The Leigh Story
The Bradford Leigh Side
The Leigh family history story began for me in 1998 with a visit to the Stockport Library. I havn`t been able to find any links to the famous Leghs of Lime Hanley who go back forever and who`s ancestry is well documented. So it was a case of going through parish registers in the area where I knew they lived.
I was quickly able to start finding the families of Bradford and Eber, because of their unusual Christian names. Within a few months I had Eber`s ancestry back to James Leigh born 1798 in Gatley.
The Leigh’s in Cheadle and Gatley seem to have been in the spinning and weaving industry. In the 18th and early 19th century the spinners and weavers worked from home in back kitchens .They were probably involved in the riots in the early 19th century. When Spinners and Weavers were seeing their jobs taken over by the mills. There is story locally of Isaac Leigh who hid up the chimney at Stone Pale from the Oxford Blues. These would be locally stationed soldiers brought up to help control the worker. This after some Luddite riots probably in Stockport, where workers were attempting to break up machinery.. Isaac later reappeared at St Peters Field in Manchester where Orator Hunt was to address the masses. This later became known as the Peterloo Massacre. The Stone Pale mentioned was the home of James & Jane Leigh nee Burgess. Isaac was James brother.
In an interesting encounter with one of the librarians at the L.D.S. library in Wythenshaw, I`d met a chap who was also researching the Leigh surname and we had agreed to exchange information but with one thing and another we’d never got around to it. We were to exchange information however a few months later.
Bradford’s family was quite easy to follow being also local to Stockport. From the 1881 census I found that Thomas, Bradford`s father was born in Henbury, by a strange coincidence Pauline and I had visited Henbury just a few weeks before I found this out, at this time we didn`t know of any connection. But with the 1881 census information we went back to the churchyard and managed to find Thomas’s parents grave also in this churchyard was a brother of Thomas, Job who had married Emily Atkinson.
Bradford Leigh was born on the 10th of June 1873 to Thomas Leigh a Grocer and Harriet Leigh nee Parrott. Who were living on Garden Lane, Upper Brook Street. Stockport, this is quite close to Hopes Carr. He had a brother John Thomas who was born in 1867 also in Stockport. The family is moving about during the 1870s and Harriet died in 1876. Though Thomas is a Grocer in 1873, his occupation changes to Dairyman by the time of the 1881 census and he has found himself a new wife, Elizabeth Cheers from Salford, they were married in 1877. They had three children, Samuel born 1877, Harry born 1880 and Alice born 1882. Sadly Thomas was to die quite young too. There is a death registered in the March quarter of 1883, in Salford which I suspect is him. By 1891 Bradford has moved to Withington working has a milk dealer. He is living with his Aunt Elizabeth, Thomas’s sister who married Frances Coates a Yorkshire man who`s occupation in 1891 is also milk dealer though previously a cow dealer.
John Thomas by 1881 has gone to live with his grandparents John and Phoebe in Henbury. They are working a small farm as tenants. By the time of the 1891 census John Thomas has married a fishmongers daughter Fanny Emma Cox from Macclesfield, who had recently been widowed, her first husband being Walter Shatwell.
John Thomas and Fanny seem to have taken over the fishmongers business at 30 Chestergate in Macclesfield. In 1901 he is a Police Constable in Manchester. No doubt his father’s brother had helped him get this job. William Leigh born 1840 in Henbury had served for 33 years in the police force before he retired in 1897.
John Leigh & Phoebe Pimblotte were married in 1835; her parents were James Pimblotte & Phoebe Grange. John & Phoebe seem to have spent almost all of there married life in Henbury where they are buried. A headstone in the churchyard reads:-
In Loving Memory of John Leigh who died August 28th 1890 age 76 years Also Phoebe his wife who died December 17th 1890 aged 76 years Also John Smeale born May 6th 1835 died Mar 7 1901 also Mary relict of John Smeale died 9.4.1903 age 64.
