Manchester

Bee mosaic in Manchester Town Hall
Image from wikipedia.

Everywhere you go in Manchester, you’ll find bees - carved into buildings, decorating bollards and fountains, printed on flags, bumper stickers and tee-shirts, even tattooed on people’s arms.

Originally the worker bee symbolised the hard-working and productive labourers in the factories, those hives of activity during the industrial revolution. It was officially adopted into Manchester’s coat of arms in 1842.

More recently it has become a symbol of the unity and co-operation of Manchester’s population following the terrorist bombing of Manchester Arena in 2017.

Back when I began researching my family history, it certainly seemed as though Manchester was once a honey pot drawing families in. On almost every branch of the family tree, I discovered at least one family that migrated to Manchester, or the adjacent Salford, during the nineteenth century. On  my father’s side of the family, Thomas Ward's widow, Frances, left Walton le Dale and went to live there when she re-married, along with two of her daughters. Several of her grandchildren also went there to work.

On my mother’s side, Thomas Brown Orton and his family moved to Manchester from Leicestershire, the Bentleys from Yorkshire, the Landers from Dorset, the St Legers and the Hardmans from Ireland, the Holts and the Houghs from Cheshire.

So while my previous posts on "places" have been about towns and villages where one family lived, perhaps for several generations, this post covers many families. They often moved back and forth between Manchester and Salford addresses. Salford has its own distinct history, but in this post I'll consider it as part of Manchester.

Manchester's early history

The city gets its name from Mamucium, the name of a Roman fort built on a small hill in 79 AD to keep out the Celtic Brigantes. It was located close to the River Irwell, which meandered across an otherwise flat plain. After the Romans left in 407 AD, the little town around the fort stagnated until the thirteenth century.

In 1227 it was granted a charter for an annual fair, a sign of its increasing prosperity. By the 14th century a textile industry had grown up under the influence of Flemish weavers. Despite some setbacks due to outbreaks of plague and the English Civil War, the market town and its weaving industry gradually expanded.

Shambles Square, in the medieval quarter
Image from wikipedia

By 1720 Manchester was the most important town in Lancashire, with a grammar school, a collegiate church, a free public library and its own newspaper. The population of about 10,000 people had a single representative in the First Protectorate Parliament under Oliver Cromwell. This seat in Parliament was lost after the restoration of King Charles in 1660.

Manchester and the Industrial Revolution

Beginning in the late 18th century, the industrial revolution brought street-lighting, piped water, and a network of canals to transport coal and other goods. Britain’s first railway station was built in Manchester when the Manchester to Liverpool line opened in 1830.

The station built in 1830

An unprecedented influx of people arrived, drawn by the prospect of work in the building trades, the cloth manufacturing industries or the associated transport and service industries. By 1801 the population had reached 75,000 and thirty years later it had almost doubled again to 142,000. Despite this, the city had no representative in Parliament and most working people had no vote anyway.

Some people made their fortunes in the booming conditions, and used them to build impressive private and public buildings. For others, overcrowding and lack of planning led to poverty and hardship. Outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera were able to spread rapidly in the squalid conditions in which many people lived. High taxes and trade restrictions during and after the Napoleonic wars led to a recession and high unemployment. In 1812 food riots occurred in parts of the city.

On 16 August 1819, thousands of protesters gathered in a newly-cleared area known as St Peter’s Field to listen to the radical orator Henry Hunt and express their demand for parliamentary reform. The local magistrates sent the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry to arrest Hunt. They succeeded in capturing him, but in the process a child was killed and a woman was injured.

Map of St Peter's field and surrounds
Image by Jhamez84

The 15th Hussars were then sent to disperse the crowd. They went in on horseback with drawn swords, while other regiments blocked the exits to the square. In the panic and mayhem that followed, up to 18 people were killed and hundreds injured. The event became known as the Peterloo Massacre. It would be another thirteen years before the Reform Act of 1832 gave Manchester two representatives in Parliament, elected by eligible males.

Manchester continued to grow, absorbing the surrounding towns into its municipal borough and connecting to places further afield by rail, road and canal links. It was a place of exciting scientific discoveries, technical innovation, impressive engineering feats, and grandiose buildings, alongside social upheaval and radical political movements. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx developed some of their political theories after visiting Manchester in the 1840s.

