The Howorth Family of Pump on the Shibden Hall Estate Joiners and Barometer Makers
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The Howorth family of Pump on the Shibden Hall estate Joiners and Barometer Makers The relevant section of an 1830 Myers map showing where the Howorths lived and worked The Howorth family appear to have been Carpenters / Joiners with a ‘shop’ at Lower Brear. They were tenants of Anne Lister and get several mentions in her diaries. Several of them were interred in St. Matthew’s churchyard. This is their story. Entering the churchyard by the gate on Wakefield road you will find the first Howorth ledger stone on plot G*18 four graves in on the right of the path. The first name on the memorial inscription is a Samuel Howorth, of Hill Top, Lightcliffe, who died in 1815 aged 76 years and so was born about 1739. I have not been able to work out who he was but he must be related to the other occupants, perhaps a younger brother or ….. Was he the “Merchant” Samuel Howorth who married Alice Mellin on 25th May 1768 in Halifax? This fits with the birth of four young Howorths – the vowels a and o can appear in either or both positions! – with father Samuel, who were baptised at Lightcliffe; George on 24th May 1771, Alice on 28th April 1773, Mary on 20th November 1774 and Samuel on 26th January 1777. A George Howorth son of Samuel was buried in an unknown grave in the churchyard on 11th May 1785. There was a Samuel Howorth living in a Hipperholme property owned by Mr. Priestley in the 1780s. From the parish records I can also see that a Luke Howorth who married Grace Armitage on 2nd January 1750 baptised thirteen children from 1751 to 1774 at Lightcliffe. Luke and his widow Grace appear to have been buried in the churchyard on 16th Sept 1802 and 22nd January 1808 but in unknown graves with no headstone and so no helpful memorial inscription. The relationship between Samuel and Luke and Grace can only be guessed at so I won’t. Instead I will concentrate on the family of John and Elizabeth Howorth. 1 In memory of SAMUEL HOWORTH of Lightcliffe who died October 13th 1815 aged 76 years Also of ELIZABETH the wife of JOHN HOWORTH of Ireland in Southowram who died August 4th 1816 aged 90 years Also of the above JOHN HOWORTH of Ireland in Southowram who died August 24th 1824 aged 94 years No marriage record has been found for John and Elizabeth. The next name on the ledger stone is for a son, Charles Howarth, born about 1765. His baptism record dated 10th March 1765 is the next clue. It confirms father John as living in Southowram and gives his occupation as “Carpenter”. Four other Howorth Halifax baptisms were then found with father John Howorth a Carpenter from Southowram; Mally on 28th January 1759, Nancy on 10th May 1761, Grace on 11th September 1763 and Benjamin on 17th May 1770. 2 This Charles Howorth – there are quite a few more to come so he will be referred to as CH1 and/or senior – married Dorothy Atkinson on 23rd December 1783 in Halifax. They baptised a daughter Grace at St. Matthew’s Church, Lightcliffe on 26th September 1784. There are four more baptisms recorded at Halifax for a Southowram Joiner or Carpenter Charles Howarth (CH1); Dorothy on 19th February 1786, Charles (CH2) on 2 March 1788, Sarah on 26th July 1796, Caleb on 19th March 1799 and James on 16th September 1802. And in 1790 a Master Joiner Charles Howorth took on an apprentice Samuel Bottomley, so I am assuming this is Charles Howorth (CH1) senior. (There are other Howarth baptisms with father Charles but with no abode and no occupation, so I have not included those.) Grace Howorth married Samuel Carter on 10th July 1805. They baptised four children at St. Matthew’s Church, Lightcliffe; John on 15th June 1806, Cornelius on 26th June 1808, Richard on 14th October 1810 and Charles on 30th May 1813. And they were probably the parents of Cordelia Carter, daughter of Samuel, who was buried in Lightcliffe in 1809. Father Samuel Carter died aged just 34 in 1816 followed three years later by his eight-year-old son Richard. All three Carters were buried in unknown graves, perhaps the same one, in St. Matthew’s churchyard with no headstone, on 3rd September 1809, 25th May 1816 and 29th June 1819 respectively. The address Pump, Southowram was given for Richard. The widow Grace Carter then married Solomon Womersley, a 40-year-old Southowram Farmer, on 26th May 1824 in Halifax. But almost immediately he set sail for America arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA on 6th December 1824 from Liverpool on the ship Milton. No further trace of him has been found. Did he ever see his son Solomon