John and Mary Ann Bray Highley (Part 11 - John and Mary)

This is the final post in this series about John and Mary Highley and their family.

John died in 1929 at the age of 76. He had worked as a Cotton Weaver all his life. The last record we have of him is the 1921 Census where he is shown at age 68 working at Hollins Mill in Walsden for the Cotton Manufacturer Caleb Hoyle. 

Hollins Mill, Walsden in 2018

Mary carried on living at 106 Summit, Littleborough with Thomas Arthur and his family. The 1939 Register shows her occupation as ‘Retired. Unpaid Domestic Duties’. She died 2 years later at the age of 88. At the time, she was living with her daughter Mary Hannah in Todmorden. 

Entry in the Todmorden & District News 5th December 1941

John and Mary were buried at Calderbrook church in Littleborough.

Calderbrook church. View from John and Mary's grave

John and Mary's grave

Mary had lost 5 of her children in infancy and had lost 3 in the First World War. At the time of her death 4 of them were still living with their families. She had 20 grandchildren. She had survived her husband by 12 years.

John and Mary Ann Bray Highley (Part 10 - Thomas Arthur and Richard)

Thomas Arthur’s first wife Ann Selina died in 1923 and he remarried two years later Elizabeth Ann Threlfall. He worked as a Cotton Weaver for Fothergill & Harvey and lived at 106 Summit, just outside Littleborough. He died in 1952. 

106 Summit, Littleborough
(behind the maroon car)

Richard married Alice Hartley soon after the War ended. The couple had a daughter Phyllis who sadly died after only 2 days. In the 1939 Register Richard is shown as being divorced, working as a Cotton Weaver, and living with his sister Beatrice Annie and her family at 1 Sourhall Road in Todmorden. He died the year after Thomas Arthur.

1 Sourhall Road, Todmorden
(first house on left)

John and Mary Ann Bray Highley and their family (Part 9 - after the War)

In this post we look at the the fortunes of the families of John Henry, Ernest Jackson and Charles William after the War.

Grace
On 13 May 1921 Grace, John Henry's widow, together with Herbert (aged 12) and Jack (aged 7), left Liverpool for a new life aboard SS Melita bound for Quebec in Canada. 

SS Melita leaving Liverpool

This is Grace’s passenger declaration form for her arrival in Canada:

 

The family settled in London, Ontario. Grace married again in 1929.

Harriet Ann

Ernest Jackson and his wife Harriet Anne had had 4 children by the time Ernest Jackson was killed. Harriet Ann never remarried and lived to the grand old age of 92. She was the last of the various Highley families to live in the block of terrace houses originally known as Throstle Terrace in Walsden. She was living at 12 Throstle Street in 1932 - the 3rd house from the right hand end of the block.

Throstle Street in 2025

Mary 

This is a photograph of Charles William’s widow Mary and their daughter Miriam, taken in about 1930. Miriam had just turned one when her father was killed.

Miriam died in 1942 and is buried at Calderbrook church in Littleborough, although there is no gravestone there to remember her. Mary died in 1972 but there is no record of her burial.