H JESSIE 1

During my meanderings through the realms of genealogy, I have inevitably met many elderly people, some related, some not, all of them willing and helpful in my searches.
One of my favourites was Jessie, whom I visited over a number of years until she died in 1994, in her ninety-third year.

She had, like my father, been born and raised at Stanley, on the outskirts of Wakefield, and
was able to give me a most interesting and clear account of what village life was like at the
time they were growing up.

She was able to identify adults and children in photographs taken as early as 1906 and had a remarkable recall of her own family history, passed on to her by her mother and her
grandmother, who died when Jessie was only six years old, and she possessed a most enviable collection of photographs and mementos of past generations.

On my afternoon visits she would have a little table ready, with hand embroidered cover, on which would be china cups and saucers, teapot, milk and sugar, protected by little beaded muslin covers, silver teaspoons and a plate of cakes, baked by herself that morning.
We would then chat of this and that for a while and then I would gently nudge the conversation into the past, sit back, and just listen.

One afternoon she could hardly wait to tell me of her astonishing find of the week before.
Jessie suffered badly from arthritis but one bright morning she decided she was sufficiently mobile to venture into town to do a little shopping. That accomplished, she was chatting to
an acquaintance when it began to rain, and it was suggested that she took shelter in nearby
Treacy Hall, in the Cathedral grounds, where a coffee morning and bring-and-buy sale was being held.

When the rain ceased, Jessie left the hall and began to make her way along the gravestone
paths that lead to the gate, but the stones were damp and slippery and she found it necessary every now and then to wedge the rubber of her walking-stick into the deepest notches of the masons' inscriptions, in order not to slip. Probing thus, a few yards from the hall she paused, and as she sought a niche, found to her utter astonishment that she was standing on the
gravestone of her great-great-grandparents, a stone that she had never known existed.

As soon as I could I went along to copy the inscription and marvelled that of the few tombstones to survive from the levelling of the old graveyard years ago, that of her ancestors should be one of them, and that a sudden shower of rain would bring the generations together.
The inscription reads:

"SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JAMES TOWLER,
SEXTON OF THIS CHURCH 21 YEARS, WHO DEPARTED
THIS LIFE JANUARY 8TH 1842 IN THE 70TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
'MARK THE PERFECT MAN AND BEHOLD THE
UPRIGHT, FOR THE END OF THAT MAN IS PEACE'.
ALSO OF HANNAH WIFE OF THE ABOVE WHO DEPARTED
THIS LIFE NOVEMBER 20TH 1853 AGED 80 YEARS.
ALSO JAMES NAYLOR, SON OF CHARLES AND HANNAH
NAYLOR AND GRANDSON OF THE ABOVE WHO DIED MARCH
10TH 1858 AGED 24 YEARS."

James Towler was born in 1774 in Wrengate, now Warrengate, Wakefield, though the
Towlers go much further back than this. James grew up to become a woolcomber by trade
for at that time Wakefield was a thriving woollen centre and prosperous in the cloth trade, outstripping both Leeds and Bradford. On the 1st August 1796 he married Hannah, daughter
of Thomas Crossland, who was born at Wakefield in 1773.

The couple were to become the parents of eleven children, eight surviving. Jessie recalled her grandmother telling her that when James was in his forties he became the victim of smallpox when an epidemic hit Wakefield, which affected his eyesight and forced him to give up his trade. He then became sexton of the parish church, now the Cathedral, a position he held until his death.

All of their children were baptised at the church, the first, Henry, in 1797.
He became a cordwainer, or shoemaker, by trade and married Sarah Blakeborough in 1820.
The couple had four children and Henry and Sarah had long lives as is shown in the 1871 census when he was 74 and still cobbling and she was 75, a good age in those days.

The next, John, was baptised in 1798 and in time followed his father's trade of woolcombing. At the parish church in 1822 he married Ann Taylor and they had three daughters, Emma, Elizabeth and Ellen-Elvira, the latter born when her father was by then a stone-cutter.
The name of this daughter stirred a memory for Jessie who remembered her grandmother saying that Ellen-Elvira "looked after the old men at the almshouses" of which there were several blocks in the town at that time. It is not known what became of Elizabeth but in 1841
at Warrengate were John, Ann and Emma, then a dressmaker.

The Towler's first daughter, Hannah, was baptised in 1803 and in 1829 she married Charles Naylor, who was born at Thornhill, Dewsbury, in 1800. They were the great-grandparents of Jessie and their story comes later.

The second surviving daughter, Sarah, was born in 1805 and was married to John Roberts in 1831. She was a witness at the marriages of her sister Hannah and her brother John.

The next-born, James Crossland Towler was baptised in 1807 and was married in 1833 at Halifax to Margaret, daughter of John Milligan. James, who died tragically young, was a cooper and basket-maker by trade and there were four children of the union, Frederick William 1834,Hannah 1835, Ann 1837 and Mary Ann in 1839. James died only six years after the marriage and his obituary in the 'Wakefield Journal & Herald on the 6th December 1839 reads:

"On Saturday last, after a long and painful illness, borne with Christian resignation, and highly respected in the sphere of his life in which he moved, Mr. James Towler, Cooper, Wakefield, aged thirty-two years."