My family in Manchester

John Fielding is the earliest of my ancestors to have lived in Manchester. He was born there in 1778, and it may be that his family had lived there for several generations. Perhaps he was the same John Fielding whose name is on the list of those arrested at the Peterloo demonstration. In 1802 he married Jane Hughes, from Wrexham in Wales. Their daughter Harriet (born 1811) married William Holt, who was born in Cheshire.

Harriet and William’s son  John married Elizabeth Hardman, who had migrated from Ireland with her parents as a small child. And so it goes on. John and Elizabeth’s daughter Hannah and her husband William Hough were both born in Salford, as was William’s father John Hough, but his paternal grandfather was from Cheshire and his mother, Mary Lander, was from Dorset. The brick-making Houghs and the stone-cutting Landers no doubt helped to build parts of Manchester.

In the 1860s the Lancashire cotton famine caused a lot of hardship. But by the 1870’s, when the Orton family moved to Manchester from Leicestershire, conditions had improved, with less severe overcrowding and poverty and a better life-expectancy. Manchester had a reputation for social innovation, with some of the world’s first free public parks and libraries, and early branches of the Co-operative movement, the Trades Union Council and the women’s suffrage movement.

The city fostered both the arts and education and it was not uncommon for working people to be self-educated through their use of libraries and newspapers. Friedrich Engels left Manchester and moved to London in 1870.

Cotton-milling machinery in the
Science and Industry, Museum, Manchester

Manchester reached its height of industrial activity with the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894. This allowed ocean-going vessels to carry goods right into and out of the heart of the city. The world’s first industrial estate was built on its banks at Trafford Park. By now the population of the city and its suburban area had reached over 500,000.

Manchester in the twentieth century

Even as late as 1913, 65% of all the world’s cotton moved through Manchester. The city’s name was (and still is) synonymous with cotton goods such as sheets and towels. But cotton milling and other textile industries gradually gave way to machinery exports, chemical industries and financial businesses.

The First World War interrupted trade and the Great Depression that followed led to a decline in Manchester’s economy. Its population peaked around 760,000 in the early 1930s, but people had already started to move away.

During the second world war, Manchester and Salford were heavily bombed in what was known as “the blitz”. Children were hastily evacuated to safer areas by the government, with little preparation. My mother and her sisters, after experiencing the trauma of spending their nights in bomb-shelters and seeing their neighbourhood destroyed, were sent away from their parents to Blackpool, on the coast. After some time, the family were re-united when they moved to Crawshawbooth in Rossendale, 20 miles (32 km) from Manchester. They never went back.

Much of Manchester was rebuilt after the war, and it remained the most important city in the region, but it continued to decline economically. When I was growing up in semi-rural Rossendale, Manchester was the place to go to watch a pantomime, to see Father Christmas in one of the department stores or shop for special-occasion clothes, but I never thought of it as a place to live. Even when I returned there as an adult in the 1980s it still seemed a rather grimy, utilitarian place.

Manchester today

In 1996 the centre of the city was bombed by the IRA. Hundreds of people were injured and many retailers went out of business in the aftermath. But the redevelopment associated with the rebuilding, coupled with the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester in 2002, led to a revitalisation of the city. Slums have been cleared, old factories and warehouses re-purposed and public transport modernised.

Manchester's Christmas Markets, a popular annual event

Manchester now advertises itself as a tourist destination, something that would have been considered a joke when I was a child. I was impressed with how much had changed when I returned to Manchester in 2013, and even more so when I revisited it in 2018.

I haven't followed my family tree far enough into the twentieth century to see how many descendants of those original 'immigrants' are still living there. If you recognise any of your own ancestors names here, I'd love to hear from you.


General references used:
Manchester: wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester
A brief history of Manchester http://www.localhistories.org/manchester.html

Albert and Hannah Hough's puzzling family life

The spire, all that remains of
Stowell Memorial church where
Albert and Hannah married in 1878

I've written a little about Albert Hough and Hannah Holt before. Their daughter Alice was my mother's maternal grandmother. But there are several gaps and puzzling details in their story that I've yet to resolve.

Albert Hough and Hannah Holt married in Salford, Lancashire, in August 1878. At the time Albert was working as a brickmaker like his father William.  When they married they both gave their address as 51 Jane Street in Salford. For some reason Albert’s name was recorded as ‘Alfred Hough’, although his name was registered as Albert both when he was born and when he was baptised. He was also listed as Albert on his children's baptism records.

