More about William
Marchbank and his relatives
Supplied by:
Barbara Preston - Feb 2008
INTRODUCTION
With good reason,
Cowling knows of
Bradford-born William
Marchbank, mill owner.
What has already been
recorded about him
appears in other forms
on Cowlingweb and,
naturally, covers his
life in Cowling and the
mark he made on the
village. This article
deals with detail which
is perhaps so far
unknown.
It was by accident that
I found out about him
because my
great-grandfather's
brother, Stephen Chappel
Ashton, a commercial
traveller, of Bradford,
had married into the
Marchbank family. I was
trying to understand why
Stephen's wife, Mary Ann
(nee Marchbank), also
born and bred in
Bradford, should have
moved to Cowling with
her young family, where
she was recorded in the
1881 census. My route to
discovering William
Marchbank, therefore,
began in Bradford rather
than Cowling and I am
happy to provide here
what I have been able to
find out about his
earlier personal life
and the end of it.
The Early
Years
William Marchbank was
one of ten children born
to James and Mary
Marchbank, of Bradford.
He was born 26 February
1823 and had a joint
christening at Bradford
on 19th November 1828
with his brother,
George, who was two
years younger.
In the 1841 census,
William Marchbank was
living with his parents
at Fountain Street,
Horton, Bradford, and at
that time he was
following the same
occupation as his
father, that of
woolcomber. Because of
the rounding-down of
ages to the nearest five
for this census only, he
was listed as being 15,
even though he was
actually 18 years.
Marriage
and his Family
The next official
documentation I found
was his marriage
certificate, on which is
given the same address
of Fountain Street. On
18 August 1845, at the
age of 21, he married
Ann Emmott (25) at Zion
Chapel, in the district
of Skipton, at which
time his occupation was
given as a "Maker Up".
It is interesting to
note that the marriage
certificate shows that
Ann (a few years older
than William) was
already a shopkeeper at
Cowling, although it
does not state the
nature of that business.
However, by the 1851
census William Marchbank
lists his occupation as
grocer. Local trade
directories were not
plentiful in the 1840s
and a search for Ann
Emmott in the years
preceding her wedding
proved unsuccessful, so
it may never be known
whether it was Ann who
had the grocer's shop
before the marriage. But
custom and practice in
those days, decades
before the Married
Women's Property Act in
1882, required that,
when she married, not
only the woman but also
her assets became the
property of her husband.
William, however, was no
stranger to the grocery
business because one of
his brothers had such a
shop in Bradford at one
time and one of his
nieces was a grocer's
assistant in the same
city.
It is known that William
and Ann had two
daughters, Elizabeth and
Mary, but the records
for Holy Trinity,
Cowling's parish church,
reveal that there had
been a third, first-born
daughter named Ellen,
who had a private
christening in June 1846
and whose death was
registered at Skipton
shortly afterwards.
Also, the couple had a
son, John, who died in
infancy in 1848.
The year following the
1851 census was when the
Binns and Marchbank
partnership was forged.
And, as tends to be
said, the rest is
history.
Death
William Marchbank died
on 11 December 1890,
just a few months before
the 1891 census, in
which his widow Ann is
recorded still living at
their home at Lane Ends.
He was interred in the
burial ground of
Ebenezer Chapel, Cross
Hills. There was a large
attendance at his
funeral, both from near
and far, which reflected
his standing within the
community. Among the
floral tributes were
wreaths from his
workpeople, members of
the United Methodist
Free Church, Cowling,
and The Liberal Club. In
expressing their
condolences to his
widow, the School Board
acknowledged their
indebtedness for his
work over the previous
fifteen years, since the
formation of the school.
Administration of
William Marchbank's
personal estate valued
at £1990 6s 1d was
granted to his widow.
According to the
currency converter on
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk,
this sum would have had
a spending power of
£663,940 in 2005.
His daughter Elizabeth
predeceased him in 1885;
Mary was William's only
surviving child and it
was her husband, Thomas
Watson, who carried on
William Marchbank's
business after his
death.
OTHER MARCHBANK
CONNECTIONS
It would be easy to end
the story of the
Marchbanks here but
perhaps it would not be
quite fitting to do so,
when there is further
information to impart
about their relatives
who had Cowling
connections. Almost
certainly it is due to
William Marchbank's
success at Cowling that
many, but not all,
members of his family
gradually drifted to the
village.