Thus, Margaret was left to cope as best she could, not yet thirty, having tended her husband through his long and painful illness whilst carrying a child, and giving birth only weeks before his death, to say nothing of the worry of keeping the business going for their future livelihood. Fate had yet another blow in store for her, for only ten months after losing her husband she buried her baby daughter, Mary Ann. (The 1841 census lists only Frederick and Margaret at Marygate - presumably the other two little girls did not survive.)
Fortunately Margaret was a woman of strong character and determination for, six weeks after James died, a notice appeared in the local paper, on January 17th 1840:

MARGARET TOWLER (WIDOW OF THE LATE JAMES TOWLER)COOPER AND BASKET
MAKER, MARYGATE, WAKEFIELD RESPECTFULLY BEGS TO RETURN HER THANKS TO THOSEPARTIES WHO KINDLY FAVOURED HER LATE HUSBANDWITH THEIR
PATRONAGE, AND TO INFORM THEM ANDTHE INHABITANTS OF WAKEFIELD AND
ITS VICINITY THAT SHE PURPOSES CARRYING ON THE ABOVE BUSINESS
UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF A WORKMAN IN WHOSEABILITY AND ATTENTION SHE
CAN PLACE CONFIDENCE. MARGARET TOWLER ALSO PARTICULARLY SOLICITS A
CONTINUANCE OF THE SUPPORT BESTOWED UPON HERLATE HUSBAND AND SHE
ASSURES HER FRIENDS AND THE PUBLIC GENERALLY THAT NOTHING ON HER PART
SHALLBE WANTING TO MERIT IT AND ANY FURTHER FAVOURS.

MARYGATE, JANUARY 16TH 1840 That she succeeded is borne out by Jessie:

Now my grandmother used to speak of her Aunt Margaret who kept a shop in Marygate, and of her husband who was a cooper and basket maker. After he died she sold the baskets herself and went twice a year to the Blind School in York to buy them, travelling by stage along the turnpike road.

She was very good to all her nieces, and as they married she gave them all the household things. She gave them a clothes-line, pegs, a bread board and salt box, a rolling pin and potato masher, all the things that were necessary in a Victorian kitchen. She must have been a resourceful woman because she also ran a ladies' employment agency and through that she found all her nieces good places. You see, this was all before the Industrial Revolution and there was no mill-work for women.

Most girls were either educated enough to become governesses or they went into domestic service. Aunt Margaret was also an expert cook and worked at the big houses at Chevet and Heath when they had parties and dinners, and for that she was paid two guineas a night.
People were paid in guineas then, not pounds, and that was what she got for cooking huge meals.

One clear memory of my grandmother's was of her aunt sending her to the chemist for some 'truffles and morrels', but by the time she got there she couldn't remember the names and had to go back again! (Truffles are an edible fungus growing underground and esteemed in cookery and morrels are a kind of edible mushroom.) From what my grandmother told me, Aunt Margaret must have been a very hardworking and remarkable woman."

The next Towler was Thomas Crossland, bom in 1809. He married Mary about 1832 and eight children were born to them in Warrengate, sixto survive infancy. Jane 1833: Sarah 1836: Henry
1838: Hannah 1840:

James 1843 and Martha 1847. Thomas was a woolcomber by trade but in 1841 was a gas lamplighter but by 1851 was back woolcombing and was also employed as a labourer at the gasworks.

Joseph Towler, born 1811 became a hatter and married Mary Tebbs in 1842. There were two children of the union, Annie Maria, bom in 1843 and John, bom 1845.

The youngest of the Towler family, William, born in 1819, married Harriet Fletcher, daughter of George Retcher, Dyer, and his wife Mary (nec Spence) at Halifax in 1842, giving his profession as that of currier, (dresser of leather) but by 1861 he was a stuff dyer (dyer of worsted cloth) living at Burley Road, Leeds, a good address in those days. By the time of the marriage of his daughter Emily in 1887, William was deceased but described on the marriage certificate as "Gentleman".
That he had risen in the world is evident, possibly as a result of joining his father-in-law in the dyeing trade. On his own marriage certificate he gave his late father James's occupation as that of 'worsted manufacturer', perhaps considering that it looked better than that of humble sexton.

These, then, were the earlier ancestors of my friend Jessie, and of whom she declared that it was evident she had nothing of which to be ashamed. She was delighted to learn more and more from my searches and was especially pleased with the obituary of her great-great-grandfather, which I found in the 'Wakefield & Vkst Riding Herald dated Friday, January 14th, 1842:

"On the 8th instant, James Towler, in the 70th year of his age. He was deservedly respected by all who knew him. He was a kind and affectionate father to eleven children and lived to see eight of them attain to years of maturity.

He has left a widowfar advanced in life who has been blind for many years. He has been
Sexton of the Parish Church for twenty-one years and has rung the six o'clock bells in the morning and the eight in the evening for the term of eighteen years, and supposing him to have rung the bell at the said hours every time, he will have attended nineteen thousand, seven hundred and ten times."

I asked Jessie if she could remember any stories told to her by her grandmother, of when she herself was a child in Wakefield. "Oh yes, she often told me little tales....."

Reproduced by the kind permission of

Irene Burton