Their first child, Alice, was born in 1879. But when the census was taken in 1881, Hannah and little Alice were living with Albert’s brother John Hough and his family in Lynton Street in Salford. Albert wasn’t with them. I thought I’d found Albert/Alfred boarding with another family in Ardwick Street, not too far away. Now I'm not so sure. This man was listed as Alfred, and was described as a dyer, which would be quite a leap from being a brick maker. Albert’s occupation was listed as ‘labourer’ when his children were baptised. So far I haven't found any trace of him in 1881.

So why were Albert and Hannah not living together? The obvious explanation would be that as a young working-class couple they couldn’t afford to rent a place for themselves, and found lodging where they could. Little Alice and her brother Albert (born 1882) weren’t baptised until 1885, another hint that the family might have been hard up. Although, as we'll see, there may have been other reasons for the delay in baptising them.

Other possibilities come to mind. Was Albert working somewhere away from home for long periods? Was he perhaps in prison, or the workhouse? None of these ideas have produced any results so far.

Still missing, or missing again?

By the time of the 1891 census Hannah had four living children (another died in infancy) and she and the children were all boarding with a family in Siever Street in Pendleton, Salford. She was working as a charwoman. Again Albert is nowhere to be found. That’s not to say he wasn’t living somewhere in Salford or Manchester, but I haven’t been able to find him.

It seems strange that the couple should still be living apart. They had obviously spent some time together in the previous ten years to produce five children! The census is only a snapshot on a single night, so perhaps they had been living together for most of the intervening ten years.

Still, it would be interesting to find Albert’s whereabouts in 1881 and 1891. By 1901 Hannah had died and the widowed Albert was living with his eldest daughter Alice, her husband, their son and four of his own younger children – nine people in a four-roomed house. He was employed as a labourer.

Some unexplained baptism records

The Lancashire Online Parish Clerks site offers another strange puzzle related to this family. Most of Albert and Hannah’s children were baptised at St Ambrose church in Pendleton. Until 1902 this was a mission church of the parish of St Thomas, an Anglican (C of E) church. But James, born 26 June 1889, appears to have been baptised on 20 November at the Catholic Mother of God and St James church. There’s no photo of the record available, but the transcription reads:

Baptism: 20 Nov 1889
Mother of God and St James, Pendleton, Lancashire, England
Joannes Jacobus Hough - filius Alberti Hough & Hannae (formerly Holt)
Born: 26 Jun 1889
Abode: 40 Dawson St.
Godparents: Julia Anna Donovan
Baptised by: P. J. Markey
Source: Salford Diocesan Archives

(Catholic churches at the time recorded baptismal names in Latin).

Even more strange, Albert and Hannah’s next son John, born on 16 October 1892, was also baptised in the Mother of God and St James church in Pendleton on 1 November 1892. But then on 2 November 1892 he was apparently baptised again, this time at the Anglican church of St Ambrose in Pendleton.

Baptism: 1 Nov 1892 Mother of God and St James, Pendleton, Lancashire, England
Joannes Hoff - filius Alberti Hoff & Annae Rosae (formerly Holt)
Born: 16 Oct 1892
Godparents: Helena Bower
Baptised by: Henrico Van Wtberghe
Source: Salford Diocesan Archives

Baptism: 2 Nov 1892 St Ambrose, Pendleton, Lancashire, England
John Hough - [Child] of Albert Hough & Hannah
Born: 16 Oct 1892
Abode: 24 Buckingham St.
Occupation: Labourer
Baptised by: G. Morgan
Register: Baptisms 1881 - 1894, Page 175, Entry 1393
Source: Parish Register

The names are spelled a little differently, but it certainly looks like the same child. But why would he be baptised twice? As far as I’m aware, the Catholic and Anglican churches have always recognised baptisms carried out in each others’ churches as valid, so there would be no reason to have a child “done” in both churches, even if the parents were of different denominations. I've heard of baptism records being accidentally duplicated in the same church register, but not across two different churches. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Albert, the father, was baptised in St Phillip's Salford, an Anglican church. I haven’t found a baptism record for Hannah,  but her mother Elizabeth Hardman was Irish, so perhaps she was brought up Catholic. By the time Albert and Hannah's youngest child Elizabeth (a.k.a. Lily) was born they seem to have resolved the issue and she was baptised just once, at St Ambrose Anglican church.

