Page 64 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

In the 1861 census return John and Ellen (Whitehead) have one of the larger Soothill families. It is not clear when John and Ellen married, but already by the time of the 1861 census they had completed their family of four boys – Robert (1846-1910), Hamlet (1848-?), John Thomas (1849-?) and Walter (1856-1932) - and two girls – Sarah Jane (1844-1926) and Mary Ellen (1851-?). All survived to adulthood and the possibility of procreation. All the children were born in Wardle, Lancashire, but the household is now – at the time of the 1861 census - living in New Stock Road, Wardleworth. John’s occupation is shown as a carder and beerseller.
To bring the analysis into line with the other Soothill households, there are eight members of whom all but one (Ellen) were born as a Soothill. There are six youngsters who are under 21 years of age with just one male (John) in the reproductive window of 18 to 50 years. The average of this grouping is around 20 years, so it is at this stage a very young grouping.
Of the two girls, Sarah Jane (1844-1926), the eldest child, remained unmarried and seems to have spent all her life in and around Rochdale working as a woollen weaver and died aged 82 in 1926. Not much is known about Mary Ellen (1851-?) except to say that she was married in Rochdale in 1878.
Robert (1846-1910), the eldest boy, married Elizabeth Whitehead (1848-1926), a local Rochdale girl, on 10 November 1877 in Rochdale. It is not clear whether Elizabeth – with the same surname as his mother’s maiden name – was related to his mother. Anyway, Robert and Elizabeth had three children - John Albert (1878-1923), Ada (1882-1958) and Harry (1884-1973). Robert also seems to have spent his life in or around Rochdale. His occupations are always related to the woollen industry – for example, shown as a cardroom hand in 1861 and a wool warehouseman. He eventually died in Rochdale in 1910 (and so will not be in the 1911 census!) at the age of 63. In contrast, Elizabeth lived on until 1926 dying in New Zealand at the age of 78.
60