Page 93 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

James, the head of household. At the time of the 1861 census James and Mary have four children – three daughters (Mary Ann aged 11 who is already described as a Factory Operative Cotton in the census; Sarah aged nine; and Alice aged two) and one son (John aged five). The occupation of James, the father and head of household, is shown as a fuller which normally means a worker who cleanses wool through the process of fulling.
John who is the only male heir in this household seems to have had a short and perhaps sad life. He was born in 1856 and shown as living in the family home at 7 Coldwell Place, Spotland, Rochdale, in the 1861 census at the age of five years. He marries twenty years later in 1881 in Rochdale and is shown in the 1881 census as a cotton operative living at 4 and 3 Coldwell Place, Spotland – within two doors of his parents’ house in 1861. Seven years later, in the first quarter of 1887, his death is recorded at the age of around 32 years. There is no evidence – and, anyway, it perhaps seems unlikely - that John had any children. Perhaps it was a life dogged by ill-health
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Dennis (1815-?) and Mary (1820-?) Soothill
Entries in the 1861 census
Name
Sex/ Relationshi p
Age
Occupation
Where born
Current address
89