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Monday November 12, 2007 |
         
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John and Ellen are my Great-Great-Grandparents John MatherJohn Mather was born about 1816 in Little Bolton, Lancashire. His parents were Samuel Mather, a weaver and Alice Mather ... Yes! Both Mathers.
In 1841, John's Parents, Samuel and Alice Mather, were living in Waterloo, Bolton with the younger four children Happy, Samuel, Alice and George. Happy and Samuel were probably twins. By 1841, Isaac and John had already married left home. In 1841 John Mather (about 25) and his first wife Ellen (about 25) were living in Little Bolton with their son Joseph, who was just one year old. John was a Cotton Spinner from 1837, at the time he married Ellen Buckley, to 1841. He then started working for Ellen's father as an Oil Cloth maker, which is what his recorded occupation was when Ellen died in 1842 , and when he re-married Elizabeth Kay a year later (on 20-Sep-1843). In 1851, there are just 13 Mathers recorded in the census, born and living in Little Bolton. All 13 are one of the 4 related Mather families:
In 1861, the census return shows John as a time keeper, now living at 114 Chorley Street with Elizabeth and their 7 children. An addition on the census adds "Bleach Works", but this could be a mistake as John was probably a time keeper at the Iron Foundry. John died on 21st March 1864, of Chronic Hepatic disease, and Icterus (for 3 weeks), aged 49. At the time of his death he was still working as a time keeper at the Iron Foundry and living at 114 Chorley Street, Little Bolton. His oldest son Joseph, of the same address, was present at the death. Ellen BuckleyEllen was baptised at Moor Lane Baptist Church on 23 February 1816. Her parents were John and Mary Buckley from Bolton. John (b.1766, Latham), a Baptist, was an Oil Cloth maker. They had several children, all of whom were baptized at Moor Lane Baptist Church in Bolton. John Mather (a minor) and Ellen Buckley (of full age) were married in the parish of Deane on 9th October 1837. John was a Spinner. At the time of their marriage they were living in Halliwell. John's father was recorded as Samuel Mather, a weaver, and Ellen's father was John Buckley, an Oil Cloth Maker. They had one son, Joseph Mather, who was born in 1840. There may also have been a infant, Ellen born in 1842 who died soon after, but this isn't confirmed. Ellen died on 6 September 1842, from "Fever of the Brain". A brain fever is an inflammation of the brain, or a fever (like typhus) attended by brain complications. Husband, John Mather, was in attendance at Crook Street, Great Bolton. The death was registered on the 8 September 1842 bu John Scowcroft, the registrar for Eastern Bolton. Elizabeth KayElizabeth Kay, daughter of Ralph, was living at New Road, Halliwell in 1841. A year after Ellen's death in 1842, John remarried Elizabeth Kay. They were married at Dukes Alley Chapel (non-conformist) on the 20th September 1843. The witnesses were Samuel Kay, Elizabeth's brother and Mary Bromiley. Elizabeth's father was Ralph Kay, a finisher. Elizabeth was Cotton worker in 1841 and a ruler when she married John in 1843. John must have had some money, because soon after their wedding John, or more likely Elizabeth, was a Provision Dealer (i.e. shopkeeper), with an entry in the 1843 and 1853 Bolton Trade Directories. The shop was in Halliwell in 1843, but by 1851, they were living at a shop at 58 Chorley Street. By 1871, Elizabeth was stationer. Between 1844 and 1855, John and Elizabeth had six more children. Their family home was 114 Chorley street, where Elizabeth lived from before 1861 until about 1884. This address is also a shop (as recorded in the 1835 trade directory). She then moved to Birkenhead with her youngest daughter Ruth. In 1871 Elizabeth was recorded as widowed. She was working as a stationer, and still had Hannah, Margaret, Sarah, John and Ruth living with her. Next door at 116 Chorley street was living son Samuel and Ellen Mather with their daughter Elizabeth (aged 1). By 1881, recorded as aged 63, she had stopped working and become a house keeper, still with daughter Susannah and son John. Probably during 1877, when Hannah married, they moved out of the family home in Chorley street. Elizabeth and John moved to Birkenhead, Elizabeth moving in with the Inman family whilst John took up in Lodgings. In 1891 Elizabeth was living at 7 Vine Street, Birkenhead with her daughter family, Ruth Inman. Elizabeth died in Birkenhead in 1892, aged 70, and was buried in Flaybrick cemetery in a public grave.
Hannah was born on 31st July 1844. She was recorded as Susannah at birth and in 1871 and 1881, but known as Hannah earlier. In 1871 she was working an an operative and 1881 as a mill hand in the cotton works. She lived with parents John and Elizabeth at the family home at 114 Chorley street until 1887 when she was 43. Then she married Robert Buchan Robinson, a Scott, 25 years her senior. Samuel, a cotton carder, married Ellen Morris in 1867. In 1871 they were living next door to his mother and family. By 1881 they had moved to 121 Chorley Old Road and had three children; Elizabeth (b.1870), John (b.1877) and Maud (b.1880). Margaret married John Green Kay, a brick maker, in 1873. After their marriage he became a grocer and they lived at 73 Pikes Lane, Bolton in 1881. After that, none of the family can be found, so possibly they emigrated. Sarah Alice was a cloth hooker at the bleash works in 1871. She married Reuben Fynn Handford (b.1853, Nottingham), a travelling Baptist minister in 1880. They were living in Gorton, Manchester in 1891 and Loughborough in 1901. They had three children, Ethel (b.1881), Ester (b.1885) and Reuben (b.1890). John never married. He was an Iron turner in 1871 and 1881, while still living with his mother. Then worked in the shipyards of Birkenhead in 1891 and Barrow-in-furnace in 1901, working as a machine driller of the boilers whilst living in lodgings. Ruth married James Inman in 1879 in Bolton. Ruth, James and family, including her mother, Elizabeth Mather (Widowed) lived at 7 Vine Street, Birkenhead in 1891. They had five children; Elizabeth, Lillian, Sarah, William and Margaret. Her mother, Elizabeth Mather, died at 34 Vine Street in April 1892, and two of her children also died in 1894. About this time husband James also seems to have left her. After that Ruth and her surviving three children moved back to Bolton to live with her older sister Hannah and Robert Robinson, which is where we find them in 1901. Ruth's husband, James Inman was a stationer's or book seller's assistant in 1881 and 1891. It is quite possible we was working at Elizabeth's shop, as we know Elizabeth was a stationer in 1871. However Elizabeth had stopped work by 1881 (aged 64) to be a housekeeper.
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This site was last updated 12-Nov-2007
