David Hiley 1700-1767 (Part 4 - Burial in Luddenden)

David's body was brought back from Morton Beck and buried at St Mary's Church in Luddenden with his wife Dorothy who had died 34 years earlier.

St Mary's Church, Luddenden

There is a record of the inscription on the gravestone of David and Dorothy:

Here lieth the Body

of Dorothy the wife

of David Hiley of

Warley who depart

ed this life the (13?)th

day of January Anno

Domini 1733 in the

51: year of her Age.

Also the abovesaid

David Highley who

departed this Life

the 4th Day of Au

gust 1767 in the 68th

Year of his Age.

The grave was in the yard south of the church but there is no sign of it today. We know that some gravestones have been moved and areas grassed over and some have simply been lost over the years. Some have been stolen and used for building purposes, and some have been broken or damaged and removed. It is thought that for most burials the flat slab was the usual graveyard monument.

There were many Hileys/Highleys buried at Luddenden but only a handful of their gravestones can now be seen. Although none of David and Dorothy's 3 children stayed in Warley a number of the descendants of their son David were buried at Luddenden. Many of those buried were descendants of James, son of Henry, who was born in 1694, and some were descendants of Michael, born in 1692. At the moment it is not possible to confirm the relationship between David, James and Michael.

David Hiley 1700-1767 (Part 3 - Morton Beck)

David Hiley (snr) was buried at St Mary's Church, Luddenden on 12th August 1767. The entry described him as a Weaver from Ovenden, and that

He was drowned in Martin Beck on Rumbles Moor the 4th Instant and found the 11th Instant

(drowned on 4th August and found on 11th August)

Martin Beck is now known as Morton Beck and Rumbles Moor as Rombalds Moor.

Morton Beck is formed by the merging of a number of streams and rivulets on Rombalds Moor. The beck has a huge catchment area and flows for about 6 km before joining the River Aire between Keighley and Bingley.

Rombalds Moor

Morton Beck

In August 1767 disaster struck West Yorkshire following what was described as the greatest flood in living memory.

Below are some excerpts from The Leeds Intelligencer on 11th August:

About three o'clock on Wednesday morning last (5th August), the inhabitants about the bridge in this town, were greatly alarm'd with a sudden and uncommon swell in the river, which rose upwards of two yards perpendicular, in the space of an hour.

The river Wharf was higher than has been known for near 20 years past.

One farmer at Leathley lost about 20 sheep, and two horses.

At Morton Banks near Keighley, part of a house with the furniture were swept away; and a great number of other persons in that neighbourhood are almost totally ruined.

Great numbers of oxen, horses, and sheep in the feeding pastures were taken away by the current, some 3 or 4 miles.

A man, who was bathing at Dewsbury, was so terrified with the lightening on Tuesday night, that he unfortunately got out of his depth, and was drown'd.

We will never know the circumstances of David's drowning or why he was in that area at the time of the great flood. There were a number of mills built on the banks of Morton Beck over the years so perhaps he had left Ovenden to find work as a weaver there, even though he was aged 67 at the time. There are no records of other members of David's family living in that area at the time so it seems unlikely that he was visiting his family. From Ovenden to Morton Beck is a distance of about 12 miles.

Next post: David's burial

David Hiley 1700-1767 (Part 2 - David's children and his Settlement)

The parish registers for St Mary's Church in Luddenden record these two baptisms:

Mark Hyley, son of David Hyley of Warley, on 11th September 1720 and David Hyley, son of David Hyley, on 16th January 1725.

David's wife Dorothy died in 1733.

In 1744 David obtained a 'Settlement Certificate' from the parish of Warley regarding his move to the parish of Ovenden.

The Settlement Certificate

At this time every parish was responsible for looking after its own poor. 'Overseers of the poor' were officers who could give out poor relief to those who were unable to support themselves. The money came from a rate which the overseers levied on the better off households in the parish.

In 1662 an Act of Settlement was passed to define which parish had responsibility for providing a poor person with relief. A person's parish of settlement was usually his or her birthplace, but married women took their husbands' settlements and children their fathers'. 

After 1697 the poor were allowed to enter a different parish in search of work, so long as they had a signed Settlement Certificate guaranteeing that their parish of settlement would be responsible for paying their poor relief and would take them back if necessary. Without one, a migrant was liable to be sent back to his or her parish of settlement. An examination could be made if the parish of settlement was uncertain or if the new parish felt that the person was likely to become chargeable to them.

David's certificate

Reproduced by courtesy of Halifax Antiquarian Society, West Yorkshire Archives, Calderdale, HAS:73(236)80

The certificate confirms that David and his children Mark, James and David, have their legal settlement in the township of Warley and that this township will provide for them if they become chargeable to the township of Ovenden. The map below shows that Warley and Ovenden were neighbouring townships.

We have no record of a baptism for James but the order in which the children are listed suggests that Mark was the eldest, David the youngest with James in the middle. So given that Mark was baptised in September 1720 and David in January 1725 it seems likely that James would have been born in about 1722 or 1723. 

At the time of the Settlement, the approximate ages of the 3 children would have been: Mark 23, James 21 and David 19. Mark and James subsequently made the journey west along the Calder valley to Todmorden and became the patriarchs of the Hiley/Highley families who became established in the Todmorden and Walsden areas. David remained in Ovenden and his descendants became one of the leading family lines in the Halifax area.

Next post : Part 3 (Morton Beck)