Rosemary Hill – Joseph Buckley and John Brierley, Descendant

Since I retired in 2005 I have been doing some family history research into my maternal grandparents and their antecedents. I knew that they came from Oldham, and that they moved to live in Eccles in 1914. I did this mainly in the years between 2006 and 2011 when I lived in Grasscroft, Oldham, the only member of my family to live in Oldham. Oldham Local Studies Centre was just down the road, with access to micro-fiched parish records together with access to the big Ancestry Library there. I followed a number of lines back to the late 1700s on both sides of the family, but never got round to writing it all up properly. I was fascinated to find that branches of both families had lived in parts of present day Oldham which I regularly travelled through, had worked in or lived in. In late 2011 I decided that I was moving to Northumberland to be near my daughter and family and moved to Hexham, Northumberland, in mid-2012. Since that time until very recently I have done nothing about my family history, except for the odd occasional  thought, which I have always had – were any of my ancestors at Peterloo?

Then in early January 2018 there was a long article in the Guardian about Peterloo and it mentioned some of the participants who were injured there. One was named as John Brierley of Saddleworth, and that rang bells. I got out all my old family history papers and there was a John Brierley, named as the father of the bride on the marriage certificate of Mary Brierley and George Winterbottom, who married at Manchester Collegiate Church (the Cathedral) on 19th August 1838. Her name is given as Mary, but in fact she was Mally – some vicars did not recognise Mally as a proper name but as a corruption of Mary, and recorded it as such, although the parish records of the time for Oldham, Saddleworth, other parts of West Riding, and parts of north Lancashire have many many females named Mally. George and Mally Winterbottom are my great-great grandparents.

George and Mally Winterbottom’s daughter Sarah, their third child, was born on 11th December 1842 at Lees, Oldham and married Joshua Fallows of Oldham, on November 19th 1871 at Christ Church, Glodwick, Oldham. Ada Fallows, their fifth child was born on 28th May 1880, and she married John Kay on 19th August 1905 at Hope Chapel, Oldham – my Grandpa and Grandma Kay. Hence my mother, me and my children and grandchildren. I have lots of information on these generations of the family and will at some point get it all set out properly, but now I want to set down what I think are my Peterloo connections. Please note all this information has been shared with my brother, daughter and cousins.

Iin the late 18th century this branch of our family lived in what is the western part of present day Saddleworth (formerly part of West Riding of Yorkshire) and the eastern part of the old county borough of Oldham, some descendants lived in the very south of these areas in what was then part of Cheshire (and sometimes Lancashire). All of this area today is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham. These districts cover a small area, all within a few miles of each other. The area was poor scrubby farmland and moor, with a scattered population, some working as wool weavers to supplement their living from farming or as coalminers, and as cotton industry developed in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in Oldham and this part of Saddleworth, some of my ancestors were working in the early small cotton mills as spinners, mill hands and labourers. They were all poor and life was hard.

My main sources are parish records and this means that it is often impossible to cross check as you can with birth, marriage and death certificates from 1837 on. Some information I already had from my research of the micro-fiched records at Oldham Local Studies Centre a few years ago. This summer I joined Findmypast and ancestry.co.uk and they do have some digitised parish records, particularly ancestry often including a copy of the actual entry on the parish register. Familysearch.org has also been useful as it seems to have a much wider spread than the other two, but not as much detail. Lancashire Online Parish Clerks is a wonderful resource, but they have nothing from what was formerly West Riding, even though Saddleworth is now part of Oldham.

As mentioned above  these family members lived in different administrative and diocesan areas, for example, St. Chad’s Church Saddleworth, where some of our family baptisms, marriages and burials took place, was geographically  in what was West Riding of Yorkshire, but was a Chapelry of Rochdale (Lancashire) and part of the diocese of Chester. So finding the right set of records could be tricky. Some parish clerks had much better writing than others, some churches just kept records of names and dates, others sometimes gave addresses and occupations. Some records have deteriorated so much they are barely legible. It was really helpful that I have lived and worked in the area, so I could recognise names, if oddly spelt for example, and could place them on a map.

