A family who were swept up in the Poor Law Riots, and an emigration that ended in tragedy. Henry Atkinson – the man of the house here – was born in Bowling, Bradford, in 1802. His father was a farmer but Henry was good with his hands and found himself apprenticing to a shoemaker, whose …
Read more “40.40 – William Sager, Henry, Thomas and Rachel Atkinson, and Ellen Horsfall”
This story is dedicated to those who adopt or foster, and to those who work hard to make sure that one generation’s sins don’t carry on to the next. If you’ve read our other stories about the Lord family – John and Sam’s story in particular – then you’ve already heard a little about Sarah …
Read more “41.ii – Abraham and Sarah Ford, Benjamin Elwell, and Hannah Champion”
This post isn’t a story so much as it’s an example of how we can try to use available records to identify mysterious burials, like plot markers – and how as more research gets carried out, previous assumptions need to be revisited and revised. A colleague of mine [researcher Sarah] asked me if I knew …
The Haighs left Todmorden for the distant wilds of Lightcliffe, but left three…yes, three, of their children behind. Reuben Haigh was born in 1817, the illegitimate son of Samuel Ogden and Eleanor Haigh. There are a lot of well-known Reuben Haighs in Todmorden but this one was neither a farmer nor a weaver nor a …
Some names get remembered because of their manner of death being unusual, or – in this case- spectacularly traumatic for a large part of the town. As with so many of these stories, we start with an offcumden and a local lad or lass. For this story the offcumden is William Livsey, who was born …
If you have a fondness for St. Peter’s in Walsden, then this one of the men to thank. George was born in either 1803 or 1807 – depends which source you trust – in Stansfield. His father was supposedly James Crabtree, he would say later at both his marriages, but there are no baptism records …
Two rows down from his brother John lies Edmund Holt (Jr.) and some of his own family. Edmund Holt was John Holt’s younger brother and so his early life was much the same as John’s – life up at Lumbutts – and also in terms of employment – the Fielden family. While John went down …
Read more “41.i – William, Robert, Sarah and Edmund Holt, and Sarah Ann Ingham”
Poor Eleanor Pennington, who died far from her family and whose story hints at mysteries behind closed doors… Eleanor (sometimes Ellenor) was born Eleanor Royston in 1810 in Leeds, the second daughter (we think) of Luke and Mary (Kay) Royston. Luke was a woollen cloth merchant and Eleanor’s early life was one of relative comfort, …
Sometimes we wonder how many tradesmen in Todmorden weren’t tailors; sometimes we wonder if any of them were native to Todmorden, or if they really were all from “north of the north”. This story will not vary from those seemingly universal conditions! James Tyson Postlethwaite was born in Kirkby Ireleth in 1808, although he would …
Read more “41.4 – William, Sarah, James and Ellen Postlethwaite”
This is a short story, since these two people were brief interludes in the life of someone else who is part of a large double vault grave – the Ratcliffs at V11.8 and V11.9. If it weren’t for Betty here though some of those people would never be born, so even though her entry is …