John Smith's Family Tree Website

Smith family

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Part 3: Sidney Smith (1840 - 1909)

Working life and marriage to Sarah Hannah Jagger

Sidney Smith was the only son of Jacob Smith and Amelia Drake. He was born 04 April 1840. There is no record of his baptism nor those of his siblings in either the Church of England or nonconformist churches (the records might not have survived). He married bonnet maker Sarah Hannah Jagger (1842 - 1904) 27 October 1861 at St John the Baptist Parish Church. (More information about Sarah appears in the Jagger section). The Smiths and the Jaggers both lived on Beggarington Lane and were Methodists (most likely attending the same chapel at Ambler Thorn).

Sidney and Hannah had four children: two sons both named Joah (one died in infancy), Fred and Annie. As well as raising the children and helping her husband, Sarah also earned some money herself. It is likely she kept making bonnets at home for a time, but on a later census record, she described herself as a ‘grocer’. This meant she might have owned a stall selling non-perishable items, had a shop or been based out of her home.

Sidney became a master butcher in Halifax, possibly with a shop at Kings Cross. As his father was a farmer and cattle dealer, he may have acquired some of his meat from him. Sidney would have had to get livestock to the slaughterhouse, cut the meat and manage to sell all the parts of the carcase he could. Saturday was the day working class people were paid and could afford to buy some meat. It was hard work and not always easy to make a profit and in the 1880s there was an increase in foreign imports and hygiene legislation. [2] By then Sidney had left the butcher business and become a stone merchant and a farmer of 48 acres (the size of 24 soccer pitches).

By the 1890s, Sidney owned one of the Ringby Quarries, on Swales Moor Road near Ambler Thorn, his Jagger brothers-in-law owning another stone quarry there, too. He also owned at least one other quarry, in Halifax, and his son Joah was in partnership with him. Sidney also owned six cottages in Ambler Thorn where the family moved to in the early 1890s.

Sarah died 11 January 1904, aged 61, and Sidney died 03 September 1909, aged 69. They were both buried in Ambler Thorn Chapelry.

Sidney left his only surviving child, Joah, almost £1900 in his will (made up mainly of property) worth about £107,000 today. This was quite a sizeable amount as the average annual income for a skilled man in the building trade was about £105 (almost £6,000). He very generously gave £500 (£28,000) to each of his three grandchildren when they turned 21.

Children of Sidney and Sarah

Joah (1861 - 1864) was born about December 1861 and tragically died of measles 18 June 1864, aged two years and seven months. He was buried in the family grave in Ambler Thorn United Methodist Chapel.

Fred (1863 - 1865) was born about August 1863 and died ageds 1 year and 11 months. He was buried 23 July 1865 in the family grave in Ambler Thorn United Methodist Chapel.

More information about Annie (1865 - 1905) appears in Part 4.

Joah (1867 - 1943) was born 12 November 1867 and became a quarryman. He married Emma Louisa Richardson (1871 - 1946) in 1895. They never had any children and after the death of his sister Annie, they adopted her son Sidney Smith Turner and he took the surname ‘Smith’. Joah and Emma lived at ‘Tern Lea’, a semi-detached house in Holmfield, Halifax. Joah died 20 August 1943, aged 75, and Emma 10 December 1946, aged 75, and both were interred at Ambler Thorn. 

Next: Annie Smith

Footnotes

[1] http://meatinfo.co.uk/news/archivestory.php/aid/15959/Meat_consumption_through_the_ages.html