Servants to their own families..the women in this grave had a roof over the heads, but how hard were their lives? Not as hard as the wear to this stone would make you romantically assume. Yes, we had to “read” much of this stone by hand and by using geneaology resources to be certain of a letter or number here or there. But once, before the ivy took over and neglect set in, it was a fine stone for a well-off family.
Martha and James Booth were brother and sister, and you can read their sister Ann’s story here – the Booths originally hailed from Prestwich and were mid-century venturers to Todmorden. Their father William was a weaver but James wanted to do something different and apprenticed as a carpenter before coming to Todmorden. He was born in 1823, the eldest son but third child of William and his wife Betty. Their lives at Ramsbottom Row, now long since demolished and part of Prestwich Country Park, would have been hard ones and living near a dye works unhealthy. So are we surprised that James and Ann both left?
Ann went back briefly with her husband and daughter but James stayed gone. In 1848 he married Grace Pilling and the two settled in Todmorden at Dover Court. Grace was a Tod lass whose father Hugh was a plasterer of some repute and it’s possible that that’s how James and Grace met, through working on a building of some sort. Hugh had died nine years previously but William Booth was alive and kicking, and after his wife Betty’s death he moved to Todmorden to be near James and Grace.
Martha, meanwhile, had found work as a housemaid to Sarah Wood of Singleton House in Prestwich. There’s more information about the house and the Woods here, but Sarah was the wealthy widow of a former MP and so Martha would have lived in a very nice place indeed. The woman had two cooks! That tells you everything. But Sarah died in 1864 and Martha had to find a new employer. This time it was Elizabeth Openshaw of Whitefield near Pilkington, a widow who lived off of interest from investments. They lived at Strand House which (again) is now gone, this time with a golf course in its place. Elizabeth’s three adult children also lived in the house so it will not have been quite as easy as her previous position, but Martha still continued. She would leave, though, to come to Todmorden to help look after her sister Ann who had lost her sight. She’s here on the 1881 Census, but would die just six months after it was taken, and her brother James ensured that she was buried here and got a stone for herself.
Looping back now; James was in a position to do this because he was a sought after and successful joiner. Even in 1851 he was employing two men and two apprentices, and by 1861 he had added cotton manufacturing to his repertoire. His work was good because he was contracted to work on a number of important buildings around Todmorden; the new gallery for Wellington Road Baptist and the stalls and doorway mouldings in the Market Hall, as well as countless houses. He bought and ran a sawmill and timber yard at Ridgefoot and he and Grace lived well at their home at York Place. But for some reason he and Grace remained childless. They did though add to their household: Sarah Ann Pilling, Grace’s niece, came to live with them some time before 1861.
Poor Sarah Ann. She had been born in 1844, so was twenty years younger than her aunt Grace, and for some reason in 1851 we find her with her sister Mary Alice living at Mount Pleasant with schoolmistress Maria Heap and eight other children. It looks to have been a sort of “Dame School”; from the Todmorden and Walsden Rootsweb site:
In addition to the church schools, many other private establishments appeared during the 1840’s. Some of these were Dame Schools where the householder taught basic skills such as reading, knitting and sewing but little else, and seldom writing. The latter was mainly enforced on them, as they had not mastered the technique themselves! In 1851, Hannah Greenwood ran such a school at Butcher Hill in Walsden. She took 19 scholars in her home and taught them reading. She herself was unable to write. Sarah Lord of Knowlwood was another, although she was able to write. She had 11 students learning to read. Esther Crossley at Milking Green, Dulesgate, took 31 children for reading lessons. She also was unable to write. The normal fee for a Dame School was 2d.
It’s curious, the setup between Sarah Ann and her aunt Grace…in 1861 Sarah Ann is living with the Booths, but as a servant. This continued over the years, with Sarah definitely classified as a domestic servant. There may have been some complicated feelings happening in the household. Firstly, their childlessness. Sarah Ann is never classed as a nurse, but maybe Grace’s health was poor. Secondly is her brother William’s life. William and his wife Ann had stayed in Manchester with their two youngest children, sending Mary Alice and Sarah Ann to live with a teacher at the ages of 7 and 6. Was Grace slightly embarrassed by this, or felt sorry for her niece? Thirdly, Grace was married to a hardworking man with a very good income and reputation, and of course such a woman would want to have a servant…but maybe they weren’t well enough off to afford someone who wasn’t family. Lastly, Martha Booth was a servant, so of course it was good enough for one of Grace’s nieces. We can speculate about all sorts of internal struggles around class and familial guilt. Regardless, this family unit of three was fully formed by 1861 and it persisted.
The Booths all went two years apart from each other – Martha in 1881, Ann in 1883, and James in 1885. Following James’s death Grace and Sarah Ann stayed at their home at Salford, taking in lodgers. When Grace died in 1896 this left Sarah Ann on her own. Despite being their servant she must have been the beneficiary of their wills as she was able to live on her own means in spite of having to pay rent on her house. As had been the case when Grace was still alive, all Sarah Ann’s lodgers were young women who taught at schools in the area Over time though her health failed her. By the time 1914 rolled around she ended up at the hospital at Stansfield View, where she died in June, with only £272 left to her name. Probate went to her late brother John’s son William.