John Smith's Family Tree Website

 

Close up of Tijou Screen at Hampton Court Palace

Womersley family

 

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Part 3: Noble Womersley (c1837 - 1892)

 

Working life and marriage to Mary Turner

Noble Womersley was the illegitimate son of Hannah Womersley. He was born c1837 in Southowram [2] and was baptised 26 March 1837 at St John the Baptist Parish Church, Halifax. In the baptism record, his parents were listed as ‘Joseph and Hannah Womersley’ who were actually his grandparents. This could have been an error on the part of the person filling in the baptism record or a deliberate attempt to disguise Noble’s illegitimacy. If there was no father, the mother was usually recorded as a ‘spinster’ with nothing else noted, as was the case with Noble’s aunt Elizabeth.

After Noble’s mother married Benjamin Pollard in 1841, Noble kept his mother’s surname, although he was listed as ‘Pollard’ on the 1851 census (most likely an enumerator’s error). He worked as a woolcomber as a teenager and later as a dyer. It seems he was able to have some schooling as he could sign his name when he married.

Noble married Mary Turner (1839 - 1894) 06 April 1858 at Sion Independent Chapel, Halifax. The Independent Church was nonconformist (outside of the Church of England). Neither the Womersleys nor the Turners seemed to have been nonconformists as there were ample records of them involved in Church of England baptisms, marriages and burials. However, it is possible Noble and Mary became nonconformists (most likely Methodists) as late teenagers or young adults. None of their eight children were baptised or married (with the exception of one) within the Church of England, although both Noble and Mary were buried in a Church of England graveyard.

Mary was the youngest of nine children born to John Turner (c1796 - ?) and Sarah Maude (c1794 - ?). John worked as a shear maker and the family lived in Salterhebble (these Turners do not appear to be related to the Turners Noble and Mary's grandson married). There is a Womersley family story of an ancestor known as ‘Miss Maud of Westmoreland’ [sic]. If this was a reference to Sarah Maude, she was born in Skircoat, Yorkshire, and had no known connection to the ancient county of Westmorland. John likely died between 1841 and 1851 and Sarah stayed living with her family, taking in washing to earn money.

Following their marriage, Noble worked the rest of his life as a wire painter and welder which would most likely have involved making cages, mesh or similar items. Their children benefited from the 1870 Education Act which provided non-denominational education, although not for free (poorer families were exempt from paying the small fee required). Although the Act was supposed to make education compulsory for those aged five to thirteen, school boards (which set up the schools as necessary) had the power to make by-laws and accept reasonable excuses for non-attendance.

Noble died 14 December 1892 at 9 Salterhebble Terrace, Skircoat, aged 55. The cause of death was listed as ‘atheroma of arteries’ (hardening of the arteries) and ‘cardiac syncope’ (fainting). He was buried two days later in grave plot 6U in All Saints Church, Salterhebble. Mary died fifteen months later, aged 56, and was buried with her husband 31 March 1894.

 

Children of Noble and Mary

Thomas Turner (1858 - 1931) worked as a worsted doffer as a teenager, replacing full bobbins of worsted yarn with empty ones. As an adult, he followed his father into the wire industry and worked as a wire drawer, making wire by ‘drawing’ hot metal through dies. In 1881 he married Hannah Simpson Johnston (1859 - 1951). Hannah worked in the wire industry but may have given it up when she had children. It is possible Thomas and Hannah were Methodists as neither their marriage nor any baptisms of their children were listed in Church of England records. They had six children: Ernest Harold (1881 - 1915), Rowland (1884 - 1936), Eric (c1886 - 1898), Ida (1891 - ?), Mary (c1897 - ?) and Ethel (1902 - 1965). Ernest enlisted in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment in the early weeks of World War I, having been a reserve. He was killed in action 16 October 1915, two months after being sent to the front line. Thomas was the treasurer of the Salterhebble Athletics Club in the late 1880s (which covered cricket and football) but it is not known if any of his children played either sport. The ‘Halifax Courier’ regularly gave a shilling prize (worth about £3 today) for jokes and stories and in November 1899, 15-year-old Rowland had a joke (or an overheard story) published. As it involved gambling and public houses – two issues of concern to Methodists – it must be wondered where Rowland got his material from! 

Rowland's joke (p9, 11 November 1899): 
On the day of the last Manchester Handicap, two policemen disguised as navvies entered a publichouse [sic] not many miles from Halifax, to try and entrap the landord, who was known to be making a "book." After Several drinks, one of them asked the landlord what he was laying.
"Six to one bar three," replied mine host.
"What are you barring?" asked the other.
"You two and the magistrates," was the sharp reply.

Thomas died in Cleckheaton 09 October 1931, aged 73. Hannah was able to take advantage of the 1918 Act that gave women over 30 the right to vote, provided they met the minimum property qualifications. Her husband’s occupation entitled her to vote for the parliamentary and also local government elections. In 1928, all women over 21 were enfranchised. Hannah died in 1951, aged 91.

