Page 160 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

Martha Ann Fitton (1858-?) in Rochdale in 1882 and they had three children – the eldest, Sarah Ellen (1883-?) married in 1901 and so ‘lost’ her Soothill name, while John (1888-1951) did not marry till 1922. John married Nellie Hartley (1893-1971) in Rochdale and they had two children – Eric (1925-?) and Vera (1929-?). Eric married Gwyneth Butterworth in 1949 in Rochdale and they had two children – John Richard (b.1957) and Robin (b.1959).
Walter and Martha’s third child, Jeaney (1891-?) appears in the 1911 census, but nothing is subsequently known about her. However, in the 1911 census, there is evidence of much more activity in Walter and Martha’s household, for there were also their grandchildren, Doris, Harry, Ronald and Nellie Broxup, aged 9, 7, 6 and 4 respectively. They were all born in Rochdale. The Broxup name provides the clue, for they are Sarah Ellen’s children.
At the end of chapter 1, I noted that John and Ellen had eight grandchildren named Soothill from their own four boys. Of this total of eight grandchildren, five were boys, but John Winn did not even survive babyhood. Hence, it rested with the four male first cousins – John Albert (1878-?), Harry (1884-?), Herbert (1882-?) and John (1888-?) to carry the Soothill flag among this branch of the family. By 1961 most of this branch of Soothills were in New Zealand and it was just John’s descendants who were carrying the Soothill flag in England Wales.
In terms of considering social and occupational mobility, this grouping is in complete contrast to the grouping just discussed who were derived from Thomas Hartley and Ellen (née Barrett) Soothill. This grouping was centred on one household living in Rochdale at the time of the 1861 census and now had four households living in Rochdale in the 1911 census. In the 1861 census John was the head of the household and was employed as a carder and beerseller, while his sons were cardroom hands and his daughter was a power loom weaver. Three of the Soothills in the 1861 census were in the 1911 census. 64-year-old Sarah Jane who had never married and had been the power loom weaver in the 1861 census was now identified as a woollen weaver which sounds much the same occupation; 60-
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