Page 53 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

David
H/H
28
Stuff Pressder [sic]
Halifax, Yorkshire
131 Jowett Street, Bradford
Martha
Wife
28
Worsted weaver
Bradford, Yorkshire
John E.
Son
3
Bradford, Yorkshire
Rhoda H
Daughter
5
n/s
Bradford, Yorkshire
John Soothill married Hannah Tasker at St John, Halifax, on 7 June 1824. By the time of the 1861 census John Soothill is heading a household consisting of himself and four children – his 22-year-old married daughter, Elizabeth Fletcher (1839-?) (there is no evidence of Elizabeth’s husband in the household), his 17-year-old daughter, Louisa (1843-?), his 15-year-old son, James (1846-1922), and his 9-year- old son, John (1852-?). Sadly, his wife, Hannah, seems to have died at some time between the birth of her son, John, in 1852 and the 1861 census. It is not known when and why Hannah died, but it is tempting to speculate that it was in childbirth. However, the household displayed in the 1861 census is not all, for John and Hannah had also had an older child, David (1833-1875) who by 1861 had already left the family home. In 1855 David had married Martha Jowett (1833-1905) in Bradford Parish Church. David and Martha were living at the time of the 1861 census in 131 Jowett Street, Bradford.
In fact, following the birthplaces of John and Hannah’s five children one can trace geographical movement in this grouping. The father, John, and his first four children had all been born in the Halifax area, but his youngest son, John, was born in Bradford. Hence, one can conjecture that the family had moved to Bradford between the birth of their fourth child, James (who was born in Halifax around 1845)
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