HENRY PORTER
Birth: About 1659 Bury, Lancashire.
Married: Ketherin Tailor 1st April 1684 Bury St. Mary.
Children:
Alice Porter born 12th March 1685, christened 21st March 1685 Bury St. Mary.
Ann Porter born 19th August 1688, christened 28th August 1688 Bury St. Mary.
Thomas Porter born 1690/1 Bury.
Anne Porter born 10th December 1692, christened 11th December 1692 Bury St. Mary.
THOMAS PORTER
Birth: 1690/1 Bury.
Married: ?
Children:
Thomas Porter born 24th September 1715, christened 28th September 1715 Bury St. Mary.
THOMAS PORTER
Birth: 24th September 1715.
Married: ?
Children: Thomas Porter born 9th March 1754, christened 24th March 1754 Bury St. Mary.
THOMAS PORTER
Birth: 9th March 1754, christened 24th March 1754 Bury St. Mary.
Married: Maria Wood 27th May 1779 Bury St. Mary.
Children:
Thomas Porter christened 21st April 1782 Manchester Cathedral.
THOMAS PORTER
Birth: About 1782 Bury.
Married:Margaret ....
Children:
George Porter christened 22nd February 1803 Manchester Cathedral.
William Porter chiristened 22nd February 1803 Manchester Cathedral.
Richard Porter christened 30th April 1809 Manchester Cathedral.
GEORGE PORTER
Christened: 22nd February 1803 Manchester Cathedral.
Married Harriet Barnes 20th April 1828 Manchster St. Mary.
Children:
Ann Porter christened 5th August 1829 Manchester Cathedral.
Thomas Porter christened 15th July 1832 Manchester Cathedral.
John Hilditch Porter christened 6th November 1833 Manchester Cathedral.
George Porter christened 9th November 1834 Manchester Cathedral.
Sarah Porter christened 19th March 1839 Manchester Cathedral.
THOMAS PORTER
Christening: 15th July 1832 Manchester Cathedral. A Cooper in 1871.
Married: Charlotte Hyde 9th December 1852 Manchester Cathedral.
Died: Between 1871 and 1881.
Children:
George Porter christened 3rd November 1854 Manchester Cathedral. Died in infancy.
Thomas Porter born Manchester, christened 12th April 1857 Manchester cathedral. Cooper in 1871 and 1881.
George Porter born Manchester, christened 1st May 1859 Manchester Cathedral. Cooper in 1871/81 and 1901.
Richard Porter born Manchester, christened 5th May 1861 Manchester Cathedral. Died in childhood (after 10).
Harriet Porter born Manchester, christened 6th September 1863 Manchester Cathedral.
Alice Porter born 1865 Salford. Died in infancy.
William Porter born 1869 Salford. Cooper in 1881.
John Porter born 1870 Salford. Died in infancy.
I suspect that this family may have sufferred smallpox or something as both parents and three children died between 1871 and 1881.
GEORGE PORTER
Christened: 1st May 1859 Manchester Cathedral.
Married: Beatrice Bebbington 1883 Salford St Matthias.Click here to go to my Bebbington's
Children:
Maude (aka Ada) Porter born 1885 Salford.
Charlotte born 1888 Salford. Married 1897 Prestwich.
George Porter born 1891 Salford.
Beatrice (Beaty) Porter born 1893 Salford.
Albert Porter born 1895 Salford. Died in World War One.
Harold Porter born 1897 Salford.
Florence (Florrie) Porter born 1899 Salford.
Tom Porter born 1901 Salford. Moved to the Isle of Mann.
Alfred Porter born 1904/5 Salford.
GEORGE PORTER
Birth: 1891 Salford.
Married: Elsie Warburton 2nd December 1916.Click here to go to my Warburton's of Unsworth
Children:
Kenneth Porter
Living Porter
Grandmothers recollections:
Beatrice Porter (nee Bebbington). She was born at Weaste and married George Porter aged either 17 or 18. She had 12 children, although we can't account for the 12th, so she might have only had 11. She was very small with size 1 shoes. She wasn't fat. In her young days they were very well corseted with laces in the corsets at the back. It was fashionable to have an 18 inch waist when she was young. She was still well corseted even when she died and she had a lovely trim figure. She ended her days in a flat in Cuckoo Lane, Kirkhams, Prestwich. She had a fall and broke her hip and died at 96 years of age.
