46.51 – Ingham, Robert and Sarah Proctor, and Mary Heap

You often find yourself feeling sorry for the last person into a grave, and this grave is certainly no exception.

Ingham Proctor, or Procter, was born in 1815 in Worsthorne, outside Burnley, to Robert and Mary (Ingham – hence the name) Proctor. The area the family lived in was Hurstwood, where the reservoir is now, and Robert was a coal miner. Ingham would later decide not to follow his father down the mines and ended up somehow moving to Todmorden and finding general labourer work. In 1841 he was lodging with John and Lydia Law and their family at Holme, next to Ewood Mill, on the Stansfield side of Burnley Road.

The surname Law is so common that it’s probably impossible to find a connection between John and a certain William Law of Scaitcliffe. But also in 1841 William Law and his wife Mary (Greenwood) Law were only a stone’s throw away with their own family, including then-17 year old daughter Sarah, a “factory cotton” weaver. Sarah had been born in 1824. She and Ingham met, and in 1845 the pair married at St. Chad’s in Rochdale. One of the witnesses was Abraham Law, Sarah’s brother.

Ingham and Sarah moved to North Scaitcliffe to live next to her parents, and in 1851 Ingham was working as a carter. Three children had also come along – Mary, Robert, and Hannah. Carting would be Ingham’s profession from now until his death, and soon after this he found work for Lord Brothers at Derdale. The family moved again, now to School Lane just by Omega Street so that Ingham would be nearer his place of work. Mary became a cotton weaver and Robert a mechanic. The only inter-census item of note is to mention Robert’s less-than-careful habits landing him in trouble in 1867, when he had an illegitimate daughter with a young lady named Ann Greenwood. Apparently the pair had been courting for three or four years by this point. Interestingly, come 1871 and the pair were not married.

By 1871 Ingham, Sarah, Robert and Hannah were living at Baltimore, along with two lodgers. Hannah had now trained as a dressmaker. Where was Mary? In 1868 Mary had married William Heap, a millwright from Heptonstall who had moved down to Todmorden temporarily. The Heaps moved where the work was, and in 1871 he and Mary were living in Ravensthorp, near Mirfield. But soon the couple would return to Todmorden because in 1873 Ingham died suddenly, and tragically.

Ingham was still working for Lord Bros. and was often taking cartloads to and from somewhere a ways up Bacup Road. On the 26th of November he had gone to take some items somewhere up there, and on the way home stopped at the Bay Horse Inn at Cloughfoot for a little whiskey. He left in good spirits and not apparently drunk, but shortly after had a heart attack and fell off his cart. His horses dutifully trotted all the way back to Stackhills with their empty cart and no rider, and eventually Ingham was found sat on the pavement, leaning forward against a wall, very much dead.

Clearly it wasn’t a robbery or foul play, as he still had over £5 in his pockets and all his accessories.

Sarah, Robert and Hannah continued to live together at Stackhills, although in 1878 Hannah married Frederick Woodhead and moved out with him to Cambridge Place. By 1881 Sarah and Robert had moved to White Platts Street and, again, were taking in lodgers to help make ends meet. Meanwhile William and Mary took over the license for the Shannon and Chesapeake in Millwood – millwrighting no more! The Heaps were both keen gardeners and the Floral and Horticultural Society had many meetings and competitions there, with both William and Mary gaining commendations for their work (Mary’s in arranging garden flowers, William’s for the best dish of salad).

But while the two of them worked on their new profession more loss was about to hit them. In May 1881 Robert died suddenly, only 35 years old. Sarah now had to decide what to do next; move in with Hannah or Mary, or stay and try to keep things going independently? She opted for the latter. But then, in February 1884, Mary died 38. You see why we felt sorry for Sarah here. Having to watch her husband and two of three children predecease her, children who were grown and still very much their prime, and who maybe she had thought the dangers of childhood had already passed by…

William Heap had given up the license for the Shannon within a month of Mary’s death and moved to Littleborough, where he remarried widow Martha Ann (Stott) Astin a year later in 1885. He eventually returned to Todmorden and died in 1920. As for Hannah and Frederick, they’re buried just next door at 46.50, so we’ll tell that story separately.