Hannah Holt and her family

Salford Quays today would be unrecognisable
 to Hannah Holt and her family

When I wrote about Alice Hough, I mentioned that she was the child of Alfred (aka Albert) Hough and Hannah (or Anna) Holt. I've already described the Hough side of her family, who were brick makers in Salford. Now it's time to say something about the Holts. Unfortunately there's little to tell about them besides details of births, deaths and marriages, and even some of those are hard to find. They seem to have been one of the many families living in crowded, poor conditions in Salford during the late 19th century.

Hannah's background

Hannah's father John Holt was described in the various census returns as a boatman or waterman, which probably means he worked as a labourer on the docks in Salford (but see below).  He was born in Salford in about 1831. His father, William Holt, was also a boatman.

Hannah's birth registration indicates that her mother's maiden name was Hardman.* Elizabeth Hardman arrived in Manchester from Galway, Ireland with her parents, Patrick and Margaret Hardman (nee Jenkins), around 1840 when she was about 6 years old. Patrick was a labourer, so it's likely that John and Elizabeth began their married life in July 1853 with very little.

John and Elizabeth's first child, Mary Ann (born 1854) seems to have died in infancy, since she doesn't appear in the 1861 census (but see below). The next child, Harriet, was two years older than Hannah (born in 1858). In the 1861 census Hannah is listed as Anna, and the family were living in "Slater's building" which seems to have been some sort of tenement off Hampson St, not far from the docks.

Elizabeth gave  birth to five more children after Hannah, (James 1861, Sarah 1863, Samuel 1865, Elizabeth 1867 and John 1870) but it's not clear how many survived. I can't find the family in the 1871 census. Elizabeth herself died during or soon after giving birth to John in March 1870. Hannah would have been about 12 years old at the time.

In December 1870 Hannah's father remarried, to a woman named Margaret Gill who was 27 at the time. I haven't been able to find the family in the 1871 or 1881 census. Possibly a child, Mary Ellen, was born to Margaret in 1871, but I can't find any others, so John or Margaret may have died soon after that. (The name John Holt was common in Salford so it's difficult to know for certain which death registration is his.)

Marriage and children

Hannah Holt married Albert Hough, a brickmaker, at the Stowell Memorial church in Salford on 18 August, 1878. She was 20. When they married they both gave their address as 57 Jane St. This was in a typical Salford row of two storey brick houses built "back to back" on a cobbled street with flag-stone pavers.

When the census was taken three years later Hannah and her daughter Alice were living with her bother-in-law John Hough and his family in Lynton St, Salford. Albert was lodging with another family in Ardwick St. Was this for financial reasons, or had they separated? They had another child, Albert, the following year, and another five children after that, so perhaps it was for practical reasons.

By 1891 Hannah was boarding with another family, along with four of her children, and she was working as a charwoman, which suggests that she was in very difficult circumstances. Albert is nowhere to be seen on the census.

In 1899, at the age of just 41, Hannah died. Albert went to live with his daughter Alice and was with her family in 1901, but he seems to have died before 1911.

NOTE: I've updated and corrected some of the information in this post in my next post. See More on Boatmen and Baptisms

*(GRO Reference: 1858  S Quarter in SALFORD  Volume 08D  Page 77). 

How Mary met William - Mary Lander (1831-1879)

Map showing location of Dorset

It's strange, and sometimes slightly spooky, to discover that you've visited many of the places where your ancestors once lived, without realising it at the time. I've mentioned elsewhere that one of our daughters was baptised in the same church as her paternal great grandfather, though we didn't know that until recently. Now I've discovered that many generations of my mother's family lived in a little village called Langton Matravers, near Corfe Castle in Dorset, which we visted with our children in 1991. Back then I had no idea that this was part of our heritage.

It's hardly surprising that I didn't associate this area with our family history. Langton Matravers, on the Dorset coast near Swanage, is about as far removed from Manchester and Salford as you could imagine, both geographically and socially. But it was here that Mary Lander, the future wife of William Hough (and my maternal great great grandmother) was born.

