HEYWOOD NOTES & QUERIES . Reprinted from the Heywood Advertiser. CONDUCTED BY J . A. GREEN . VOL. II.] [No. 13 4 riaav, 3anuary 5th, 1906. [152.] JOHN KAY TAYLOR. (See Query No . 109 .) Under the above heading I recently asked for information about the author of The Burial of Burns : a poem, 1847 . A copy of this scarce pamphlet was given to me tzn years ago by a local gentleman, and I have since then made several inquiries about the authors connection with Heywood, but unsue- oessfully . I mentioned the pamphlet in a lecture on Heywood books, etc ., which I de- livered to the Heywood Literary Society in 1897, and in 1902 I gave a short notice of the author in The Bibliography of Heywood . It has fallen to the lot of a humorous contri- butor to the Heywood Advertiser to un- earth additional particulars, but, mistaking the right letter box, his contribution did not reach V 2 this columnar, it ought to have done . The following extract from the article just men- tioned gives some new facts on the authority of Mr . William Crabtree, George-street, Hey- wood (a cousin of Mr . Taylor) : It is to be regretted that so little is known of the author of The Burial of Burns . His father was a handloom weaver and one of the Kays, of whom there seems to have always teen a numerous family with several branches at Heywood . His mofher was Ann Taylor, and she was the eldest of thirteen children . Her family lived at Black Dad Farm, situate be- tween Nab s Wife and Ashworth Chapel . The author s parents ultimately came to live at Heady Hill, and it was there that the son spent his boyhood . He was born in 1816. IIe afterwards took the name of John Kay Tay- lor, the two latter being the surnames of his parents . When he arrived at the proper age he was indentured to learn the business of a druggist, it is believed at Oldham, and it was whilst serving his apprenticeship that he be- came the fortunate possessor of a copy of Burns poems, which, as he informs us, he studied with avidity, and to such purpo.=e that anything relating to Burns or to the land of Burns became to him a subject of all- absorbing interest. On completing his appren- ticeship he took a situation at Glasgow, in which city he spent the greater part of his life and almost ended his days there . Whilst at Glasgow he paid several visits to South-Last Lancashire, and lived for a time at Heady Hill . On these visits but prior to the publi- cation of the poems, Mr . Crabtree (his cousin) saw and conversed with him on at least two occasions . He speaks of him as having been of a tall and prepossessing appearance, well dressed, of amiable disposition and manners, and standing high in the esteem of all who had the honour of his acquaintance . One o his brothers is buried at Birtle Church . Mr . Taylor was so much of an artist that be painted a likeness of himself in Highland cos- tume, and in the same picture is a little gir! whom he named Sylvia. Amongst others of Mr. Taylor s Lancashire acquaintances was %Ir . John Critchley Prince, a fellow-poet, author of Hours with the muses, who addressed to him after reading his Burial of Burns a corn- plimentary sonnet which concluded as follows : s Dear friend, the worshipper of Burns s name, Thine is no .worthless tribute to his undying fame. - From further particulars to hand since the foregoing was written, we learn that Mr . J . K Taylor had entered into a matrimonial en- gagement with Miss McNaught, whose parents had a nursery at Old Hand, between Heywood and Bury, on the Bury Old Road . In 1849 Mr. Taylor was taken ill very suddenly, and was brought home to Heady Hill, where he was tenderly nursed by his fiancee, but he died, and was buried at St . Paul s Churen, Bury. It will be of interest to state that Miss McNaught was sister of the founder of the engineering firm of Messrs . McNaught of Old- ham Road, Rochdale . The nursery at Old Hand came to an end in 1848 owing to its site being required by the Lancashire and York- shire Railway Company for extension pur- poses . The company, in addition to paying for the site they took, offered another site in the neighbourhood of Bolton for a nursery, but the offer does not appear to have been accepted . It is rather singular that this pamphlet appears to be unknown to the bibliographers of Burns, as it is duly recorded by Ander- son . Notwithstanding the fact that. Gla.