 

Fred (1860 - c1936) worked as a worsted doffer as a teenager and then as a cotton spinner. Unlike his siblings, he married and had all his children baptised within the Church of England. Fred married mill hand Mary Hannah Barker (1864 - c1940) 25 May 1885. They lived in Salterhebble and had six children: Maude (1885 - ?), Frank (1887 - ?), Noble (1889 - 1890), Annie (1892 - ?), Ada (1895 - 1963) and Cora (1901 - 1971). Maude, Frank and Ada appeared never to have married. Also unlike his siblings, Fred worked in the cotton industry all his life. It is likely he died c1936 and Mary c1940.

 

Caroline (1863 - 1943) was born 27 May 1863 and was also known as ‘Carrie’. She worked in the cotton industry for many years, although it seems she stopped working sometime around the death of her parents. Her two youngest siblings lived with her for a time and after her brother Harry was widowed, she took in his four sons. She also had a boarder called James Arthur Foster who boarded with her for over a decade. Caroline never married and died in 1943, aged 80. She was buried in All Saints Parish Church, Salterhebble, 06 October in grave plot 469.

 

More information about Alfred (1865 - 1939) appears in Part 4.

 

James (c1868 - 1939) worked as a cotton twiner when he was younger. In 1897 he married Emily Wilding (c1873 - 1947) who had been born in Manchester and had worked as a domestic servant for a family in Halifax before her marriage. They had five children: Lewis (1898 - 1898), Phyllis (1900 - 1905), Louis (1901 - c1967), Eric (1902 - 1968) and Alfred (1907 - 1975). The family stayed living in the Halifax area and James worked at a hardware warehouse. He died in the General Hospital in Halifax in 1939, aged 71, and was buried 06 April in All Saints Church, Salterhebble, in grave plot 369A. Emily later lived in Sowerby Bridge and died in 1947, aged 71, and was buried 09 May with her husband.

 

Harry (1870 - 1915) worked as a cotton twiner. He was involved with the Salterhebble Athletics Club, like his older brother Thomas, in the late 1880s. At one time he was joint vice- captain of the 2nd football team and in the summer months captain of the 2nd XI cricket team. Only one sporting result is known for him: a duck as the eleventh batsman in an extremely low-scoring match against Beech Hill! Harry may well have been the unnamed ‘Womersley’ that incurred the wrath of the Mirfield Football Club by sending a (literally) eleventh hour telegram announcing “Ground too hard; players won’t play” (a decision made unseen about a ground nine miles away!). Harry married cotton spinner Emma Jane Rayner (1870 - 1904) in 1891. They had four sons: Wilfred (1892 - 1958), Neville (1894 - ?), Clement (1896 - c1973) and Norman (1899 - 1974). Harry was involved with the United Methodist Free Church in Salterhebble and was the choir secretary. Among his many duties was organising an outing by train and charabanc to Nottinghamshire. Although they were Methodists, their youngest son Norman was baptised as an infant within the Church of England, though he later married in a Methodist chapel. The family lived in Salterhebble Terrace, Halifax for many years and Harry worked as a joiner journeyman. Sadly Emma died in 1904, aged 33, and was buried in All Saints Church, Salterhebble 04 March in grave plot 6U. The boys went to live with their aunt Caroline and she appeared to have brought them up. Harry moved to Nottingham and became an inspector of nuisances (most likely in issues of sanitation). He married Ruth Ellen Womersley in the Halifax area in 1911 but nothing is known about her or if she was related to the family already. Harry died 11 February 1915, aged 44, in the Nottingham General Hospital and was buried two days later in All Saints Church, Salterhebble.

 

Frank (1874 - ?) was born 20 May 1874. He was involved in singing, certainly as a youngster. A report in the ‘Halifax Courier’ in 1889 about a cantata ‘The Holiday Concert’ by children at the United Methodist Free Church mentioned Frank receiving an encore for his part as a ‘newsboy’. As a teenager, he worked as a cotton spinner but then had a variety of jobs as an adult. He was at different times an assurance agent, a newspaper stereotype and later an iron moulder (though it appears he retired from that owing to an accident). He married Mary Hannah Craven (1874 - ?) c1904 and they did not seem to have had any children. They later moved to Sheffield and Frank might have died there in 1950.

 

Amelia (1878 - 1952) was born 15 January 1878 and like her brothers Frank and Harry was involved in singing (she sang as a ‘flower girl’ in the same 1889 cantata mentioned above). As a teenager she worked as a cotton twiner and then became a fancy dealer’s assistant. She married Norman Arthur Frank Austin (1892 - 1941) at Holy Trinity Church, Halifax, 08 November 1917. Before World War I, Norman had been a musician in a picture theatre. He enlisted in the navy in August 1915 and by the time of his marriage had been promoted to Able Seaman and was serving on HMS Renown, which patrolled the North Sea. He was demobbed in 1919 and he and Amelia appear never to have had any children. Norman died 27 February 1941 and was buried 03 March in All Saints Church, Salterhebble in grave 440A. Amelia died 07 November 1952, aged 74, in Royal Halifax Infirmary and was buried with her husband 10 November.

 

Next: Alfred Womersley


Footnotes

[1] The novelist Emily Brontë was teaching at a boarding school in Southowram c1837-38. It has been suggested that the inspiration for ‘Wuthering Heights’ – the house and the feuding within – apparently came from Southowram, though no Womersleys or Mitchells were ever said to be the inspiration! (www.bronte-country.com/halifax.html)