Coastal walk not far from Langton Matravers

At the time of her birth in about 1831-32 the village was home to only a few hundred people, most of whom, it seems, were related to each other in some way. The local area was famous for its stone quarries and infamous for its smuggling activities. Legend has it that in 1876 the ceiling space of the parish church of St George in Langton Matravers was so laden with contraband goods that the walls began to sag and it had to be demolished and rebuilt.

Mary's father John Lander (1795-1871) was a stonemason, like many of the men in Langton Matravers. Her mother, Elizabeth Cross (1797-1866) was the only daughter of another stonemason, Thomas Cross and his wife Ann (known as Nancy, nee Savage).

Mary was the sixth child born to John and Elizabeth, so far as I can tell, and was baptised at St George's church. One of her older brothers, George (born 1826) seems to have died in infancy but her other brothers John Cross Lander, (1820) Robert (1828) and Joseph (1829) along with her sister Ann (1824) all survived.

Sometime between Mary's birth and the birth of her younger brother James the whole family, including Elizabeth's parents Thomas and Nancy moved to Salford. James was baptised in Christ Church, Salford in 1836. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have survived infancy, and neither he nor George appear on the 1841 census.

Blackfriars wooden bridge,  Manchester
c 1831-1834 by Agostino Aglio
The bridge connected Manchester to Salford 

Mary's grandmother Nancy died in Salford in 1840 at the age of 72. When she was buried at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Irwell St, her address was recorded as Muslin Street.

The family were still living in Muslin Street, off Hope Lane, at the time of the 1841 census. Mary's grandfather, Thomas Cross, lived with them or next door to them (it's not clear on the census).

What made them decide to make such a life-changing move? Economics is the most likely answer. While Dorset today might seem an ideal place for a quiet holiday, in the 1830's life was hard for most people. In the early 1830's riots broke out across southern England in protest against the use of mechanised farm machinery, which was putting labourers out of a job. While the Lander family were probably not directly affected, they would no doubt have suffered from the general stress and economic hardship.

Manchester Free Trade Hall (now a hotel)
built in 1853-56
Photo by David Dixon, used under a CC license

Meanwhile Manchester and Salford were growing rapidly. Alongside the many brick-built buildings that kept the Hough family occupied, large public buildings with impressive stone facades were being erected all over the city. Stonemasons would have been in great demand. John Lander and Thomas Cross were certainly not the only stonemasons from Dorset who moved to Lancashire.

It's not difficult to imagine how Mary might have met William Hough. Brickmakers and stonemasons must surely have worked alongside each other and got to know each other's families. They were married in Manchester cathedral on Christmas Eve, 1849. According to the marriage record, she was 19 and he was 18 years old. This must have been a rough estimate, since she claimed to be 18 years old at the time of the 1851 census. They remained in Salford for the rest of their lives.

The Hough family brickmakers of Salford

Report of the 1867 Royal Commission

Brickmaking in 19th century England tended to be a family occupation. Like fustian cutting, it was a semi-skilled trade that was passed on from one generation to the next, and it was difficult to get a job if you didn't have the right family connections.

So not only was John Hough a brickmaker, but so were his four surviving sons - James (born 1829), William (about 1831), John jnr (1834) and George (1837). Several of his grandsons were also brickmakers.

It's possible that even one of his granddaughters was a brickmaker. When Elizabeth Hough, daughter of William Hough, married Alfred Greenough in St Bartholomew's church in Salford in April 1883, she was described as "Brickmaker, spinster".

Perhaps because so  many brickmakers were closely related, brickmaking was also a highly unionised occupation. Particularly in Manchester and Salford, the brickmakers established very clear 'rules' for the brickwork owners who employed them. These included such things as being paid their wages weekly, and employing only local labour. The brickmakers were also (understandably) resistant to brickmaking machines being introduced.

The brickmakers were not afraid to defend their rights, with force if necessary. In May 1843 the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser reported on a "Desperate and Bloody Attack by a Party of Armed Turn-outs" on a brickworks on the Eccles New Road near Cross Lane. (You can read an account of this incident, as reported several months later in the Southern Australian newspaper.)

It seems a group of 300 or more brickmakers attacked the brickworks of Messrs Pauling and Henfrey at night, apparently intent on setting fire to the brick croft and destroying the bricks. The group were armed with a variety of weapons, the owner's wife was intimidated, and shots were fired at those who were guarding the property. The cause of the affray seems to have been a dispute over wages and the employing of non-union labour.