- gow appears on the title as the principal place of publication, the Burial of Burns is not known there . I recently saw Mr . F . T. Barrett, the city librarian, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, and he assured me that he had no knowledge of Taylor s poem . There are one or two copies in the Public Reference Library, Oldham, in the collection formed by the late Mr. Whitehead . J. A . GREEEN . [153 .] HEYWOOD AND EDUCATION . In the Lancashire Directory for 1825, Hey- wood is described as a populous village, and it is added : Great attention is paid here to the education of ycuth . What were the edu- cational facilities offered in Heywood at that time? STUDENT . 1l 4 [154 .] THE EXTINCT LNDU`TRIES OF HEYWOOD . (Reply to Queries Nos . 123 and 144 .) The business of glass-blowing was carried on by Mr. Simeock who, I believe, hailed from Staffordshire. It was carried on for some time in a building off Hardfield-stroet . The work- ing plant was afterwards transferred to a cot- tage en the left hand side going to Crimble Bridge from Heywood . When the business was carried on in Hardfield I remember goin, at night before I retired to rest to watch Old Miek, the glass-blower, who used to turn out some beautiful specimens of the glass-makers art . Mick often did his work in the night time, and he was considered a good worker but very fond of his ale, but however much he drank he never seemed any worse, as he used to sweat very hard . My wife reminds me that Mr . Simcoek used to wear a potter s coat and cap . The coat was a long one and gathered at the front. Mr. Simcock and his family attended the Wesleyan Chapel in Market-street . Mr. Simcock hau a stall in the Heywood Old Market. I believe he gave up the business and left Heywood about 1865 or shortly after. I do not remember anything about candle-making in Heywood, but pipe- making was carried on at Vale Mill ; the owner, I believe, was Mr . Hardman . My parents kept a shop, and I remember him bringing his pipes ; but I do not know when the business was discontinued . To the best of my recollection the pipes were made in one of the cottages . T. M . .ftrihng, 3inuarp 19th, 1906. NOTES. ,[155.) JAMES LANCASHIRE S CHARITY ; HARDMAN FOLD . In the recently-published History of New- ton Chapelry, by Mr. H . T . Crofton (Chet- ham Society s publications, vol . 54, new series), there is an interesting reference to an s old local charity in that part of the Fails- worth section dealing with Lord Tone. Mr. Crofton says : Near Lord Lane was the Acre Field, which Mr . John Taylor bought from l the trustees of James Lancashire s Charity . I It was a charity created by the will, dated July 30th, 1737, of James Lancashire, for the benefit of the poor of Hopwood hamlet in Middleton Parish. He left £20 to the Over- seers of the Poor of Hopwood to be invested, and the yearly produce to be laid out in buy- ing linen cloth for such poor as have parish relief . He also left £50 apiece to the school at or near Unsworth Chapel, the school at Heywood Chapel, and the school in Walmsley [Walmersley], and directed the legacies to be paid to the principal freeholders or inhabi- tants who had estates in those townships, and who within three years after the testator s death should advance and raise £50 more for each school for teaching poor children to read English and for their better education in the principles of the Church of England as by law established . He also willed that the masters or dames of each school, in consideration thereof, should teach and educate so many poor children, not eseesding ten in number, as from time to time should be nominated by the Churchwardens and Overseers of the poor of the township in which the school was built, by and with the advice and concurrence of the minister or curate of. the Chapel, and where there was not or should not be any such curate, then with the advice of the rector of the parish . This Acre Field had belonged to James Lancashire, and his trustees sold ?t in 1880 to Mr. Taylor, who in 1888 also bought a small field at the corner of Cemetery Road. In the same volume it is shown that there was some connection between the Hardmans of Failsworth and the Hardmans of Broadfield, Heywood. Referring to Hardman Fold, Fails worth, Mr Crofton says : On November 26th, 1609, Thecphilus Aseheton, of Rochdale, con- veyed to Catherine, late wife of Francis Holt, of Grislehurst, in Middleton Parish, deceased, a messuage in Failsworth On August 6 30th, 1623, Katherin Houlb, widdowe, late wyffe of ffrances Hoult, of Grislehurst, esquier, bargained and sold to John Hardman, of Hey- wood, yeoman, for five hundred and four score pounds, her messuage in Failsworth.