A family history trip to Calderdale - 2 Booth Independent Chapel

Not far from the boundary stone is the tiny village of Booth. 

The first chapel in Booth near Midgley was founded in 1761, originally as a Wesleyan Church. In 1828 a new church, the "Ebenezer Chapel", was built and in 1869 another new chapel was built, the old one being retained for school and social purposes. It eventually became an Independent or Congregational church in 1872. By the end of the 1970s the congregation had dwindled to 12 and it was eventually demolished in 1980. The manse and graveyard remain.

Booth Independent (Congregational) Chapel

Mary Highley from the last post (no. 1 in this series), called Mally in the church record, was born on 28th February 1789 and baptised on 12th April in Booth Chapel. Before Mary and James emigrated to the U.S. all their children were baptised at Booth.

Graveyard May 2023	Entrance to the graveyard
Cottages at Goit Side in Booth	Bank House Lane, Booth

A family history trip to Calderdale - 1 The boundary stone and Hill End

Every year I make two or three trips to Calderdale to look at places which had some connection to a member of the Hiley/Highley family in times past - for example where they used to live, where they worked, where they were baptised or married, or where they were buried.

My latest trip was to a part of Calderdale on the edge of Halifax and just north west of it. The map below shows this area and the numbers show the places of interest visited. Remember that you can click on the map to see an enlarged version.

The next few posts will give short summaries of these places and describe the connection to members of the the Hiley family.

On Balkram Edge near Moor End, just past the Crossroads Inn and the football field, is a boundary stone. Erected in 1805, it shows the boundary between the townships of Warley and Ovenden. Warley is to the left and Ovenden is to the right. The camera is looking to the north.

Photo of boundary stone - May 2023

Earlier photo of stone with clearer lettering

The post of 3rd October 2022 told how David Hiley obtained a 'Settlement Certificate' from the parish of Warley regarding his move to the parish of Ovenden. 

David made the move with his three sons, Mark, James and David. 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 established as the leading family line in the Halifax area.

In the background behind the stone can be seen a rising hill to the right. This is Hill End.

Hill End

Mary (Mally) Highley was born at Hill End in 1789. She was a descendant of Henry Hiley who died in 1732. On 1st January 1811 in Halifax Parish Church the marriage was recorded of James Crowther of Ovenden, weaver, and Mary Highley of Warley, spinster. 

Mary and James had 7 children, the first 4 being born in Yorkshire and the last 3 in Abbeville, South Carolina, U.S.A. The couple were buried in First Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, Anderson, South Carolina.

The inscription on Mary's gravestone reads: 

Mary Crowther 

wife of James Crowther

Born in the township of

Warley Yorkshire in England

Feb 28 1789 and came

to America in 1819

Died June 29 1854

Mary and James feature in some of the other posts about this trip.

The Hiley Y-DNA Project - The results so far

The Hiley Project

At the time of writing, there are 18 members in the Project. The Project contains 15 sets of Y-DNA results for males with the Hiley/Highley surname, 1 sample currently being processed in the lab in Texas, and 1 test kit not yet returned to the lab. There is also 1 female member descended from a Highley ancestor who took an autosomal test.

The Project site and DNA results can be viewed at: Hiley - DNA Results | FamilyTreeDNA

Our genetic groups

So far we have found 5 distinct genetic groups.

A genetic group is those participants who match in a genealogical time frame. They come from the same surname origin. In England, surnames originated about 1250-1450. Sometimes participants are in the same documented tree. Eventually multiple documented trees are in a genetic group, showing that these documented trees share a connection between the progenitor of their tree, and the adoption of surnames. In most cases, a documented connection will never be found to connect the trees. Usually, it is possible to do more research to learn more about the surname origin.

Group 001 (4 participants)

This group might be called the ‘Yorkshire Hileys’. They originated in the Upper Calder Valley, just west of Halifax in Yorkshire, England. The earliest documented ancestor within the group is David Hiley who was born in 1700.

The earliest available registers for West Yorkshire are the Parish registers of Halifax, 1538-1593. The ancient parish of Halifax was the largest parish in Yorkshire and one of the largest in England. These registers cover baptisms, marriages and burials which took place in the Parish church of St John's, Halifax. There are a number of entries for Hileys, with a variety of different variant spellings of the surname. It has been possible to reconstruct some small family groups from these but not enough documents exist to connect these groups to the ancestors of our participants.

Group 002 (5 participants)

Two participants descend from William Highley, a convict from England, who was transported to Maryland in 1760. Three participants descend from James Hiley from Leeds, England, born in about 1724. We do not know the connection between William and James.

Another William Hiley was Rector of Poole in Dorset at the end of the 1500s. His daughter Eleanor married a member of the prominent Haviland family. It has not been possible to trace any living descendants of William but there is a strong belief, and anecdotal evidence, that the descendants of James Hiley from Leeds are connected to this family, especially as members of several generations have used Haviland as a second forename.

Group 003 (1 participant)

Georg Heyle left Germany and arrived in Philadelphia in 1732. The family adopted the surname spelling Hiley.

Surname evolution was typical when a migration occurred, especially when there is a change in pronunciation between the two locations. Surname evolution is where the spelling of the surname changes over time. In the colonies, the surname for this tree evolved to Hiley.

Group 004 (1 participant)

The most distant ancestor we have in this group is James Hiley who married Mary Learoyd in Bradford Cathedral in Yorkshire in 1775. A lot of early records for this family use the surname Iley as well as Hiley.

Group 005 (4 participants)

These 4 participants have documented trees going back to the 1700s. The oldest documented ancestor for each tree shows them living in Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Surrey and South Wales. We may never be able to connect them with documents. The connection is likely to be between the origin of the surname for this group, circa 1250-1450, and the start of their documented trees.

Growing our Project

The more participants we have, the more we will understand about the origin of the various Hiley families. If you have not already done so, please consider joining the Project. If you have joined, and know of other males with the Hiley or Highley surname, please encourage them to join as well. If you are a female then encourage a male relative to join.

Ordering a test

Because of their competitive rates, I will order tests for new participants through the Guild of One-Name Studies. I have established a fund which can be used to help pay for the test.

If you know of anyone who might have an interest in the Project then please forward this Newsletter to them. If you have any queries, comments or suggestions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Halifax Parish Church, scene of many Hiley baptisms, marriages and burials
The earliest recorded baptism was that of Alice, daughter of George Hylyle, in 1540