George Samuel Morris

Another story today from F.O.C.C.T., the Friends of Christ Church, Todmorden.

It describes the sad end of George Samuel Morris. Two of George's children married Hiley sisters - George Richard Morris married Alice Ann Hiley and Frank Morris married Betsy Hannah Hiley. Samuel, a brother of Alice Ann and Betsy Hannah, and my great grandfather, is mentioned in this story. 

George Richard and Alice Ann have already featured in a F.O.C.C.T. story in this Blog. Enter 'F.O.C.C.T.' in the 'Search This Blog' box to read their story and the others contributed by F.O.C.C.T.

38.10 – George Samuel Morris

by admin on Posted onMarch 8, 2024

George here was another transplant from Staffordshire who came here for work with his family. He met a wet end whose circumstances were sadly very predictable.

George Samuel Morris, or Samuel as he would choose to be known and to call himself, was born in 1820 in Monk Upton in Shropshire. His movements prior to his marriage to Mary Richards (whose surname we only know thanks to a family tree) are vague, and even his marriage isn’t firmly dated anywyere. But in 1858 he and Mary had moved to Tunstall in Staffordshire and they were welcoming their first child, their son George Richards Morris. 1859 saw the birth of Elizabeth Margaret and 1860 the birth of Simon. Shortly after Simon’s birth the Morrises came to Todmorden, and shortly after that Simon died. It was October 1861, he was a year old, and he was buried somewhere here at Christ Church.

There was then a six year gap before their third son and final child, Frank, was born in 1867. George and family had already settled near Gauxholme and in 1871 were resident at Lewis Street, Shade. George was working as a factory engine tenter, keeping the furnaces going. George seems to have liked a drink, getting picked up by the police now and again, but never for brawling or threatening behaviour…just a bit of staggering around.

On the night of July 22nd 1876, George left his house in the evening with a kiss to Mary and a promise of getting home soon so they could get to bed early. The Morrises by this point were living at Travis Holme, Clough, in Walsden. George headed down to the pub and never came home again. Mary and George Jr., Elizabeth and Frank waited for him, and waited, and waited. In the meantime Samuel Highley of Hollins Terrace was disturbed by a knock on his door at 11pm and answered it to find a very drunk George, who murmured that he was “a bad ‘un”, came in and sat, had a drink of water, sang a song, said again a few times that he was a bad ‘un, and then left. Samuel told him not to walk home along the canal, which was George’s preference, but George didn’t listen. Around 1am his children had had enough and went out looking, and Mary joined the search two hours later. It was Mary who found his hat and crutch on the canal bank. She got hold of George Jr., who went and got the police, and eventually on the morning of the 23rd the police arrived with grappling irons and pulled his body from the canal.

Todmorden Advertiser, July 28th 1876

The verdict was of drowning, with the reason unknown, as there was no real evidence to show he might have drowned himself intentionally apart from his statements to Samuel Highley. It was also his habit of walking home along the canal when drunk, known to everyone, and the jury clearly felt it was an accident. He was buried here, maybe with his son, maybe alone. The only initials we have here are his.

Mary died in 1882 and is also buried here at Christ Church somewhere. In the meantime, George Jr. married Samuel Highley’s sister Alice Ann. Something good came out of all that in the end…

Amy and Mabel

Today's post comes from the website of F.O.C.C.T., the Friends of Christ Church Todmorden.

F.O.C.C.T. are a community group whose aims include preserving the graveyard, improving accessibility, utilising the graveyard to educate all ages about the history of Todmorden and encourage emotional investment in the town’s past and future.

Their website contains research into the people buried in the graveyard and transcriptions of the monumental inscriptions of the gravestones.

F.O.C.C.T. – Friends of Christ Church, Todmorden (focct.org.uk)

This Blog has already published stories about Todmorden Hileys/Highleys from the website and I am indebted again to F.O.C.C.T. for this post about some of the children of Charles and Betty Hiley. The story is reproduced from their website with permission.

Charles Joseph Hiley (1843-1922) was a prominent figure in Todmorden during his lifetime. Several posts have already told of his life as a professor of music, organist, councillor, and shopkeeper. The story below tells about two of his daughters, Amy and Mabel.

43.52 – Charles and Sarah (Chaffer) Hiley and family

by admin on Posted onJanuary 1, 2025

This grave holds two parents, Charles and Sarah, and six of their eight children – Emily, William Campbell, Mary Jane, John Walter, Mabel, and Amy Elizabeth. Christopher Hiley’s excellent family history blog has already told Charles and Sarah’s stories so we’ll let you go there and read all about them. But what about the two daughters named here who lived to adulthood – Mabel and Amy?