born on 13th March 1825 and baptised at St. John’s Church, Halifax on 28th April 1825? Was the plan for Grace and baby Solomon to join him later? But that never happened. Did Grace Womersley then marry John Noble on 26th December 1831 at St. Peter’s Church, Bradford? They both gave their parish as Bradford; he was a “Carpenter”, she a “Widow” and both just made their mark. Had Solomon Womersley senior died or was this a bigamous marriage? Grace continued to use the surname Womersley on census records. But Grace Noble is the name on the family ledger stone above plot G*18 and the name recorded in the parish burial records and when the death was registered in Halifax. Less complicated was the family of Charles Howorth (CH2) junior. Like his father Charles (CH1) he was a joiner / carpenter of Southowram. He married Elizabeth Moore on 28th June 1808 in Halifax. They baptised a son James on 19th March 1809 at St. Matthew’s Church, Lightcliffe. From Anne Lister’s diaries (see below) we know that father Charles Howorth (CH2) and son James Howorth worked for her, so I am reasonably certain that this was Charles and Elizabeth’s first born. Their other children were baptised at Halifax; John on 2nd July 1811, Elvia/Elina/Eliza – try reading the original record! - on 25th December 1817, Sarah on 14th January 1821, Dorothy born 17th February 1826 on 25th February 1826, Mary Jane born 21 November 1828 on 15th March 1829, Charles (CH3) on 22nd May 1831 and finally Elizabeth on 26th December 1833. For all the Halifax baptisms the parents are recorded as Charles, “Joiner” and Elizabeth of Southowram. Again, care must be taken as another Charles Howorth “Husbandman” of Southowram was also baptising children at the same time, but his wife was called Charlotte. 3 Although the family baptised their children at St.John’s Church Halifax they buried members of the family at St. Matthew’s Church, Lightcliffe. A James Howarth son of Charles (assumed to be CH1) was buried there in an unknown grave on Christmas Day 1806. Brother and sister 23-year-old Sarah Howarth and 21-one-year-old Caleb Howarth of Pump Southowram were also buried in unknown graves at Lightcliffe on 1st November 1819 and 17th March 1820 respectively. A year later their ten-year-old nephew, their brother Charles’s (CH2) son, John Howarth, of Southowram was buried, again in an unknown grave, on 26th March 1821. His grandmother Dorothy Howorth nee Atkinson, wife of Charles (CH1) of Little Ireland died in 1824. She was buried on 15th December 1824 yet again in an unknown grave within the closed churchyard at Lightcliffe aged 61 years. Little Ireland Farm was on the Shibden Hall estate. Just over a year later widower Charles Howorth (CH1), by now a “Farmer” of Southowram, married widow Sarah Wraith on 7th February or March 1826 at Halifax. As Charles Howoth (CH1) senior was farming in the 1820s I am assuming that the following comments and entries from Helen Whitbread’s The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, Jill Liddington’s Nature’s Domain and Anne Choma’s Gentleman Jack refer to Charles Howorth (CH2) junior. Anne Lister Diary extracts Wednesday 7th March 1821 In the afternoon Charles Howarth, came about making a bookcase for the library passage…. In the evening, measuring & planning about the bookcase. My uncle gave me five pounds. Thursday 8th March 1821 Just after breakfast Charles Howarth came, thinking to measure about the bookcase. Obliged to send him away again for my uncle sat like a post & absolutely would not say a word either he would have it or not. I never saw such a specimen of his temper before & a more stupid or unamiable-looking one needs not be. My aunt was ready to cry & he knew that very well. While she was out of the room, I sat & never uttered & talked of the fine day & going to Lightcliffe this afternoon. Wednesday 31st December 1823 Chas. Howarth came just after breakfast (which interrupted me a little) to take measurements for the roof of the shed adjoining the barn-porch. Tuesday 14th August 1832 Charles & his son James Howarth made rustic seat (long chair) in my walk [at] bottom of Calf Croft Monday 20th August 1832 Charles H - & James put me down willow stakes this morning in my walk against the brook Thursday 23rd August 1832 Charles [H-] cut down the oak next [to] the 2 beeches in the walk, & cut it up for the little hut I am going to put up, near the lily bank, or rather the entrance of the Lower brook Ing wood … 4 Saturday 25th August 1832 Went down to Charles H- & his son James, putting up the charpente [framework] of the chaumière – perhaps I shall thatch it with moss & call it the moss-house.