Johns parents were Margaret Lees and Joseph Steel, John could easily have called himself Steel. This is a friendly take of his baptism entry. Baptism, Lower Peover, 2nd January 1814, John illegitimate son of Margaret Lee, late of Over Peover, now wife of Joseph Steel,Over Peover Labourer
Bradford married Amy Holliday in 1896; Amy was born in Ladybarn, Withington on 7th June1871. They had seven children that we know of, Nellie was the youngest. There is a family story that Bradford went off looking for his fortune earlier in the marriage. It’s thought he went to Australia, looking for gold. I did find an enty of a Bradford going to America, but He can`t have been away too long, when he retired from working for the corporation in 1938 he`d been working for them long enough to get a long service award. Nellie was born at Bonnaz Villa Cottage according to the birth certificate, in Withington. I`d puzzled over this for some time regarding where this exactly was. Then one day in 2001 when we were visiting Christy Hospital, as we got out of the car I noticed a carving on a gatepost “Bonnaz Villa” This is on the corner of Wilmslow Road and Oak Road. It seems to lead to a row of shops on Wilmslow Road, but at the beginning of the 20th century must have been quite nice housing. I don`t know how long they lived here for sure, in 1901 the family were living on Cotton Hill and by 1914 they have moved back near here to 41 Henry St, where Bradford was to die in 1953. Amy had passed away in 1935. There is a headstone in Southern Cemetery with the inscription:-
In loving memory of Amy beloved wife of Bradford Leigh died 5th October 1935 aged 64 years also the above named Bradford Leigh died 14th July 1953 aged 80.
The next grave has this inscription:- In memory of Maria Holliday also Emma Holliday.
I`d assumed these were sisters of Amy and from the burial book got the information that there were actually three occupants here and they were Amy’s sisters.
Maria Holliday 18 8 1942 aged 80 from 40 Cotton Hill
Emma Holliday 17 11 1944 aged 78 from 30 Cotton Hill
Mary Lusk 3 8 1961 aged 92.
Mary was obviously the last one to die and no one had bothered to have her name put on the gravestone.
Amy was the youngest of 10 children to Charles Holliday & Ann Smedley, they were from Nottingham and had married in 1850 in East Retford, but by 1851 they were in Withington, some time after 1856 they go back to Clareborough in Nottingham and stay there for maybe eight years before returning to Withington. Charles was described as a cabinet maker journeyman on the 1861 census so this would account for his moving about looking for fresh work. He seems to have fallen on hard times by the 1881 census and is out of work, sometime in the next 10 years he dies. I suspect that work was always hard to come by, I believe the girls in the family, go into service quite young, in fact their mother in the 1841 census when she is 12 is living with a Mr & Mrs Nelson in Clareborough, Mr Nelson was an Hosier. I can`t find a relationship to this family so presumably she is their servant. This does seem to be an accepted thing during the 1800s.
Charles Hollidays was baptised 31st March 1830 he was one of five children to George Holliday a master joiner & Frances. I believe Frances maiden name was Nettlestone and they were married in the Cathedral in Manchester in 1824. By the time of the 1841 census Frances looks to have died George is living in a room in Leaf Place, Hulme with 2 of his boys, Henry and Charles. He was to marry Lydia Horton a Birmingham lady who had been living in the same property in 1841 census.George was baptised in Elkesley, Nottingham 6th April 1798, he was one of six known children to George Holliday & Mary Bennett who had been married in West Retford the year before.George senior was baptised in West Retford19th Feb 1774 to Valentine Holliday & Ann Rhodes they were married in Eaton, Nottingham in1761.
Bradford`s mother Harriet Parrott was born 3rd April 1845 in Preston Street Stockport. She was the eldest of seven children to George Parrott & Margaret Cooke. George was a wheelwright and had married Margaret at Manchester Cathedral on the 13th January that year. I`m not sure why they went to Manchester to get married, we can only speculate, Margaret must have been around six months pregnant at this time, it`s possible that they were living together has man and wife and had to go further away for the service so has not to spoil the illusion, but it wasn`t uncommon to travel 10 miles to get married in those days.
