Now I had almost forgotten Ellen Warburton who was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1775, and lived at one point on Beech Road roughly on the corner with Chorlton Green.
There is very little else to tell.
I know she was there in that cottage in the 1840s and paid an annual rent of 5 shillings. She retained her independence well into her 60s, running a home which she shared with her teenage grandson.
By 1851 the situation had changed, and Ellen aged 75 was living in the home of her now married grandson.
A decade later the family had moved to Manchester and Ellen was in the workhouse.
She was by now a very old woman, and the new home in John Street, Chorlton on Medlock was a one up one down terraced house, inside the loop of the River Medlock, hemmed in on all sides by chemical works, timber yards, and a brewery and maybe because of space or incapacity, Ellen ended up in the workhouse.
But here we have to be careful because rather than being an inmate, she might just have been a patient in the infirmary.
And that is almost it. Other than to say her cottage looked out on fields with a clear view over to the parish church, while it fronted what was then called Chorlton Row and was opposite the Traveller’s Rest, beer shop.
Her neighbours included the blacksmith, the Methodist chapel, and the well off Daniel Sharpe, whose fine house was only demolished last year and is now a supermarket.
Nine years ago, Ellen was very close to me and she featured in the book, The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, which described our township when it was still a small rural community, during the first half of the 19th century.*
But the passage of time had made me almost forget her, until last week when I received a letter from Christine who wrote “I was given ‘The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy’ last year and am writing to thank you: what a wonderful book it is.
I have read it several times and each time find something new……. But it’s your writing which brings the people and places and bare facts to life and relates the past to the present scenes so vividly”.
Now for any historian, such comments are welcome, but what was even more welcome was that Christine filled in a few more gaps in the life of Ellen Warburton.
In 1799 she appears in the parish register as a single mother, whose daughter was Mary, who also “appears as a single mother at her son, Joseph’s baptism on October 4 1823”.
Along with the additional information Christine sent over a copy of an entry in the parish register, recording Ellen’s baptism. What makes this entry more interesting is that in 1847 someone had calculated Ellen’s age in that year and included it on the original document.
I guess we will never know why this was done, but perhaps it was at the request of Ellen herself or a relative.
This was still a time when many didn’t have an accurate record of family births and the requirement to officially register a birth, death or marriage had only begin in 1837, leaving the parish records the sole source of information.
That is almost it, other than to reflect on our perceived attitude to illegitimacy in the 19th century.
Despite the received view that it was frowned on, the evidence from my book and the Warburton family, suggest that the birth of a child out of wedlock was not accompanied by outrage, but that is another story which is best followed by reading the book.
So, I will close with Christine again, who wrote that “your book has special meaning for me as Ellen Warburton was my 4x grandmother and it was a huge surprise to see the names of one of the humblest of my humble ancestors mentioned in print.”
And that is a pretty good point to close.
Pictures; detail of the tithe map 1847, showing Ellen Warburton’s cottage, birth entry from the parish record, 1775
*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html
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| The birth of Ellen, 1775 |
By 1851 the situation had changed, and Ellen aged 75 was living in the home of her now married grandson.
A decade later the family had moved to Manchester and Ellen was in the workhouse.
She was by now a very old woman, and the new home in John Street, Chorlton on Medlock was a one up one down terraced house, inside the loop of the River Medlock, hemmed in on all sides by chemical works, timber yards, and a brewery and maybe because of space or incapacity, Ellen ended up in the workhouse.
But here we have to be careful because rather than being an inmate, she might just have been a patient in the infirmary.
And that is almost it. Other than to say her cottage looked out on fields with a clear view over to the parish church, while it fronted what was then called Chorlton Row and was opposite the Traveller’s Rest, beer shop.
 |
| Living on Chorlton Row, 1847 |
Nine years ago, Ellen was very close to me and she featured in the book, The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, which described our township when it was still a small rural community, during the first half of the 19th century.*
But the passage of time had made me almost forget her, until last week when I received a letter from Christine who wrote “I was given ‘The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy’ last year and am writing to thank you: what a wonderful book it is.
I have read it several times and each time find something new……. But it’s your writing which brings the people and places and bare facts to life and relates the past to the present scenes so vividly”.
Now for any historian, such comments are welcome, but what was even more welcome was that Christine filled in a few more gaps in the life of Ellen Warburton.
In 1799 she appears in the parish register as a single mother, whose daughter was Mary, who also “appears as a single mother at her son, Joseph’s baptism on October 4 1823”.
Along with the additional information Christine sent over a copy of an entry in the parish register, recording Ellen’s baptism. What makes this entry more interesting is that in 1847 someone had calculated Ellen’s age in that year and included it on the original document.
I guess we will never know why this was done, but perhaps it was at the request of Ellen herself or a relative.
That is almost it, other than to reflect on our perceived attitude to illegitimacy in the 19th century.
Despite the received view that it was frowned on, the evidence from my book and the Warburton family, suggest that the birth of a child out of wedlock was not accompanied by outrage, but that is another story which is best followed by reading the book.
So, I will close with Christine again, who wrote that “your book has special meaning for me as Ellen Warburton was my 4x grandmother and it was a huge surprise to see the names of one of the humblest of my humble ancestors mentioned in print.”
And that is a pretty good point to close.
Pictures; detail of the tithe map 1847, showing Ellen Warburton’s cottage, birth entry from the parish record, 1775
*The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Andrew Simpson, 2012, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html
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