Beatrice had a long plait and she plaited this herself and fastened it up into a bun at the back of her head. She went blind when she was in her early 30's. In those days there were not the operations they have today and so she gradually became blind. It might have only been cateracts, but they did not do operations for these, so she remained blind. She wore a long skirt and she had a pocket which went underneath her skirt where she kept her purse. When she took money out she could tell what every coin was by feeling round the edge of it. She could cook and make pastry, she could make fruit tarts. She could skin a rabbit and put coal on the fire. In short she could manage the house even though she was blind.
When she got married we think she lived in Salford at Blackfriars. Her husband George had his own business in Blackfriars. He used to deliver the barrels on a horse and dray like the coalmans truck. He went as far as Simister and around the Pennines. He saw a cottage for sale in Simister; only a little country village in those days and he went home one day and said to his wife "We're moving. Were going to a little place called Simister in the open countryside where there's lots of fresh air and that's where we're going to bring our children up, in the fresh air." She hadn't even seen the house and they moved lock stock and barrel up to Simister. It might have been an end cottage in Crow Alley. Then they had more children and moved to a bigger house. As you approached the village of Simister from Simister Lane there were about 6 big red brick houses, very tall, on the left. They had bay windows to the front. They had more room for the children. They are probably not there now, knocked down for the motorway.
George Porter, her husband, used to travel all the way to Manchester with the horse and dray to Blackfriars every day, which in those days would have been quite a journey.
She loved having a big family and they used to go to church every Sunday. A church at Simister (St George), and they had their own pew because there were so many of them. Their son George junior was the eldest son. The children went to the little school at Simister. They went to Sunday school there, all dressed in their Sunday best. She seemed a very happy and contented woman, Sunday was the nicest day of the week. They would all sit down to dinner at a big table with a white tablecloth. The girls did all the clearing away after dinner and washed all the dishes - they dried them and put them away.
Sunday evening was a musical evening because she always insisted that they must learn something other than lessons at school and so they learnt the piano, another one played the clarinet and another had singing lessons - she had a good voice. Sometimes they would bring one or two friends in and they would have a musical evening and it was very enjoyable.
Beatrice couldn't read or write herself because in her younger days it wasn't necessary to even go to school (however, the 1871 census has her age 6 and a scholar, but schooling wasn't compulsory for the under ten's till 1880).Why she never went I don't know. She always insisted that her children had to go to school punctually and they had to learn their lessons; they had to do their arithmetic, write and spell. Her eldest son, George Porter junior was a beautiful writer.
Probably about 80 years ago (this was written 2000), one of Beatrices daughters learnt shorthand typing, which was a very modern thing to do then. She was also called Beatrice (Auntie Beaty). She got a job in London and she married a Southener. It was Plastoe where she lived, but not posative about this.
Another daughter (Auntie Florrie - Florence) learnt the piano - she was a very good pianist. She lived on Sandy Mount at the end of Cuckoo Lane. Her daughter was the same age as me (born 1927) and she had a beautiful voice and her voice was trained. Auntie Florences son Alan was very good at art. Aunty Florences surname was Douglas after ahe married.
Another daughter was Maude, she also had a beautiful singing voice and her voice was trained too. She went to live, when she was married, in Norwich. Her dughter went to art school there and became a textile designer - she was also a good swimmer and I have a photo of her in her swimming costume with her medals. During the war she moved to Knutsford with her two young children. Her husband was in the forces. She went to live in a beautiful cottage in Knutsford. She had a shed in her garden that was her studio for doing her designs.
