52 residents #8 George Hargreaves
21/02/15 16:00
Well this is going well.
The will of Bathsheba Davenport still hasn’t arrived so she will have to wait another week.
Next up should have been Charlotte Anne Hargreaves but her marriage settlement hasn’t arrived yet (ok. I’ve only just ordered it)
So, rapidly rising up the pecking order is George Hargreaves
The key question here is, which George Hargreaves? Rossendale is stuffed full of them.
I do know that he was chairman of the committee which organised the building of the Sunday School at Sion in 1901. He got to lay the foundation stone to the right of the door, whilst his wife laid the second from the left on the south wall. As there are 14 foundation stones in that building, there were plenty left for others.
(apologies to T Wallwork, who has ended up a bit blurred there on the back row left)
Ok, so who was he then?
A note in the local paper (Rossendale Free Press Sept 5 2014) suggested that George Hargreaves ran a locally based building company.
He certainly wasn’t the George Hargreaves who ran Rossendale Colleries with John Ashworth, because that George Hargreaves was dead by then.
He certainly wasn’t the George Hargreaves of Underwood who is buried in Sion churchyard as he was dead by then as well. Incidentally this George Hargreaves is a direct ancestor of mine, my connection with Sion going back over the best part of 200 years. Makes finding ancestors tricky, their all being good Baptists and all. He certainly wasn’t a descendant of that George Hargreaves either; I know who they are…
He doesn’t appear on the composite memorial to the family of Elijah Hargreaves, though he may have been related to them.
So much for the churchyard, lets try the trades directories.
McDonalds 1879 doesn’t have a George Hargreaves under builders. There is a confectioner, a reasonable match surely?! Knowing Sion, I doubt very much he was the wine merchant…
He could be the Hargreaves of Hargreaves and Melladen of Crawshawbooth possibly?
Mannex 1875 has George Hargreaves clothes dealer. Not a builder then. The confectioner was there then as well.
(other directories have only been transcribed for the immediate area around Springhill, so he cold be lurking in there.)
Ok the census.
The 1901 census, as indexed by a major database, has only one George Hargreaves, builder, and he lived in Fleetwood on the other side of Lancs so not him. Get rid of the builder bit and there are 204 to choose from.
Say he was 60-70 in that picture, that would put his dob at around 1830-1840 ish. Putting a dob of 1835 +/- 10 years gives me 24 of whom 3 were born in the area:
7 Worth Lane Rawtenstall b 1832 blacksmith
71 Newchurch Road, b 1834 Waste dealer (Cotton)
23 Newchurch Road b 1844 weaver cotton mill
mmm not much further on there then.
There were 15 George Hargreaves died 1910 +/- 10 years of whom 6 would be in the approximate age group. Of course he may have retired to St Annes as many in the area did.
doing well aren’t we?
Newspapers: the local squeak hasn’t been digitised (FMP tell me they are working on it!). There are 146 references to George Hargreaves in Lancashire in papers between 1900-1919, none of which refer to my chap.
google wasn’t my friend on this occasion either.
Can’t help feeling I’m missing something obvious here, but further details of George Hargreaves will have to wait.
The will of Bathsheba Davenport still hasn’t arrived so she will have to wait another week.
Next up should have been Charlotte Anne Hargreaves but her marriage settlement hasn’t arrived yet (ok. I’ve only just ordered it)
So, rapidly rising up the pecking order is George Hargreaves
The key question here is, which George Hargreaves? Rossendale is stuffed full of them.
I do know that he was chairman of the committee which organised the building of the Sunday School at Sion in 1901. He got to lay the foundation stone to the right of the door, whilst his wife laid the second from the left on the south wall. As there are 14 foundation stones in that building, there were plenty left for others.
(apologies to T Wallwork, who has ended up a bit blurred there on the back row left)
Ok, so who was he then?
A note in the local paper (Rossendale Free Press Sept 5 2014) suggested that George Hargreaves ran a locally based building company.
He certainly wasn’t the George Hargreaves who ran Rossendale Colleries with John Ashworth, because that George Hargreaves was dead by then.
He certainly wasn’t the George Hargreaves of Underwood who is buried in Sion churchyard as he was dead by then as well. Incidentally this George Hargreaves is a direct ancestor of mine, my connection with Sion going back over the best part of 200 years. Makes finding ancestors tricky, their all being good Baptists and all. He certainly wasn’t a descendant of that George Hargreaves either; I know who they are…
He doesn’t appear on the composite memorial to the family of Elijah Hargreaves, though he may have been related to them.
So much for the churchyard, lets try the trades directories.
McDonalds 1879 doesn’t have a George Hargreaves under builders. There is a confectioner, a reasonable match surely?! Knowing Sion, I doubt very much he was the wine merchant…
He could be the Hargreaves of Hargreaves and Melladen of Crawshawbooth possibly?
Mannex 1875 has George Hargreaves clothes dealer. Not a builder then. The confectioner was there then as well.
(other directories have only been transcribed for the immediate area around Springhill, so he cold be lurking in there.)
Ok the census.
The 1901 census, as indexed by a major database, has only one George Hargreaves, builder, and he lived in Fleetwood on the other side of Lancs so not him. Get rid of the builder bit and there are 204 to choose from.
Say he was 60-70 in that picture, that would put his dob at around 1830-1840 ish. Putting a dob of 1835 +/- 10 years gives me 24 of whom 3 were born in the area:
7 Worth Lane Rawtenstall b 1832 blacksmith
71 Newchurch Road, b 1834 Waste dealer (Cotton)
23 Newchurch Road b 1844 weaver cotton mill
mmm not much further on there then.
There were 15 George Hargreaves died 1910 +/- 10 years of whom 6 would be in the approximate age group. Of course he may have retired to St Annes as many in the area did.
doing well aren’t we?
Newspapers: the local squeak hasn’t been digitised (FMP tell me they are working on it!). There are 146 references to George Hargreaves in Lancashire in papers between 1900-1919, none of which refer to my chap.
google wasn’t my friend on this occasion either.
Can’t help feeling I’m missing something obvious here, but further details of George Hargreaves will have to wait.
