The Clough branch of the family - Part 2 (Jeremiah Clough)

Jeremiah Clough, born in 1832 and the father of Mary Ann, was one of my great great grandfathers. This post covers his life from his marriage to Grace King in 1854 until his death in 1908. The next post will look at his childhood and upbringing.

Jeremiah and Grace were married at Halifax Parish Church. They were both aged 22. No father’s name is given on the entry for Jeremiah. At the time they were both living in Stansfield. Jeremiah was a weaver.

There were four children from this marriage – Mary Ann (b 1854), my great grandmother, who featured in the last post, Sarah (b 1856), Joseph (b 1860) and Mary (b 1860) known as Polly, who married Joseph Crabtree. In 1861 the family were living in Mill Street, Todmorden. Grace died in 1864, aged only 32.

Jeremiah remarried the following year, to Amelia Jennings at Holy Trinity Church, Littleborough. Between 1868 and 1887 they had 10 children – James Henry, Helliwell, Crossley, Susannah, Herbert, Frank Arthur, Rose and Gertrude twins, Elizabeth A and Sarah J. They lived in Paul Row, Summit, Littleborough, and later in Todmorden Road.

Derrick Kershaw wrote of Jeremiah:

Jeremiah was living at Dobroyd at the time of the ‘great flood’. He later moved to Calderbrook, Littleborough where he lived in ‘Paul Row’ and at Whitfield. His occupations were gardening, labouring, stone waller, carter, weaver, engineer.

Both his legs were broken in an accident caused by firing a cannon placed on the top of Whitfield overlooking Townhouse to celebrate the return from sea of one of the Molesworth family.

My father Wilfrid Kershaw remembers him when Jeremiah kept a garden in the land overlooking the entrance to Summit Tunnel. He was also a visitor to the Duke of York Hotel, Ealees (kept by Joseph Crabtree, an uncle of Wilfrid’s) being quite a noisy customer, clapping down his two sticks on the table and shouting ‘whoever takes them takes me’.

The former Duke of York hotel, Littleborough
(Derrick Kershaw photo)

Entrance to Summit Tunnel (2025)

We know that Jeremiah was buried at Calderbrook church in Littleborough, but there is no record of the burial or grave reference in the church grave book. The photo below show a marker stone with the initials J C but this is only a guess at where he might be buried.

Calderbrook church, Littleborough

Marker stone

The Clough branch of the family - Part 1 (Mary Ann Clough)

The next few posts will cover the Clough branch of the family.

Mary Ann Clough was born on 31st July 1854 in Toad Carr, Stansfield. Toad Carr is an area just off the Burnley Road on the way out of Todmorden. Her parents were Jeremiah Clough and Grace (nee King). Mary Ann was not baptised until 17th September 1871.

Mary Ann's baptism entry for Holy Trinity church, Littleborough

Mary Ann married James Kershaw ('Jim Screw' - see the previous post) on 2nd February 1874 at Mankinholes Chapel. Her occupation was shown as 'Factory Operative - cotton'. Between 1874 and 1886 the couple had 5 children - Henry Taylor, Grace Ann, Allan, Fred and Wilfrid. James died of consumption in August1887.

In 1891 the family were living at Greenvale Cottages in Littleborough and Mary Ann was working as a Cotton Winder at Greenvale Mill. She died of pleurisy in August 1893. After Mary Ann's death the home was broken up, Wilfrid going to live with Harry, his eldest brother, and his family. Wilfrid's story will be told in a future post shortly.

Mary Ann Kershaw (nee Clough)

Mary Ann with Wilfrid on her right and Fred on her left

Next post: Mary Ann's father, Jeremiah Clough

James Kershaw (1851-1887) - 'Jim Screw'

 Derrick Kershaw wrote this summary of the life of his grandfather James Kershaw:

The photo below shows Greenvale Mill in Littleborough where James worked as a Warper, and the adjoining Greenvale cottages where his son Wilfrid was born on 15th August 1886. James died a year later and his wife Mary Ann (nee Clough) died in 1893.

