved to Long Measure at Midgelden, where Richard was now working as a carter, no doubt helping move stone and coal from the mines and quarries down to the centre of Todmorden for use in some of our favourite buildings. Dobroyd Castle, the Town Hall, and who knows which others. It was a mile or two away from Pickles Court, so how did the two connect? By Robert Johnson, John’s older brother, who in 1871 was married with three children and also living at Long Measure a few houses down. That’s what big brothers are for.
John and Ruth were married in April 1874 at Harley Wood and during their six-year marriage had four children – Agnes, Herbert Richard, Mary Elizabeth, and Ruth Annie. Poor Mary Elizabeth died five months after her birth in 1879, as we see from this stone, and she was undoubtedly buried here. Ruth quickly became pregnant again after her death and in October 1880 Ruth Annie was born. Just in time for John to meet her before he died in December.
Ruth and the children were left at their house at White Platts and Ruth went back to work as a cotton frame tenter. She kept Herbert and Ruth with her while Agnes went to live with Richard and Betty Bleazard, who now lived at Cloughfoot. Ruth became unwell though and ended up moving in with her sister Amelia at Friths Terrace, where she died in 1889 from phthsis. Richard died soon afterwards and Betty also moved in with Amelia, and in 1891 that’s where all five family members can be found. Betty, Amelia, and the three remaining children, aged between 10 and 16.
Now just as there were lots of Bleazards living at Foul Clough, there were a lot of people named Varley living around the bottom of Bacup Road. Living at Friths Farm, three pages along the 1891 Census from Betty, Amelia and the Johnson children, was Wilson and Betty Varley and their seven children. One of those young Varleys was named Sam. Sam was a cotton weaver, also 16 years old in 1891, and he and Agnes probably worked in the same mill or at least adjacent mills. Maybe one of his sisters knew her, or a brother knew Herbert. The pair married in September 1897 at Cloughfoot Chapel, both being 22 years old and Agnes being five months pregnant. But the preacher at the chapel would have seen it all before…
Agnes gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Ruth, in January 1898. Little Ruth died four days later and was buried here with her grandparents and infant aunt. The cause appeared to be convulsions and no inquest was held.
Sam and Agnes would only have one other child, their daughter Gladys, and she wouldn’t be born until 1910. There’s a story there we don’t know. Agnes died in 1919, still with no other children born to her and Sam. We don’t know where she’s buried but given she was active at Cloughfoot Congregational we suspect she’s buried there, although Sam would remarry the following year at Slack Chapel in Heptonstall so maybe she’s there instead.
One last note: the same minister who married Sam and Agnes, James Albert Smith, also married their daughter Gladys to her husband James Richard Ashworth in 1933.