Thomas remarried

In 1866 Thomas remarried after 17 years as a widower and four years after his daughter, Mary (who had continued to live with him in the family home), had died at the age of 35. On the 21st May he married Elizabeth Bradshaw, a fifty year old widow who lived in Waterfoot. Her father was William Roberts, a wool sorter, so we can assume that her maiden name was Roberts. Thomas' age was 67 and he was still a grocer living in Edenfield. 

A recently found snippet in The Bury Book Of Days by Sean Frain describes what is surely Thomas' business up for sale:

"May 28th 
1866 On this day, a house and grocery shop, including a carrier for the stock, came up for auction. The house and grocery business were situated in the village of Edenfield, and Mr S Jackson was the acting auctioneer. Mr Jackson had been instructed to handle the sale by a Mr Thomas Schofield of Edenfield, and along with the shop and living accommodation was to be sold a lot of valuable furniture (which was considered in very good condition), a useful and hard working draught horse, two carts, geers and cart sheets. The sale commenced at one o'clock and was well attended.  .....[the sale was] conducted at the Derby Hotel in Bury Town Centre"

It can be no coincidence that the sale was in the same year as his marriage - in fact it was the following week!

He relocated to Rawtenstall and in the 1871 census was living at Cawl Meadows (later Cawl Terrace) in the Newchurch part of the town. He was still a grocer at 72 and his 54 year old wife presumably looked after the house. Three of Elizabeth's children lived with them: John (26, railway labourer), Sarah (22, a servant) and James (20, a carter). They presumably remained there until Thomas' death in 1879 on the 21st February, aged 81 when his occupation is still greengrocer! Cause of death was paralysis for 12 months which could have been a stroke as we know it today. The death was reported by James Ashworth of Cloughfold, stepson, who was probably the husband of his stepdaughter, Sarah.

Thomas was buried with his first wife, Hannah,in the family grave at Edenfield Church where the inscription on the headstone reads:

"Hannah Schofield departed this life 24th March 1849 aged 49 years
Also William, the son of Thomas and Hannah Schofield, shopkeeper and farmer who died on the 9th May 1841 aged 4 months
Also Sarah, daughter of the above Thomas and Hannah Schofield, who died 5th September 1842 aged 5 months
Also Richard, son of the above Thomas and Hannah, who died 29th August 1847 aged 8 years
Also Mary their daughter who died on the 8th July 1862 aged 35 years
Also John Schofield, son of Thomas and Hannah Schofield, approx 1 year old who died 14th July 1821
Also Thomas Schofield husband of the late Hannah Schofield who departed this life on the 22nd February 1879 aged 81 years"

This makes rather depressing reading, but it is strange to find that Thomas is also mentioned on the headstone of his parents, John and Peggy Schofield which is in the same churchyard. The inscription reads:

"Here
Resteth the Body of
John Schofield of Eden
field who departed this life
on the 23rd day of May 1843
aged 72 years
'Long time I was afflicted
And Sorrow filled my breast
Till Death he served the summons
And here I'm laid to rest'

Also of Peggy Schofield his
Wife who departed this life the
1st day of May 1849 aged 74 years
Also of Eleanor daughter of 
the above named John & Peggy
Schofield and wife of
George Ramsbottom [of]
Hollins, who died Jan 12th 1859
Aged 63 years 
Also of 
Thomas Schofield
of Cawl Terrace Rawtenstall
who departed this life
February 21st 1879 in the 82nd
year of his age"

Despite the difference of one day in the date that he died this is undoubtedly the same person who is recorded on the other headstone.

Incidentally, John Schofield's death certificate records that he died of consumption which he had for one and a half years.

John and Peggy Schofield were my GGGG grandparents.

Gravestone in Edenfield churchyard

Map showing Cawl Meadows - the terraces running
 vertically constituting Cawl Terrace

Cawl Terrace (lower right) in relation to Rawtenstall Town Centre from a map  of 1909

Introduction

With all family histories one gets a sense, after progressing back about 100 years or more, that there is a pivotal family group that forms the heart of the story about your ancestors. For me it is usually the family that provides a link between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries where the parents were born in the late eighteenth century and their children in the nineteenth. Thus it is that full use can be made of the excellent Victorian records that are available to us in the form of the census, civil registration, wills and probate records and many more. Their lives can usually be tracked in their entirety from cradle to grave and our own family's path can be viewed as descending from theirs.

In the case of my Schofield ancestors it is the family of Thomas and Hannah Schofield who lived in the Lancashire village of Edenfield. Thomas (1797-1879) and Hannah (1801-1849) married in 1820 and had twelve children of whom seven survived into adulthood. Their second surviving son, John, was my great great grandfather.

The first census that the family appears in is that for 1841 in which all the children that survived appear, apart from one who doesn't survive. The households are mostly not named so we know that Thomas and Hannah lived in Edenfield but not exactly where. Thomas' occupation was greengrocer so he would presumably have had a horse and cart for deliveries and possibly a shop.


A Thomas Schofield appears in the 1818 Directory of J Leigh as 'grocer etc' in Edenfield which may be the same person or possibly an older relative, but a Thomas Schofield, greengrocer, also appears in several later directories as well. 

In the 1841 census the following children are listed: Thos (20), John (15), Joshua (15), Mary (10), Ellen (10), James (5), Geo (4) and Richd (2) but the ages of the older children have all been rounded down to the nearest five, so Thos could have been between 20 and 25 and so on. They were all born in the county. Sadly Richard, the youngest, only survives to the age of eight years.

Thomas Schofield and Hannah Cunliffe had married in 1820 on the 9th January at St Mary's in Bury. St Mary's was the mother church for the area so, although there was a church in Edenfield, it was customary to marry in Bury and the children were usually baptised there also. As Edenfield was a Chapelry marriages could not be carried out there until the later part of the nineteenth century. On his marriage Thomas is described as a fulling miller as has this occupation for the birth of sons John and Joshua but on the birth of his daughter, Mary, he has become a carrier and by the time of the appearance of son James in 1834 he is a greengrocer.

Their eldest child Thomas was born out of wedlock and baptised as Thomas Cunliffe on the 6th December 1818. His mother Hannah was a weaver living in Edenfield and the reputed father was Thomas Scholfield. The next child, John, was baptised on the 23rd January 1820 just after the wedding, but sadly only survived to the following year when he was buried on the 16th July. The family continued to reside in Edenfield until Hannah died in 1849 and was buried in Edenfield Churchyard, Thomas, a widower, continued to live in Edenfield for the 1851 and 1861 censuses with a dwindling family until in 1861 there is just Thomas and his daughter, Mary (33), remaining. 

None of the children remained in Edenfield with their spouses and families for long and Thomas himself remarried in 1866 and moved to Rawtenstall.

There will be more of his story and of his children in the next post

Map of Edenfield in the nineteenth century - Market Place in the picture above was in the top left section of the map