                        Image of grave taken from Christopher Hiley’s blog

Mabel seems at first to have simply stayed at home after she finished school, but she soon took on work alongside her father as a music teacher. Charles must have been in high demand and needed help, and who better (and probably cheaper) than a daughter? Mabel was the eldest daughter and second eldest child so it makes sense; most eldest daughters ended up staying at home anyway to help with the other children, an informal but highly common Victorian custom. Mabel was at least, interestingly, advertising separately from Charles, which might indicate that her income was considered hers at least.

Sarah’s death in 1909 sealed the deal. Mabel, along with her other unmarried sister Edith (who had become headmistress at Roomfield School) and a servant named Bessie Whitham were at home with Charles on the 1911 Census and there they stayed. Mabel stayed busy by accompanying Edith when she played the violin at various functions, and during WW1 she got her qualifications with the St. John Ambulance Association. After Charles’s death in 1922 Mabel and Edith continued to live together, moving to Beech Avenue by the time of the 1939 Census. Edith continued to teach while Mabel stayed at home. After Mabel died in 1945 she was remembered in two ways: first, money donated to the War Fund in her memory by Horace and Nellie Hartley (of Hartley’s Opticians fame), and second, a purple burse (box for carrying altar cloths and vestments), veil, and four stoles donated to Christ Church by one of her sisters.

Edith kept Mabel’s piano and sheet music, and eventually they reached Amy’s granddaughter Carolyn (Baldwin) Nolan, who herself taught piano lessons using it and still has hold of it to this day. She also very kindly supplied these photos of the gravestone in better maintained days.

                                         Photo courtesy of Carolyn Nolan

Amy became a dressmaker, and in the early 1900s caught the eye of Sam Baldwin, one of the sons of mineral water manufacturer Greenwood Baldwin. Sam wanted to take the carbonated water experience a few steps further and instead of focusing on fizzy drinks went into the explosives business. That’s right – explosives! He was extremely intelligent and won scholarships to grammar schools and colleges, specialising in inorganic chemistry. He moved to Essex in 1905 to manage an explosives manufacturing business and in 1906 he and Amy married, and she joined him down south. The pair had two sons, George and Wilson, and Sam’s income increased to £500 a year from 1912 – very respectable at that time. His work meant he was spared heading to the front during WW1, no doubt a relief for Amy…but he did something for the war effort as he was given an MBE afterwards for his efforts. He went on to help run a gelignite factory, as would son Wilson. This is more about them than Amy, isn’t it? Amy was a quiet soul, maybe a homebody, and there are few mentions of any Mrs. A. or Mrs. S. Baldwins in Essex in the right time period, and none can be clearly identified as her. She got a small death notice in the papers here, at least, when she died in 1952. Sam followed her in 1957 and is buried elsewhere.

The Life of Henry Hiley Part 14 - Littleborough Central School

Today's post returns to the memoirs of Henry Hiley.

It’s time that I went back to school. That school, it had the baby class, that was called Class 3. Mrs Allerby looked after us there and then we went up to Class 2, Class 1 and then into, you might call it the big school, starting with Standard 1. And that went on, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 until Standard 6, maybe even Standard 7 and Standard 8.

I can’t remember an awful lot about the classroom work. I can remember my first reading lessons, I told you that, c in cat, d in dog and suchlike. But I do remember that we were given a little but not much homework, very seldom did we get homework, but once or twice we were expected to learn a psalm - Psalm 23, the first psalm of all. Well, when we got back to school the following morning the girls had usually learned them and I was about the only boy. I had great difficulty in getting them off by heart and I used to sit in the shop near to that big coke oven. I was at least warm and I struggled, I struggled, to commit anything to memory.

I was more interested in cricket. We used to play plenty of cricket on the street. We used to go on to the Rec. That was a big open space but there were great areas there where the grass was worn away. When we were playing amongst ourselves if any boy managed to score as many as 50 he was expected to declare. I very seldom did that. We didn’t play many outside schools. We played the Parish Church school in Littleborough. We played Dearnley Central School.

I stayed in that Elementary School as far as Standard 6. The school leaving age was 14. But the school also had a higher grade department. We called it the Science. My sister Mary went into the Science department. Agnes didn’t, she left school very early. She was poorly and what would have been her last school years were spent in a Sanatorium. Edith won the Junior Scholarship. She went off to Rochdale to the Secondary School in 1925 and about the time that I was being put in for the Junior Scholarship exam Barbara went into the Science department.

Henry - top row, furthest right

Henry - top row, 3rd from the right

Barbara Kershaw - 2nd row, 3rd from the right

Henry - 1st row, 3rd from the left