His parents
At first, his parents,
James and Mary, had
stayed at Fountain
Street, in the Horton
district of Bradford,
where they were in the
1851 census. This is
where William lived as a
boy and it was named as
his home when he married
in 1845. The couple are
found at Fitzgerald
Street, Horton in the
1861 census, before
finally being recorded
at Cowling in the 1871
census at Lane Ends.
They may, of course,
have been in Cowling for
some years before that
date. His father, a
woolcomber, married Mary
Holt at Burnley on 15
April 1816, but he had
been christened at
Addingham in 1794. In
fact, James Marchbank
had several brothers and
sisters also christened
at Addingham. One of
them, John (born 1792),
was shown to be a
Chelsea Pensioner in the
early Victorian censuses
and another brother,
William, is the ancestor
of Robert Wildeman, who
has also supplied an
article on the
Marchbanks to
Cowlingweb.
James and Mary were
married for just over 60
years and remained at
Cowling for the rest of
their lives. James took
an interest in politics
and was a staunch
Liberal. When he died in
1880, aged 86, his
obituary in the Keighley
News recorded that "he
was widely known and was
as widely respected".
The newspaper added that
the pair's descendants
"numbered 104 and that
members of the family
could be found in both
hemispheres". He was
interred at Undercliffe
Cemetery, Bradford, a
wondrous Victorian
burial ground, next to
his wife whose demise
had been three years
earlier.
Brother and Nieces
Living with James and
Mary Marchbank at their
Lane Ends home at the
1871 census was
William's
recently-bereaved,
eldest brother John
Marchbank. John's
youngest daughter, Ruth
Ellen, was also there.
In 1881, one of
William's nieces -
John's eldest daughter,
the above-mentioned Mary
Ann Ashton and her two
children, Eleanor
Elizabeth and Charles
Herbert - were living at
New Street. It turns out
that they had made the
move half-way through
the previous decade,
because the Admissions
Book for Cowling Board
School shows Eleanor and
Charles registered to
attend school at the
beginning of 1875.
Sadly, Mary Ann died in
1882, her address then
being given as Road
Side, and she is buried
in Holy Trinity
churchyard. Her husband,
Stephen Chappel Ashton,
also died that year, and
he, too, is buried at
Undercliffe Cemetery,
with other members of
his family. Their
orphaned teenage
children were left at
Cowling to be brought up
by their Marchbank
relatives.
Two more of William
Marchbank's nieces,
Elizabeth and Hannah
(again, his brother
John's daughters), were
recorded at Cowling and
living at New Street in
the 1881 census. In
addition, William
Marchbank's unmarried
sister Martha has joined
his own household.
Marriage of William
Marchbank's Niece
In 1888, William
Marchbank's niece Ruth
Ellen Marchbank (his
brother John's youngest
daughter), married Jonas
Bradley, a Cowling man.
This was two years
before Jonas was
appointed schoolmaster
at Stanbury Board
School. Jonas's teaching
methods were innovative
and his nature study
lessons eventually
became nationally
adopted as a subject in
its own right. He
remained at Stanbury
school until he retired
and he gained a
reputation as being an
early authority on the
Brontes. The couple
appear to have had no
children.
THE NEXT GENERATION
William Marchbank's
great-niece, Eleanor
Elizabeth Ashton
(daughter of Mary Ann
Ashton, nee Marchbank)
also married a
schoolmaster who was a
native of Cowling. He
was Willis Forte and the
ceremony took place at
Cowling Parish Church on
Christmas Eve in 1886.
He was appointed to
Oldfield Board School,
on the moors between
Cowling and Stanbury,
near Haworth, and the
couple had three
children, Rupert, Mary
and Eleanor, while
living there.
The 1891 census shows
that Eleanor Elizabeth
Forte tutored the girls
at Oldfield school in
sewing (she was a
dressmaker before her
marriage) but, before
long, she was helping
with the infants' class.
In spring 1901 she would
have been pleased to be
recognised as an
infants' class teacher
by the Board of
Education but sadness
was on its way. Willis
died suddenly a year
later in his 41st year.