Another of Beatrices children was Tom. He was one of her younger sons. He won a scholarship to go to grammar school. In those days, if you got a scholarship and didn't go you could have £50.00, which was a lot of money in those days. If he was still living now it would be 90 years ago. He refused to go to grammar school and took the £50.00 instead. He was interested in electrical engineering, so he learnt all about it and started his own business - a little shop - the £50.00 went towards this. In those days all the streets in Manchester - rows and rows of terraced houses all used gas. They didn't have electricity and Tom got the contract from Manchester Council to do all the electrical wiring in those houses. They were the Manchester slums. He worked very, very hard and when he got home at night he had to take all his clothes off before he went in and have a bath because all those houses were flea and bug ridden. The bugs used to come out of the walls where he was doing the wiring. However, he did very well with that. No-one had fridges in those days. The only fridges were the walk-in fridges that butchers had - there were no fridges in houses in those days. He got right in from the start and went into fridges. It all ended up that he became a multi-millionaire and went to live in the Isle of Mann for tax reasons.
Another boy of Beatrices was Albert, he was killed in World War One. His name is entered in St. Margaret's Church, Prestwich amongst others, in a list of rememberance.
Another son, Harold Porter went to live in Australia. He left two children in this country with their Mother: Albert and Audrey.
Beatrice also had twin babies that died soon after birth. There might be a family grave in Weaste because her husband George was buried. She is also buried there we think. She was a widow for many many years. Her husband George died when his eldest son George was about 25. The eldest son inherited everything back then.
There was another daughter Charlotte, she was a housewife. She went to live in Higher Broughton and then moved to Prestwich - Heywood Road. The railway bridge that goes over Heywood Road, if you were walking to Hope Park there was a row of shops on the right. Just after the railway bridge, one of the houses on the right.
Beatrices husband died young, leaving a wife and four daughters. George junior was the eldest boy. In those days there was no help financially from anybody, no social security - no nothing. If you didn't pay the rent you were out on the streets and were beggars. Like Charles Dickens day, without homes in the back streets. When his father died (who was the breadwinner), George Junior had to find some way of keeping his mother, four sisters and himself. I assume at that time he would be serving his apprenticeship to be a cooper and all the spare wood he used to chop up and make bundles of firewood, put them on a little handcart and go from house to house selling this firewood. He would go home and give all the money to his mother. He got his own firm going. He said to his wife, Elsie, he wanted to be his own master.
When Beatrice became a widow she moved back to Crow Alley in a little cottage. They owned two cottages there because they were inherited by her son George junior. He probably inherited his Fathers business too as he was a master cooper. He must have served his time with his father. He was only about 25 years old when he inherited all this. He sold the other cottage. He got married to Elsie Warburton at Unsworth St. George, they had a wonderful time because they had plenty of money to live on. They went down to London etc.
George junior and Elsie lived in the big house at Kirkhams and that was where I was born (that house is still there now). Then the great depression came in the late 20's and of course all the businesses went flat, they were all losing money. He felt responsible to his workers because they had families and he continued to pay their wages even though there wasn't work coming in. Eventually he went bankrupt. It was then that I was 3 and we moved to what was then called Half-Acre Lane (later Cuckoo Lane) into a council house, much to my brother Ken's indignity - a two bedroomed one facing the fields. Then, when I was 5, we needed 3 bedrooms so we moved to the end of Cuckoo Lane: No 2, which was a newly built council house. My father (George junior) was never out of work. He became bankrupt, but he never had any trouble getting work because he was a master cooper and he got a job with ICI at Blackley, because they used wooden barrels as big as houses. These were to take the dyes (vats).
Beatrice, when she became old (George junior insisted) that she move away from Crow Alley to a flat in Cuckoo Lane where he could keep an eye on her and her daughter Florence could help for shopping and washing etc. That's where she died. But whilst living there I used to go and sit with her on an evening sometimes and she had a big lump on her wrist on one hand. And when I asked her why it was like that she said she had smallpox when she was young and they tied her arms and hands down so she wouldn't scratch. In her effort to free her hand, she must have broken her wrist and she damaged the bone somehow and that's how it was left. When I asked her about hospitals she said they were horrible places. Manchester Infirmary was in Picadilly Gardens and if you walked past you could hear the screams. The front of the building has been in Heaton Park for many years now. (Investigation into Beatrice's pre-married life shows that she also lost siblings around the time she would have had smallpox, so they probably had it too).
