Page 307 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

Isaac (c.1838) and Joseph (c.1840). Certainly a formidable number of mouths to feed. However, the census indicated that Thomas and his sons, John and William, were all working as ‘stuff pressers’, while Hannah as a ‘silk piecer’ and Elizabeth as a [?] were also employed. So perhaps the years of hardship in feeding the family were much earlier.
Neither Thomas nor Elizabeth are apparent in the 1851 census, but their son William (c.1827) is now the head of a small household. William is now living at 27 Raynors Buildings, South Street, Wakefield with his wife, Marty (c.1827) and their young son, George c.1848) who was born in Sowerby Bridge. William’s occupation is a railway guard and so must have been quite an early employee in terms of the expansion of the Victorian railway industry. By the time of the e1861 census, the household had itself expanded with the addition of three more children – Martha A. (c.1852), Alfred (c.1856) and Arthur (c.1859). William was still a railway guard and George, now aged 14, had started as an errand boy. The family was now living in Tavern Street, Wakefield.
Joseph Soothill = Margaret Winnard
Joseph Soothill (c.1795) and Margaret Winnard (c.1803) are married by the time of the 1841 Census. Indeed, by that time they have a substantial family of six children – Mercy aged 12 (c.1829), Elizabeth aged 10 (c.1831), Martha aged 8 (c. 1833), Thomas aged 4 (c.1837), Sarah aged 2 (c.1839) and Benjamin aged 2 months (b.1841). In addition, there were two other members of the household – Sarah Winweard (aged 20) and Sarah Dearden (aged 15 years). Whether the two Sarahs were visitors, servants or boarders is not clear. However, whatever the relationships, this household of ten persons was probably quite crammed in their house in Middle Street, Halifax. All members of the household were born in Yorkshire.
By the time of the 1851 Census, there had been the arrival of another child, Jane (c.1850), but Jane is described as the granddaughter of the head of household, Joseph; however, her parentage is not clear. The household now had
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