George was born on Hempshaw Lane in Stockport, son of John Parrott and Bridget Lowe, he was baptised at St Marys in 1823. It appears George had learned his wheelwright craft from George Priestnall of Lumb Lane in Bramhall. George was living with the family in 1841 has an apprentice. By 1851 he has his own family and is in Dean Row. John was born in Woodford 14th December 1797 to Richard Parrott and Sarah Jackson, who were married in Prestbury 20th December 1795.
Bradford`s paternal grandmother Phoebe Pimblotte born in Henbury 8th March 1809 she was the seventh of nine children born to James and Phoebe Pimblotte nee Grange who had been married at St Peters Prestbury in1796, it can be assumed from what little we know that James Pimblotte was an Agricultural Worker, though the only reference to his occupation in the baptismal register says he is a Laborer. The family started out there married life in Over Alderley, but by the time of Phoebes birth they have moved to Henbury.
Bradford`s maternal grandmother was Margaret Cooke, she was born in Bramhall in 1823 to Samuel and Margaret Cooke nee Barker. They were married in Sandbach in 1811, Samuel was said to be of Coppenall, on the marriage lines, though was born in Warmingham, Margaret of Sandbach, though she was born in Coppenall.
Warmingham is mentioned in the chronicles during the middle ages. Where it was claimed.
That the people of the township of Moston, near Warmingham were terrorized by a dragon, that lived in Cache Poole. When Thomas Venable of the Venables of Kinderton heard about it, he set out to destroy it. He shot it with one arrow, just as it was bout to devour a child. When that did not kill it, he finished it off with his other weapons. A carved screen in the Venus Chapel of Middlewich Church, shows the dragon with the church in its mouth.
This from “The Legendary Tribes of Cheshire” by Brownsword Hulland
It`s impossible to work out the truth of the story. There is probably an hidden meaning or message there somewhere. I imagine the clergy were trying to get a message over, but you have to wonder what events preceded the telling of this tale.
The mention of the name Venables and Kinderton is interesting as the name and area apppears in my mothers family tree. Mary Venables married Bernard Cobbe in 1715, I have her ancestors back to Richard, born late 1500s, and the family live in Kinderton and it`s thought the earlier Venables were cousins of the Conquerer, more of this in the Cobbe tree.
The Cooke family in Warmingham appear to have been farmers. But Samuel moved away from Warmingham, as seems to have happened a lot, maybe there wasn`t a sizable plot for him there. Samuel & Margaret can first be seen in Mellor after their marriage, before moving on to Bramhall where the were farming 2 plots of land in Kits Moss.
They then move on to Adlington where they are in 1851 and 1861. Samuels’s parents were John & Nancy nee Billings were married in Warmingham in 1776. John’s parents were William & Elizabeth nee Pickering they were married in Warmingham in 1754.
There are some interesting entries in the Warmingham Register, the following is a good example of how much it`s possible to learn from a baptismal entry.
14 March 1790.
Samuel Cooke son of John Cooke of Warmingham, Husbandsman son of William Cooke of Warmingham, Turf Seller and Elizabeth daughter of John Pickering of Sandbach and Nancy Billings daughter of John and Sarah Billings of Warmingham, Laborer and Pauper.
Mentioned in this one baptismal entry is 3 generations Maternal and Paternal. Child born Samuel his fatherJohn and his grandfather William. Even better on the Maternal side it mentions the grand mother and great grand mother.
The childs mother Elizabeth, Elizabeths father John and mother Nancy and Johns father John and his wife Sarah. Unfortunately these entries are rare, quite a lot through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had just the name of the baptised child and father. The mother didn`t even qualify for a mention nor the occupation of the father, so it`s not always easy to pick a family out. But when you find an entry like Samuel Cooke`s baptism it`s like having a lottery win, back 3 generations in a few minutes
Here for now rests this story