Two wives, one of whom incurred the ire of John Fielden – it’s a story we can’t find the full story behind, but intriguing nonetheless.
Thomas Rigg was born in March 1836 at Green Springs, a place that once stood along Burnley Road in Hebden Bridge just up from Stubbings and below Savile Road. The buildings there are newer builds, and the name itself lives on only in the names of the bus stops. Ahh, West Yorkshire Metro bus stops, such a valuable local history asset!
His father James was a mechanic or “machine maker” as he was described on Thomas’s baptism record. The family moved up to Bridge Lanes and Thomas grew up working alongside his father, becoming an iron moulder. By 1861 he had realised Hebden Bridge was no place for him and had come to lodge at a house at Hollins, near Stansfield Hall, and continued to work as an iron founder and moulder. Here in Todmorden, or maybe while sauntering around near a Fielden residence, he would meet his first wife Margaret Mitchell.
Margaret’s story is an intriguing one, especially as her marriage certificate gives no clue at all as to her life. She was born in 1837 in Satterthwaite, Westmoreland, home of the famous mint cake although it wasn’t around back then. Her father William was a bobbin turner, working with wood, and the family were solidly Lake District folks who didn’t really move around. She did though, out of necessity, and somehow found a extremely prestigious position here in Todmorden as a servant. We wish we knew the story of it, but that’s long gone into the mists of time. But come 1861 she was here, living at Ashenhurst House, as the cook for John and Ruth Fielden. The Fieldens of Ashenhurst, who would soon become the Fieldens of Dobroyd. Margaret went with them but not for long, as she and Thomas married in 1864. No mention of her being a servant is on her marriage certificate though, and this makes us wonder about the circumstances under which she left John and Ruth’s employ.
The other reason we wonder is that she is mentioned incidentally in a court case involving the Fieldens. Elizabeth Holmes, who went to cook for them in 1870, was fired summarily by John for telling Ruth that she knew nothing of managing servants. This was hotly refuted, but may have been true; poor Ruth was a cotton weaver before her marriage and by all accounts struggled with the role of a wealthy industrialist’s wife. She also was rumoured to have turned to alcohol to cope before the end of her life, which was only a few years off in 1871. Regardless of all this, one of the issues John Fielden raised in his testimony was that Elizabeth kept having “Mrs. Rigg” around to visit and he didn’t like it, and on the day he sacked her Margaret had come to visit her and was in the room with her when he went in and demanded she come back to the parlour to apologise to Ruth. It’s a bit part in someone else’s play, but it places Margaret as still known to the Fieldens, still tolerated, but not necessarily liked (Elizabeth alleged that John had alternately permitted and barred Margaret from visiting her there).
The Riggses had moved to Dobroyd Terrace, not so far from anarchist Sam Fielden’s father and siblings, but divided their time between Todmorden and Miles Platting in Manchester. While Thomas still worked as an iron moulder Margaret perhaps missed the excitement of the castle. Or just was nosy. John’s objection to her presence isn’t explained, and Margaret was busy anyway with her children outside of hanging out with the servants. By 1871 she had a five and four year old, and two years later her third child was born. But Margaret’s story ends not long after this – just a few days shy of 1875 she died, and was buried here.
Thomas married again in September 1875, this time to Martha Baron. Martha was an older woman, born in Hebden Bridge in 1830 to carter Thomas Baron and his wife Sally. The Barons moved back and forth between Hebden and Tod, finally settling at Roomfield by 1851. All the Baron children worked as calico weavers and Martha continued doing this while living with her parents, as each sibling married and moved out (or occasionally married and stayed home as her sister Hannah did). After mother Sally died, Martha and her widowed older sister Mary moved in together with Mary’s daughter on Cross Street. When she and Thomas married, she was 45 years old, and one wonders whether it was love or circumstances that brought them together at that point. She never appears in the newspaper for any reason beyond her marriage and eventual death.
Their marriage coincided with their love affair with Todmorden waning. Thomas, Martha and the children moved to Newton Heath in Manchester, and then on to Failsworth when the middle child, Sarah Hannah, married a fireman and engineer named James Smith. Thomas and Martha lived with their family, with Thomas still working. Hard work at an iron foundry took its toll eventually and he died in Manchester in 1903. Martha survived him for some time longer but followed him to the grave in 1909.
All the Rigg children remained in Manchester, and even when they moved around, they never came back to Todmorden. This is strange in one respect at least; Margaret’s last child, their son Charles William, died suddenly in 1902 at the age of 24. One would think that he would be buried here with his mother, at least for the sake of economy if nothing else…but no, he wasn’t. Perhaps this was his wife’s wish, since when he died she was pregnant with their second child, who was named after him. We can only guess.