John was born on the 25th July 1844 in Westhoughton. He married Alice Ingram on the 11th December 1865 All Saints Church in Hindley and they had the following children:-

  • Elizabeth Ann (FM112), born 5th February 1868 in Hindley;
  • Abigail (FM050a), born 13th February 1870 in Hindley;
  • John (FM113), born about 1871 in Hindley;
  • Harry (FM114), born 19th August 1873 in Hindley;
  • Peter (EM078), born about 1875 in Hindley;
  • James (EM079), born about 1877 in Hindley;
  • Edith Alice (EM080), born about 1879 in Hindley;
  • William (EM081) born about 1881 in Hindley;
  • Walter (EM210) born 15th March 1883 in Hindley;
  • Lily (EM336) born 3 March 1885 in Hindley, baptised All Saints on 3 May 1885;
  • Beatrice born 13 June 1886, baptised All Saints on 1 August 1886;
  • Frank (EM337) born 1 June 1888 in Hindley, baptised at All Saints on 2 September 1888.

John and Alice were living at 9 Swan Lane, Hindley at the time of the 1881 Census with their eight oldest children and a lodger called William Wood who was a coal miner. John was also working as a coal miner – could he and William have been workmates?

Alice may have died giving birth to Frank in 1888, or shortly after as she is not recorded in the 1891 Census and John is shown to be a widower. There is a record of an Alice Mangnall who died in early 1891 (RoD Wigan 1891 Q1 8c 69 age 44) which may be her. John is now living at 113 Corner Lane in Abram along with all eleven children. Presumably Elizabeth was taking her mother’s place in looking after the household and the younger children.

John remarried in 1892 to Ann Green at All Saints Church in Hindley.

The 1901 Census shows that the family were living at 286 Leigh Road in Hindley. John was still working as a coal miner – the census tells us that he was a hewer of coal. He was now 55 years old, Ann was 50 and the census records that she was deaf. Harry, James, Edith, William, Walter and Lily were still living at home.

I think that John died in 1919 at the age of 75 but this still needs to be confirmed (RoD Bolton 1919 Q4 8c 385).

Thanks to Jacquie Marsden for supplying me with some of this information.


[Last updated 30 Oct 2013]