Eleanor continued to
teach at Oldfield Board
School for a further two
years but by 1904 she is
recorded in the Log Book
of Cowling Board School
as a teacher. Her elder
daughter Mary also
joined the staff at
Cowling Board School and
Mary received a glowing
report from school
inspectors in 1912. Both
mother and daughter
remained at the school
until 1913, when Eleanor
Elizabeth remarried and
became Mrs Percival
Ellison.
Emigrations and
Returns
In 1911, Willis and
Eleanor Elizabeth's son,
Rupert Forte, who had
left Cowling Board
School on 15 January
1900 to go to "the Trade
School", embarked on the
s.s. Canada with a
destination of Portland,
Maine, via Halifax Nova
Scotia, before finally
heading for
Saskatchewan. Following
their mother's
remarriage, his sisters,
Mary and Eleanor,
travelled on the Empress
of Britain to join him
in the spring of 1914.
Sadly, Mary Forte died
at Regina, Saskatchewan,
in August 1916.
By October 1922, their
mother, Eleanor
Elizabeth Ellison, was a
widow again and, at the
age of 58, she crossed
the Atlantic on the s.s.
Caronia, just before
Christmas that same
year, presumably to be
with her remaining
daughter. Her
destination was
Bloomington, Illinois,
which is south west of
Chicago. Son Rupert was
already back in
Yorkshire before her
departure - living at
Sheffield, where he
spent most of his
working life. His
marriage to Lilian
Thornton was registered
at North Bierley in
1916.
Many years had been
spent in America when
Eleanor Elizabeth
returned to Yorkshire
around 1938, where she
then made her home at
Sheffield. It is not
known if she had stayed
in Bloomington during
the whole of her time in
the United States.
Eleanor Elizabeth
Ellison died
unexpectedly in 1940 at
Cleckheaton (although
her home address was
still Sheffield) and she
was brought "home" to
Cowling for her funeral
at the Cowling Methodist
Church. Several members
of the Fort family were
mourners. Probate of her
will was granted at
Wakefield to her son,
who was at that time
described as a shipping
department foreman. Her
effects amounted to £147
16s 6d, which converts
to a spending power of
£23,644 in 2005.
Rupert Forte eventually
moved back to Cowling
six years before his
death in 1955. At his
funeral, services were
held at his house at
Keighley Road and the
Bar Chapel, Cowling,
before committal at
Skipton crematorium.
Charles Herbert
Ashton and Margaret
Annie Fisher and their
son John Fisher Ashton
Charles Herbert Ashton,
son of Mary Ann Ashton
(nee Marchbank) remained
in Cowling, where he
worked as a warp
dresser. He married
Margaret Annie Fisher,
daughter of John Fisher
(by his second wife),
land agent for the
Wainman family at Carr
Head and they had one
son, John Fisher Ashton.
Charles died in 1944 at
Calverley, where his son
lived, and there he is
interred in the parish
churchyard of St
Wilfrid's.
John Fisher Ashton who,
like his father,
attended Cowling Board
School, moved on to
Keighley Grammar School.
He married Amy Croft at
Keighley on 8 June 1922
and his death was
registered at Bradford
in 1969.
SUPPLIED BY BARBARA
PRESTON - FEB 2008
Sources: The
Victorian censuses
(films, fiche and
www.ancestry.co.uk
); parish registers; IGI
(International
Genealogical Index of
The Church of Jesus
Christ of the Latter-day
Saints on
www.familysearch.org
); the national index of
Births, Marriages and
Deaths and relevant
certificates; FreeBMDs
website; memorial
inscriptions for St
Andrew's Methodist
Church, Cowling,
transcribed by the late
Christine Johnstone for
Keighley Family History
Society; Colne Library
(post-1858 probate
records); the log books
of
Cowling Board School
by courtesy of
headteacher Mr S J
Smith; the log books of
Oldfield Board School by
courtesy of headteacher
Mrs M Redpath; passenger
lists (
www.ancestry.com and
www.findmypast.com
); The Bronte Society
Archives; the Craven
Herald and the Keighley
News.
Many grateful thanks are
due to Josie Walsh (
www.cravenindexes.co.uk
) for her invaluable
help. |
|