I began by following up information from the Guardian article and found my way to the Report of the Metropolitan and Central Committee appointed for the  Relief of the Manchester Sufferers, published in 1820. This contains a list of eleven participants killed at Peterloo (now thought to be eighteen),  and four hundred and ten of those known to be injured (now thought to be over 600).Many would not state, at the time, where their injuries had come from because they feared losing their jobs. To my delight it could be downloaded free.

John Brierley was listed as living at Valiant Castle, Saddleworth, aged 31 years, a spinner, married and with four children. Under “Nature of Injury” it says “breast crushed by being down in the crowd and Cavalry horses going over him” Under “Remarks” it says “This man’s hat was completely crushed through; but happening to have some bread and cheese in the crown, saved his head.” He was disabled for one week and received £1 compensation.

A couple of entries further down the page I noticed a Joseph Buckley of Woodbrook, Saddleworth.  His age was given as 44 years, he was a weaver and had four children. His injury was “Sabre cut on the shoulder by the Trumpeter, knocked down and trampled on, left leg hurt seriously.” He was injured for two weeks and received £1 in compensation.

I already knew from my earlier research that I had got a John Brierley, who I believed was the father of Mally who married George Winterbottom. I had this John  Brierley marrying a marrying a Mally Buckley in 1813 and wondered if it was possible that John Brierley was this Joseph Buckley’s son-in-law. I have been scouring the records to see if I could connect them and their families.

Firstly, Valiant Castle, Saddleworth where John Brierley is listed as living is between present day Austerlands (Top o’ th’ Meadows) and Waterhead.Mill, marked as “Valiant” on the 1854 Ordnance Survey map of Saddleworth, it does not exist today. Woodbrook, where Joseph Buckley was living is an area shown on present day street maps, and is about twenty five minutes’ walk from Valiant Castle across the Wakefield and Austerlands Trust Turnpike toll road, the present day A62 between Oldham and Huddersfield.  They would probably have walked down this toll road to Oldham with others to meet up with other contingents on their way to St. Peter’s Field from Lees and Saddleworth. 

I have checked on as many parish record sites as possible the dates for births, usually the baptism date only is given, marriages, and deaths to build up a picture of where the families of John Brierley and Joseph Buckley were living and who was in them, going from about 1774 to the 1850s. Dates of birth recorded in such records are often inaccurate, because parents did not have to register births until 1837, so they can be approximations. I have explored all people with these names in the area to build up profiles. I can’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that I have identified them all correctly, but on the balance of probabilities I think it is likely. I have now been looking into this for the past few months and in February 2019 visited Oldham Local Studies Centre to view some parish records which have not yet been digitised – they are on microfiche there.

Here is my account of Joseph Buckley and John Brierley. At this time Oldham and Saddleworth were separate districts but there were many baptisms marriages and burials records for people living in one area using churches in the other. 

Joseph Buckley was baptised on 1st May 1774 at St. Mary’s Oldham (Oldham Parish Church). His parents are listed as “Joseph Buckley, late of Stonebreaks in Saddleworth, and Mary, his wife. Occupation: now a Soldier”. Stonebreaks  is just below Woodbrook, going towards Springhead. I next find him in 1791 when banns of marriage are called for him and Mary Wolfenden, both of Hodge Clough, Oldham, at St Mary’s Oldham in April 1791, and they are married on 3rd July 1791, when the record states that he is a weaver.