I remember her sitting in a rocking chair and she used to whistle. She had a little bottle of stout every night and my Dad used to have to go and buy this bottle of stout every night. "Very good for you" she said. She lived to be 96. No wonder she lived to be 96, she couldn't go out and gad about because she was blind so it must have preserved her sitting in that rocking chair.
When he inherited the money (George), he would go off to the races and live it up a bit, but then came the depression and that was a terrible thing.
I think I have inherited that same complaint from my father and he inherited it from his father. My Father was never ill and never had a day off work. He was a very healthy strong man and he died suddenly one night in bed - a clot on the brain. And there had to be a post-mortem because he'd never been ill. If he had seen a doctor about a week before this had had happened, he wouldn't have died, his heart was very strong. They said he was a very healthy man and his heart was strong, but he had hardening of the arteries. His brother Alfred also just dropped down and died and I think he must have had the same complaint.
The river Irwell in Manchester near the Cathedral was lovely and clean and you could see fish swimming about and they used to have day trips along the Irwell. Thomas Cooks used to organise them and stone steps went down to the river.
George juniors wife, Elsie, was brought up in a country village called Unsworth, there was nothing. She met this boy that had come to live from Salford to Simister. She had never met anyone from the city, she knew only country folk. He sort of swept her off her feet. World War One of course, all the boys in the village were called up or were enlisted (I have evidence many volunteered). But my Father, if you had your own business you didn't need to be called up, so he was never called up. Of course he had all this money to spend. Here was this town boy and he swept her off her feet. He took her to Lewis's and in the basement you had what they called a river and had little boat trips. He took her on a water trip, she thought it was wonderful. She told me about this and just recently I heard that Lewis's in Manchster was closing down. It gave a little bit of history and said that when it first opened they used to give boat trips. He took her to London where she had never been. Took her to the Isle of Mann, oh dear - she was swept off her feet.
Aerial photo showing Unsworth and Simister:
Blue arrow = Unsworth, Red arrow = My Father's House, Yellow arrow = Pole Lane, Pink arrow = Simister.
I once asked her "did you feel sad leaving Unsworth?". She said she was glad to get away from it and everyone knew everyone else. It was like freedom. When she was at home she was never allowed on her own. The Warburton girls went to the barn dances but were not allowed unless escorted by their brothers. He was full of life and had lots of money you see. Oh yes, she had quite a lot of jewellery and fur coats, but during the depression she had to sell all this jewellery. But, Ken didn't like moving to that council house - he would be about 13. Nowhere to keep his bike and he left all his friends up at Kirkhams and he didn't like the address. He said if anyone asked him where he lived he felt daft saying 2 Cuckoo Lane. He hated it. It was a lovely big house and nice neighbours at Kirkhams. There was a lady called Bessy from Whitefield who was small and rounded. She had thick stockings and shoes with a one bar strap. Well, my mother was always smartly dressed. I will never forget those shoes, just like a little girls shoe. The washer woman and her daughter used to come. That was before the 1930's semi's were built at Polefield. It was a big estate and the entrance to it was where Polefield Hall Road is now. I went in lots of these newly built houses because I was a child. And the private houses on Ludlow Avenue weren't built - that was all private land. And do you remember where Leech's shop was - that row of shops - all those houses at the back weren't built. And the Welcome Inn, well that was only a tiny country pub, it wasn't the one that's there now, it was only like two country cottages bunged together (Some of these cottages still exist next to that pub). And opposite the Welcome Inn was another big house with a tall wall round it. There is another row of shops there now. It must have been a six foot brick wall. And all the houses down Heys Road weren't built then. There were no houses own Thatch Leach Lane, except one on the right hand side, half way up. They had a fire and it burnt and I don't know whether there were two children killed in that fire. Anyway, there was only one house. None of the houses on Victoria Estate were there, that was open land aswell as Buckingham and Thompson Avenue. The railway was there, but there was no station at Besses. It was built when all those houses were built. Hardmans Road did exist because there were a couple of older houses on the corner. Trees Estate wasn't there either, neither was Sunnybank estate. Unsworth was a tiny village and Hollins the same." Thanks Gran!