Greenvale mill and cottages

Grave of James and Mary Ann Kershaw at Cross Stone church in Todmorden

The Kershaw gravestone at Heptonstall

Four generations of Kershaws are buried in the graveyard of St Thomas the Apostle church in Heptonstall. Their names are commemorated on the gravestone shown below:

The Kershaw gravestone

M.F. was Mary Farrer (nee Kershaw)

G.K. was Grace Kershaw (nee Farrer)

A.K. was Abraham Kershaw

R.W. is unknown

The family tree below shows  the relationships between the people named on the gravestone - marked in blue. Thomas and Elizabeth were no doubt related but we haven't found their connection to the other Kershaws so far. Other brothers and sisters in each generation have been excluded.

James Kershaw (1803-1860), killed on Mytholmroyd station, featured in the last two posts. His son James Kershaw (1851-1887), married at Mankinholes in 1874, featured in the post before that. This James was known as 'Jim Screw' - more about him in the next post.

Derrick and Evelyn Kershaw cleaning the Kershaw gravestone at Heptonstall

James Kershaw (1803-1860)

In the last post we learned how James Kershaw met an untimely death on Mytholmroyd Station.

His great grandson Derrick Kershaw researched the Kershaw and Taylor families in his retirement, visiting record offices, searching through archives, and finding and photographing the places where his ancestors were born, lived and were buried. His research was done well before the days when the availability of computers, together with transcriptions of parish records, baptism, marriage and burial records, and censuses made researching family history a lot easier. Derrick compiled a large file of family photographs, documents, records and reminiscences.

Below is his entry for James Kershaw:

Derrick's photos of his trip to Mytholmroyd:

Mytholmroyd Methodist Graveyard

Mytholmroyd Methodist Church

Grave of James Kershaw and his family

James Kershaw killed on Mytholmroyd station in 1860

James Kershaw (snr), 1803-1860, was the father of James Kershaw (jnr) who married Mary Ann Clough in 1874 and was mentioned in the last post.

He was involved in a fatal railway accident on Mytholmroyd station.

The following article appeared in the Halifax Courier on 25th August 1860.

Mytholmroyd station 2014

Early photo of Mytholmroyd station
(used with permission)

Death certificate of James Kershaw

Next post: More about  the life of James Kershaw (snr)

The maternal side of the family

As promised at the start of the year, it is time to devote some posts to the maternal side of the family which has been neglected for too long. 

Henry Hiley married Barbara Kershaw in Durn Baptist Chapel in Littleborough on 18th November 1944.

Previous posts in this Blog have described how the Hiley family originated in an area on the Sowerby hillside above Luddendenfoot in the Upper Calder Valley. James Highley moved west in the 1750s and settled in Todmorden. James was a 4 x great grandfather of Henry.

George Redmonds was unsure of the origin or origins of the Kershaw surname. It occurred in Lancashire from the late 1200s and in Yorkshire from 1307 where the first reference is that of Adam Kyrkeschawe of Sowerby. So the Hiley and Kershaw families may have originated very close to each other.

Barbara's Kershaw ancestors never lived far away from Henry's Hiley ancestors.

In 1874 the marriages took place of two great grandfathers, Samuel Hiley and James Kershaw. At York Street Chapel in Todmorden on 13th September, Samuel Hiley (aged 21), a cotton weaver of Alma Street, Walsden married Elizabeth Taylor (aged 23), a cotton weaver of Hollins Mount, Walsden. And at Mankinholes Methodist Church on 2nd February, James Kershaw (aged 22), a Bookkeeper of Hollins Place, Walsden, married Mary Ann Clough (aged 19), a Cotton Factory Operative of Beech Street, Walsden.

Hollins Mount

Hollins Place

The four residences of the two couples are all within a stone's throw of each other in Walsden, so the couples would almost certainly have known each other. Little did they know that two great grandchildren from these families would bring them together 70 years later.

So where were the Hileys and Kershaws 100 years before these two weddings?

Samuel's great grandfather James was living with his wife Martha and children at Swineshead Cottage between Todmorden and Walsden. James's great grandfather John Kershaw was living with his wife Martha and children in Sowerby. We know that he was born in Westfield and died in Hollinhey, both places in the township of Sowerby. From Swineshead to Hollinhey is about 5 miles as the crow flies.

Swineshead

Hollinhey