This was not the only such 'outrage' committed by the brickworkers over the years. In 1867 the British government set up a Royal Commission to look into "acts of intimidation alleged to have been promoted by trade unions" in Sheffield and Manchester. It took a particular interest in the brickmakers union.

The Catholic newspaper, The Tablet, described the Commission's findings in an article in September 1867. Here's part of what it had to say about brickmakers:

The brickmakers bear the reputation of belonging to the roughest and rudest section of the working classes. They can hardly be considered as coming within the category of skilled artizans or mechanics, either in general education and intelligence, or in the technicalities of their trade and handicraft. And yet, strange to say, they have shown themselves as being at the least as cunning, astute, and inventive, both in the concoction of their destructive and homicidal schemes, and in the practical methods with which they carried them into execution, as the skilled operatives of Sheffield.

Obviously this wasn't an unbiased view. But what was the Hough family's involvement in all of this? It's difficult to say. A Thomas Hough was one of those arrested (and later acquitted) for his part in the 1843 incident. He may have been a brother or cousin of John Hough. A brickmaker named Thomas Hough, born in Cheshire in 1815, lived just a few doors away from John and Elizabeth Hough in the 1841 census.

As we've seen, John Hough seems to have started a small brick-making business of his own, with half a dozen employees. Yet this was hardly likely to have competed with large brick-making companies like Pauling and Henfreys. He seems to have remained a working brickmaker all his life. In a letter from the brick workers to the newspapers in 1851, defending their actions in a dispute with a brick manufacturer named Farr, John Hough was one of the signatories.

Nevertheless, John seems to have done fairly well for himself. His probate record indicates that he left an estate of £278 4s 6d  to his wife Elizabeth when he died in 1883, a moderately large sum in those days. His eldest son James left £1694.3s.11d in 1891 and in 1916 his third son, John Hough jnr, left an estate worth a healthy £5490 2s 9d. These sums suggest that the family were more than "the roughest and rudest section of the working class."

Strangely, no probate record exists for William, the second son, suggesting he died with very little property. This is not the only mystery attached to William, as we'll see in a later post.

John Hough's obnoxious brickworks

Old Buildings, Cross Lane, Salford.
“From the work usually known as ‘James's Views,’
published May 9, 1825.” Source:Old Manchester, Plate 33

"On Saturday last, a case of considerable importance to the public of Manchester and Salford came on for hearing in the Salford County Court, before J.W. Harden, Esq , the judge of the court. and a respectable jury."

So began an article in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser on November 2, 1850.

The case of 'considerable importance' was brought by Mr Edward Foulkes, an attorney, who claimed that his garden at Grove House, Salford, was being damaged by smoke coming from the kilns of the brickworks nearby. The kilns, which had been erected over the previous six months, could have been built further away - 

"But the kilns, as they had been erected, smoked away within a very few yards of the boundary of the plaintiff's grounds. At the present cold season the smoke was a great nuisance, but in summer it was almost intolerable, and it was clear that the defendant sought to carry on his business in the most obnoxious manner."

Not only that, but the owner of the offensive brickworks had recently built a pig-sty right on the boundary of Mr Foulkes property. The obnoxious owner of the brickworks was John Hough.

Since the brickworks in question were located in Cross Lane in Salford, it seems highly likely that this was the same John Hough who was to become the great grandfather of Alice Hough. 

John Hough and his wife Elizabeth (nee Hurst) lived in Cross Lane most of their married lives, and according to the census of 1851, John was a brickmaker employing six men. All of his sons were brickmakers, including William, the father of Albert Hough, who was Alice's father and also a brickmaker.

The lawyer for the plaintiff, Mr Whigham, called on the expertise of horticulturalists and gardeners, who agreed that the smoke from John Hough's brickworks had reduced the productivity of Mr Foulkes vegetables and fruit trees. His rhubarb was blighted. He was seeking a sum of £50 in damages.

The court case was of public importance because, as John Hough's lawyer, Mr Wheeler put it:

"The jury were asked to determine whether, in this particular neighbourhood, a trade which had existed time out of mind, and one which was growingly prosperous to all concerned in it, should be absolutely put a stop to, or, if pursued at all, to be pursued with eternal law-suits. or threats of law-suits pending over those engaged in it."

