52 residents #39 Albert Pope

'Albert Pope was born in 1890 in Bacup. In 1891 he was living at 5 Glass St, Bacup, and 1901 he was at 10 Brand St, Stackstads, Bacup, both times with his parents. He married Sarah Elizabeth Eason in 1910 and by 1911 was with Sarah at 1 Edge Lane, Springhill. Both were slipper makers: Albert a laster up and Sarah a hand sewer. So far so ordinary.

Albert and Sarah married in Whittlesy, Cambridgeshire. From the 1911 census, Sarah was born in 1887 in Elsworth, Cambs. The first problem is tracking her down, and it seems she was born 1891 in Whittlsey, Cambs…not desperately close to Elsworth…in the wrong decade… If she is the correct one then she is daughter of John Eason, brick yard labourer and his wife Alice. In 1890 she was in Claygate, Whittlsey.

So how did Albert, born Bacup, come to marry Sarah, who appeared to live all her life in Cambridgeshire?

Albert Pope was the son of Alfred Pope who indeed was living in Bacup in 1891. Alfred was a stone mason and he and his wife Mary Elizabeth nee Cross were both born in Ely. They married in Haslingden district (the local one for Springhill and indeed for Bacup) in 1884. Prior to this they and their parental families seem to have been in Ely since c 1859 and Thelford before then. Well at least it's the correct county…

I haven't (yet!) established a connection between Sarah Eason and either the Pope or Cross families, so don't know if Albert married a cousin. Neither do I know precisely what led to Alfred the stone mason to travel from Cambridgeshire to Rossendale. 1890s was a period of mill building and the quarries were being expanded to provide the stone, but it seems a long way to come.'

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