56.46 – Jane, Sarah Hannah, Moses, Annie, and Jane Lord

These Lords were Shade through and through, and this grave spans 68 years of burials, those of a couple and three of their daughters.

Moses was born in 1824 to Charles and Sally (Stott) Lord of Walsden. He was one of seven children whose parents were cotton workers and who almost all became cotton workers, Moses included. He grew up at Shade Street and would live there for literally half his life.

In 1861 he married Jane Barker of Platts House. Both were coming to marriage a little late – Moses was 37 and Jane was 30. Impressively for the time both were able to sign their names on their marriage certificate. Jane was the daughter of Joseph and Susy (Astin) Barker. Before that surname combination and the house address give you ideas, no…she wasn’t from so grand a partnership as Astin and Barker’s. Joseph was a coachman for either Samuel Fielden at Centre Vale or John Stansfield at Ewood Hall, and like Charles and Sally Lord’s children, all the Barker children were hard at work as soon as they were able to be so. Jane was the oldest child and so was tasked with staying home and helping out until the time was right for whatever reason for her to move on, and she finally did so with Moses.

The pair had six children: Annie, Charles, Susy, Sarah Hannah, Betsy and Jane. Poor Sarah Hannah only lived for 13 months, as we can see from the stone, but the other children grew up. Moses worked his way up to overlooker at the cotton mill and the family moved around Walsden, finally settling at Alma Street. Moses continued on in his work at Hollins Mill for Abraham Ormerod & Bros., even earning the honour of serving as one of Peter Ormerod’s pallbearers at his funeral in 1884 as one of eight long-serving employees. The following year Moses would bury his wife Jane – did he help carry her coffin too?

Moses himself died in 1892 and was laid to rest with his wife and daughter.

Annie, meanwhile, had stepped into the same shoes her mother Jane had many years ago, and taken on household domestic duties after Jane’s death. Her sisters, the younger Jane included, all worked as weavers, and brother Charles had also become an overlooker by 1891. Moses had been well respected at work so a little nepotism probably didn’t hurt. Charles married after 1891 and started his own new life (although it wasn’t a long one – he died in 1902 and is buried at 29.24), but the sisters, all of whom were single, stuck together so they could maintain their independence. Annie took the opportunity to change careers and became a baker and confectioner, and by 1901 had opened her own shop with Betsy as her assistant. Jane meanwhile continued to work as a weaver. Perhaps she didn’t have a sweet tooth?

Annie died rather suddenly in 1908, and died on the job too, mid-bake. Her death made the newspapers as more than a simple by-line.

It seems from the obituary that by this time Jane was also helping in the business, and she and Betsy must have lamented yet another major loss to their life and, in a secondary sense, potentially also to their independence. But the sisters rallied, and in 1911 they are found still living together and still in the business. Jane is now the baker and confectioner, and Betsy is the shopkeeper.

The pair continued to work together until 1939, when Jane died and was laid to rest here. Betsy took that moment to sell the business and retire, and continued to live at the house at 5 Ash Dene where she and Jane had lived for some time. She died there in 1963 but her final resting place is unknown.