The whole area, he argued, was one vast brick-field from which Manchester and Salford were supplied with bricks. Besides that, the nearby chemical and dye works could have been the cause of the damage to Mr Foulkes garden.

Salford Museum and Art Gallery, opened in 1856 -
buildings like this required a lot of bricks.

It seems Mr Wheeler's arguments impressed both the judge and the jury. 

"His honour, in summing up, said the evidence of injury by the pig styes was very slight - that the plaintiff had withdrawn that part of the complaint relating to the water course, and that the remaining injury would be as to the damage alledged (sic) to be done by the smoke proceeding from the brick-kiln. He considered the occupancy of the land by the defendant suffciently proved. and the questions for the jury were: - had damage been done; secondly, had such damage, if done, been occasioned by the brick kilns of the defendant; and third, what was the amount of such damage. The judge then reviewed evidence of the plaintiff.—The jury retired, and, after a short absence, brought in a verdict FOR THE DEFENDANT".

The capitals are in the original article - was the editor shocked or pleased by the decision of the respectable jurors? Whatever his opinion, John Hough must have been very happy that he was now able to continue to run his brick kilns on Mr Foulkes boundary.

Albert Hough 1858-c 1905

Individual Summary

26 April 2015

Name:	Albert (aka Alfred) Hough
Sex:	Male
Father:	William Hough (1831-1887)
Mother:	Mary Lander (1833-1879)
Individual Facts
Birth	Jul 1858	Salford, Lancashire, England1–6
Baptism	6 Feb 1859 (about age 0)	Salford, St Philip, Lancashire, England7
Residence	1861 (about age 3)	Relation to Head of House: Nephew; Salford, Lancashire, England3
Residence	1871 (about age 13)	Relation to Head of House: Son; Salford, Lancashire, England4
Residence	1881 (about age 23)	Relation to Head of House: Lodger  Occupation: dyer; Salford, Lancashire, England6 (This may not be the correct person)
Residence	1901 (about age 43)	Name: Albert Hough  Relation to Head of House: Father-in-law  Marital status: widower  Occupation: labourer; Pendleton, Lancashire, England1
Death	bef 1911 (before about age 53)	Possibly 1905 in Salford. Does not appear on 1911 census
Marriages/Children
1. Anna (Hannah) Holt (1859-1899) married 18 August 1878 Stowell Memorial, Salford, Lancashire, England
Children	Alice Hough (1879-1909)
	Albert Hough (1882-    )
	Mary Hough (1886-1886)
	Harriet Ann Hough (1887-1894)
	James Thomas Hough (1890-    )
	John Hough (1893-    )
	Lily Elizabeth Hough (1895-    )
Notes

        1. 1901 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: RG13; Piece: 3718; Folio: 121; Page: 31.

       2.. Manchester, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1930 (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).

        3. 1861 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: RG 9; Piece: 2924; Folio: 32; Page: 11; GSU roll: 543050.

        4. 1871 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: RG10; Piece: 4026; Folio: 81; Page: 30; GSU roll: 846325.

        5. FreeBMD, England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 (Ancestry.com Operations Inc).

        6. 1881 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: RG11; Piece: 3973; Folio: 55; Page: 7; GSU roll: 1341949.

        7. Manchester, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915 (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).

More about Albert Hough:

Alice Hough - a hard life cut short

William Hough c 1831-1887

Individual Summary

26 April 2015

Name:	William Hough
Sex:	Male
Father:	John Hough (1811-1883)
Mother:	Elizabeth Hurst (1811-1889)
Individual Facts
Birth	abt 1831	Salford, Lancashire, England1–7
Residence	1841 (about age 10)	Manchester, Lancashire, England7
Residence	1851 (about age 20)	Relation to Head of House: Head  Occupation brickmaker; Manchester, Lancashire, England6
Residence	1861 (about age 30)	Relation to Head of House: Son-in-law.   Occupation:brickmaker; Salford, Lancashire, England3
Residence	1871 (about age 40)	Relation to Head of House: Head  Occupation: brickmaker; Salford, Lancashire, England1
Residence	1881 (about age 50)	Relation to Head of House: Head  Marital Status: Widow  Occupation:brickmaker Address: 52 Bridson St; Pendleton in Salford, Lancashire, England4
Death	Jan 1887 (about age 56)	Salford, Lancashire5
Marriages/Children
1. Mary Lander (1833-1879)  married 24 Dec 1849 in Manchester
Children	John Hough (1849-    )
	William Henry Hough (1852-1853)
	James Hough (1853-    )
	Elizabeth Ann Hough (1856-1856)
	Albert (Alfred) Hough (1858-1911)
	William Hough (1861-    )
	Elizabeth Hough (1866-    )
	George Hough (1867-    )
	Aleck(?) Hough (1868-    )
	Mary Hough  (1871-    )
Notes

        1. 1871 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: RG10; Piece: 4026; Folio: 81; Page: 29; GSU roll: 846325.

