43.22 – Nathan, Reuben, John, Hannah, Susy and Mary Ogden (inaccessible)

The second of our wall-straddled graves at the back of the yard, just below the church itself. Who were these Ogdens? Thankfully a descendant has done a heavy amount of research into this family and shared it with us so we can publish it here.

The Ogden stone is the one on the left, with the flowers on top of it

This grave contains the children of Joseph and Hannah (Haigh) Ogden of Watty Hole. Joseph and Hannah had six children – Mary, John, Susy, Reuben, Sally and Hannah – and this grave contains all but one, as well as one of Joseph and Hannah’s grandchildren, Nathan. The missing child was Sally, who died in 1817 aged one and is buried at St. Mary’s. It’s a strange coincidence that there are two Nathan Ogdens buried at Christ Church; both were illegitimate; they were born within a year of each other, in Todmorden; and both are in graves that cannot be visited, at least not easily. One Nathan is under the school and the other is here.

Now to Sue Jackson’s piece which mainly focuses on Mary Ogden and her part in an exciting moment of Todmorden history: the Poor Law Riots.

“One of the graves I have adopted in Christ Church graveyard is that of some of my 2nd great grand uncle and aunts, plus a 1x grand uncle, 6 occupants in all … I’ve chosen to write about one of them, Mary Ogden. Hers is the only name still visible on the ledger stone. The rest have sadly been covered over by a thumping great wall.

Mary was born in 1808, and was baptised at St Mary’s Church on 20th March of that year. It appears she was the eldest of six children. The family lived at Watty Hole, in what was probably quite a humble dwelling. Her father was a stone carter. Her mother died when Mary was 11 years old, presumably as a result of complications after the birth of her sixth child, Hannah. Hannah was baptised in November 1819, and Mary’s mother (also Hannah) died in December 1819. I wonder how the family coped with such a loss. Did they have to hire a wet nurse to keep baby Hannah alive for the first few months? Did poor Mary, as the eldest – and a girl – have to take up the mantle of chief domestic servant of the household? Or had she already taken up employment? 

The first record I have of Mary, apart from her baptism, appears on the 1841 Census. She is living close by Watty Hole, at Friths Mill, with William Helliwell (cotton mill owner), his wife Sarah Helliwell, and young daughters Martha and Lydia. Mary is listed as a female servant.

I began probing a little deeper, looking at the family who were employing Mary; William Helliwell was involved in local affairs, both religious and political. He was a keen supporter of St Mary’s Church and contributed to its re-opening after it had been left derelict for several years (presumably after Christ Church was built).

But it was his political involvement in affairs of Todmorden that caused controversy. John Fielden MP and his supporters were vehemently opposed to the idea of institutionalising the poor people of the town, as proposed by the Government of the time with their Poor Law Amendment Act (1834). Townsfolk, had, up until then, offered financial relief for those suffering hardship, without forcing them to enter an austere and prison-like workhouse. William Helliwell was not a keen supporter of the proposed system, but he was against illegal action proposed by many of his contemporaries, and his attitude was that it was more productive to fight the new system from within. He had therefore put himself forward as one of the Guardians on the newly formed Board to manage such an institution. The situation became increasingly rancorous, culminating in a rebellion. An angry, baying mob mainly of people of working age targeted the houses of those they knew had any sympathies with the new Poor Law, breaking windows and doors, smashing up and setting light to furniture and generally causing fear and mayhem. William’s house was no exception. I can only begin to imagine the terror of being on the receiving end of an angry mob .. William’s family, and my Mary, must have been petrified. The representatives of Langfield and Todmorden & Walsden parishes steadfastly refused to comply with the law for another decade, raising taxes from the folk of Todmorden so they could look after their own poor. What a feisty lot we are round here! I can’t help but feel pride at the consideration felt by townsfolk for people less fortunate than themselves.

The Helliwell home today, from Google Street View

Anyway … back to Mary. It seems that she never married or raised a family of her own, but remained a faithful servant to the Helliwell family, as shown in the 1851,1861,1871 and 1881 Censuses. William died in 1856, the daughters married, and some time before 1871, Mary moved to Lytham with William’s wife, Sarah, and was listed as “cook” at the age of 73 in 1881. You can see from the census that the house they lived in was in a prime position in Lytham, very close to the seafront.

After Sarah died some time after 1881, Mary had to return to Todmorden, and is shown living with her niece and family at Little Knowl Terrace (1891). The niece had six children, ranging from age 16 down to age 1, and I’m sure the accommodation at Little Knowl Terrace must have been pretty cramped. I personally remember Little Knowl Terrace, as I was once invited into one of the dwellings, and they were indeed tiny spaces. Just across the road would have been Knowlwood Bottom Mill (long since gone) but in 1891 there would have been a lot of smoke and noise. A far cry from the seafront at Lytham. Mary died, aged 85 in 1893.”

That’s Mary’s story, but what about her siblings and her nephew? Their fates were firmly intertwined, and Mary was actually the only sibling to really escape the orbit of the rest of her family. The other siblings stuck firmly together. Maybe this was a result of losing their mother so early on, maybe it has something to do with having two illegitimate half-brothers who were born a few years after Hannah’s death…who knows, and that’s a sidetrack we won’t go down here. But stick together they did. John became a carter, possibly taking on the business that Joseph had to set down when he became too old to do the job anymore, and the others went into the cotton mills as you would expect. Watty Hole remained their home through the 1850s so they may have been working at Friths Mill all this time. With Mary gone, Susan became the eldest daughter, and as such left work and became the housekeeper.

Hannah, as mentioned above, was Hannah Haigh Ogden’s last child and it’s entirely plausible that Hannah’s birth led to Hannah’s death. We know it wasn’t uncommon. Hannah was a frame tenter, working with cotton just like most of her siblings, and also for whatever reason ended up having not one but two illegitimate children. First came Nathan in 1847, and then Susy in 1850. The Ogdens were quiet people and little about them, even in death, appeared in the newspapers. One moment does stand out though; Reuben’s brush with royalty.

Reuben was also a servant of the Helliwells, of a sort; he worked for Mary’s employer William at Friths Mill, and in 1830 William and his brother John received an exciting order. The order was for “moscrop plush” cloth to make a pair of breeches for the King himself, George IV, and Reuben was one of the piecers chosen to help. Piecers were tasked with walking up and down the mule and making sure that any broken threads were caught and repaired quickly before the wheel came back down and continued creating the fabric. It was the sort of job where you lost fingers if you weren’t careful, and it tended to be younger children who did this work. The piecers mentioned in an article from 1890, where we found mention of Reuben, were all about 15-16 years old. Reuben himself would have been 16. It will have been a potentially amazing opportunity for him and for the Helliwells, but fate intervened, and George IV died shortly before the breeches could be delivered.

Todmorden Advertiser, December 19th 1890

The Ogdens here were average folk otherwise, and their range of deaths reflects the times they lived in. Nathan died first, in 1865, aged 18.

Reuben followed in 1872, at a much better age of 57. Afterwards the siblings slowly fell, one by one; John in 1885, Hannah in 1887, Susan in 1890, and finally Mary in 1893. They lived on though in the memories of others. Little Susy Ogden, Hannah’s other child, was the niece who Mary Ogden eventually moved in with. Susy married Samuel Mitchell but stayed close to her mother and uncles and aunts. When she and Samuel started their family their first son was, of course, named Thomas – after Samuel’s father. But the next son was named Nathan…and the next one Reuben…and the last one, finally, after Samuel himself.

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