I then looked for baptisms of Joseph and Mary’s children. Mary Buckley is named variously as Mary, Mally, Hally, Natty, Molly and Matty on the baptism records, which I have presumed is due to the transcription of the hand-writing of the parish clerk and use of name in the records. Their first child, Mary (Mally) was baptised on 12th May 1792 at Holy Trinity Church Dobcross, Saddleworth, the family are stated to be living at Shiloh – present day Shiloh Lane runs between Roebuck Low and Thurston Clough, Saddleworth. There are a number of entries with different variations on the mother’s name on the various websites and some give the baptism date as 20th May 1792. From now until August 16th 1819, the day of Peterloo, I found another possible seven children of Joseph and Mary – Nancy, Alice, John, Esther, Thomas, Sarah and William on the various websites. Alice Buckley was baptised on either 9th January or 9th February 1794 at St. Chad’s Saddleworth and the family are stated to be living at Thurston Clough, and Thomas was baptised at Holy Trinity Dobcross on 28th June 1795, the family living at Dobcross House. All the other baptisms are listed as taking place in Dobcross on Family Search, with no further information on any of the other websites. I could not find any details of the other children on the microfiche records at Holy Trinity Dobcross but these records are in a very poor faded state, and very difficult to read.

I then searched burial records for children of Joseph and Mary and found burials for four of them, John, Thomas, William and Sarah at St. Mary’s Oldham, St. Chad’s,  Saddleworth and St. John’s, Hey. So on 16th August 1819 Joseph Buckley had four surviving children, all daughters, Mally, Nancy Alice and Esther, as it states on the list of injured participants in the 1820 Report.

John Brierley was baptised on 4th May 1788 at Holy Trinity Dobcross, to parents Isaac and Betty Brierley of Dobcross. He next appears in 1813, when banns of marriage are read in April and May for John and Mally Buckley at St.Chad’s, Saddleworth. Both are stated to be living at Grains Bar. They marry at St.Chad’s on 7th June 1813, making Joseph Buckley, John Brierley’s father-in-law. I have found four children born to John and Mally – Alice Esther, Nancy and Mary (Mally) between their marriage and 16th August 1819. The baptisms take place at St.Chad’s, Saddleworth, and Wesleyan Delph Methodist Church, and the family are listed as living at Delph and Dobcross where it’s mentioned with John working as a labourer. Interestingly both Joseph Buckley and John Brierley have four daughters at the time of Peterloo, all with the same names – Alice, Esther, Nancy and Mally (Mary), Joseph Buckley’s children are in their late teens or early twenties, John Brierley’s children are all five years or younger, with Mally, my great great grandmother being but a babe in arms.   

Joseph Buckley is listed as a weaver, living at Woodbrook on the list of injured, and John Brierley as a spinner living at Valiant Castle. Researching what was going on in this area I found that the Knight Mill at Stonebreaks, Saddleworth, was operating as a woollen mill from 1773, and rebuilt in 1779 by William and George Knight as a cotton mill. William and his brother John ran the mill till 1791 and then John on his own till1820. John Knight was one of the radical reformers who helped organise the march to St. Peter’s Field and was on the platform there. (see article about him listed below). At this time there were also cotton mills at Waterhead, Woodbrook, Austerlands, and many others as springing up going down into Oldham, so there was much work for spinners, and some for weavers who took the spun yarn and often rented space in the water driven cotton mills. It is possible that both Joseph and John went to meetings organised by John Knight and so became part of the contingent that walked to St. Peter’s Fields.