       2. Manchester, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1930 (Cathedral) (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).

        3. 1861 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: RG 9; Piece: 2924; Folio: 32; Page: 11; GSU roll: 543050.

        4. 1881 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: RG11; Piece: 3949; Folio: 137; Page: 29; GSU roll: 1341943.

        5. FreeBMD, England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 (Ancestry.com Operations Inc).

        6. 1851 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations Inc), Class: HO107; Piece: 2224; Page: 26.

        7. 1841 England Census (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc), Class: HO107; Piece: 586; Book: 14; Civil Parish: Manchester; County: Lancashire; Enumeration District: 24; Folio: 11; Page: 14; Line: 10; GSU roll: 438739.

More about William Hough:

The Hough family brickmakers of Salford

John Hough c1811-1883

Individual Summary

26 April 2015

Name:	John Hough (parents unknown)
Sex:	Male
Individual Facts
Birth	abt 1811	Winsford, Cheshire, England1–6
Residence	1841 (about age 30)	Cross Lane. Occupation brickmaker; Manchester, Lancashire, England1
Residence	1851 (about age 40)	Relation to Head of House: Head  Occupation : brickmaker employing 6 men; Manchester, Lancashire, England4
Residence	1852 (about age 41)	Cross Lane, Manchester, Lancashire, England7
Residence	1855 (about age 44)	John Hough,  brickmaker,  Cross Lane; Blairs Cottage, Cross Lane, Salford8
Residence	1861 (about age 50)	Relation to Head of House: Head  Birthplace Chester  Occupation:brickmaker employing 4 men; Salford, Lancashire, England2
Residence	1871 (about age 60)	Relation to Head of House: Head  Address 22 Lord Nelson St, Salford. Occupation: brickmaker; Salford, Lancashire, England3
Residence	1873 (about age 62)	Phoebe St, Salfrod, Lancashire, England8
Residence	1881 (about age 70)	Relation to Head of House: HeadMarital Status: Married; Salford, Lancashire, England6
Death	18 Apr 1883 (about age 72)	Died at 30 Lord Nelson St, Cross Lane, Salford. Probate on an estate of £278 4s 6d granted to Elizab; Lancashire, England5,9
Marriages/Children
1. Elizabeth Hurst (1811-1889) married 8 Sept 1828
Children	James Hough (1829-1891)
	William Hough (abt1831-1887)
	Samuel Hough (1833-    )
	John Hough (1834-1916)
	George Hough (1837-    )
	Isaac Hough (1839-1840)
	Mary Ann Hough (1844-    )
	Elizabeth Hough (1845-1846)
	Harriet Hough (1848-1857)
Notes

        1. Ancestry.com, 1841 England Census , Class: HO107; Piece: 586; Book: 14; Civil Parish: Manchester; County: Lancashire; Enumeration District: 24; Folio: 11; Page: 14; Line: 7; GSU roll: 438739.

        2. 1861 England Census , Class: RG 9; Piece: 2924; Folio: 59; Page: 27; GSU roll: 543050.

        3. 1871 England Census , Class: RG10; Piece: 4027; Folio: 17; Page: 27; GSU roll: 846325.

        4. 1851 England Census, Class: HO107; Piece: 2224; Page: 4.

        5. FreeBMD, England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 .

        6. 1881 England Census, Class: RG11; Piece: 3969; Folio: 43; Page: 11; GSU roll: 1341948.

        7. UK, City and County Directories, 1766 - 1946 (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).

        8. U.K., City and County Directories, 1600s-1900s (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).

        9. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966 (Ancestry.com Operations Inc).

More about John Hough:

John Hough's obnoxious brickworks
The Hough family brickmakers of Salford