To try and further tie John and Joseph into my family I have looked at events after 1819. Joseph Buckley does not appear in the 1841 Census which makes me believe he had already  died. There is an entry for a burial at St.Chad’s, Saddleworth on 16th February 1840 for a Joseph Buckley, aged sixty six years, of Stonebreaks. I bought the death certificate relating to this entry, and found that  Joseph Buckley of Stonebricks (sic) died on 13th February 1840. He was 66 years old and his occupation is given as a schoolmaster. The cause of death is given as cancer. The informant of the death is Stuart Buckley of Rose Hill, the date of registration was 14th February. I was puzzled on a number of levels. His occupation as a schoolmaster made me query whether this was the right Joseph Buckley, until I found that people could describe themselves a schoolmaster if they were, say, teaching children their letters by having the children come to their house. I have looked into who Stuart Buckley is in relation to Joseph and cannot find any familial connection. I found a Stuart Buckley in the 1841 Census, living in Rose Hill in the Springhill area of Oldham (above Town) which is not far from Stonebreaks. I am aware that “Buckley” is a very common surname in this part of the world at this time, so there may be no family link. I also looked for a death for Joseph’s wife Mary, and the only one who fitted was a Mary Buckley, widow, buried on 31st January 1841at St.Chad’s, Saddleworth, her address being the Poorhouse. Was Mary ailing at the time of Joseph’s death, so unable to care for him or register his death, was she already living in the Poorhouse when he died because of her own frailty, or did she have to move there after his death because there was no-one to care for her? There are no records existing for admissions to the Poorhouse in Saddleworth, so it all remains speculation. I also looked for marriages of Joseph and Mary’s other daughters to see if I could glean any further information about the family. I found marriages for a Nancy and Alice Buckley, but nothing that specifically linked them to these parents.          

After 1819 John and Mally Brierley went onto have a son, called John born and baptised in March 1821, a daughter Ann born December 1823 and baptised in July 1824 at Greenacres Congregational Church. Another son James Isaac is born on the 2^nd April 1825. In the records at Greenacres Cong, this boy is baptised on 1^st November 1825, his parents names are given as John and Betty Brierley.  Further research revealed that John Brierley’s wife Mally died, and was buried on 14th April 1825 at St Chad’s, Saddleworth her address is given as Greenacres Moor, Oldham. I think Mally Brierley died following giving birth to James Isaac, and that possibly the gap of seven months between the birth and baptism of Ann Brierley was also because of the poor health of Mally following her birth. I think that Betty moved in to help look after the Brierley children, but whether she was a family friend or someone asked to help is unknown, and so became known as or was John’s partner. This would explain the long gap between James Isaac’s birth and his baptism. John Brierley and Elizabeth (known as Betty?) Buckley married at St Mary’s Oldham on 3^rd October 1830. I have not been able to work out if Betty was any relation to his first wife Mally, whose maiden name was also Buckley. John and Betty Brierley went on to have more children, John, born 1828, James,1829, Sarah 1831(died in 1832), Daniel,1833. A family with these names appear in the 1841 (surname spelt as Bauerly) and 1851 census, living in areas where I know other family members were – Hirst Field and Nether Lees, with various children (some adult) whose names and ages mainly match other records I have found. James Isaac, born 1825,son of John and Mally, appears as Isaac in these censuses, with James, son of John and Betty as James. In this period the family have moved from the Greenacres area back to the Lees area.

I think “our” John Brierley was buried at St. Chad’s, Saddleworth on 22nd June 1856, the record states he lived at County End. which is in the same neighbourhood of many others in the family. His death certificate says that he lived at Hirst Field (near to County End, Lees)and died aged 68 years of asthma, on 18^th June 1856. His death was registered by Isaac Brierley.

I seem to have gone on at great length, but I hope you understand that I wanted you to know how I had worked the links out and what the background is to this branch of our family.

Sources in addition to family history websites:

Oldham Brave Oldham by Brian Law

Cotton Mills of Oldham by Duncan Gurr and Julian Hunt

The Saddleworth Story WEA publication 1990

The Peterloo Massacre by Geoffrey Woodhead – a Saddleworth Musem pamphlet

Mapping Saddleworth Volumes 1 and 2 Saddleworth Historical Society

*Report of the Metropolitan and Central Committee appointed for the Relief of the Manchester Sufferers– published 1820

*The bloody clash which changed Britain” by Stephen Bates  – the Guardian 4th January 2018

*John Knight and a window into radicalism in the late 18 th and early 19th centuries by Jeremy Sutcliffe – a paper for Oldham Historical Research Group

National Library of Scotland, maps,- maps.nls.uk

Items marked with an asterisk can be found via google or similar