Person talk:Elizabeth Birchall (1)

I've corrected the details of her death. I knew I had her death certificate somewhere.

Identifying her is somewhat more difficult. There is an IGI record for a marriage of Caleb Howard and Elizabeth Birchall on 1 Apr 1810 in Mottram in Longdendale. This is a member submission & doesn't appear on the regular extract batch of the PRs for Mottram. On the Familysearch pilot search site, however it does appear in the Cheshire PR collection but not in the Cheshire BTs. I've placed a query with the helpdesk about this but not received a reply. The possibilities are that the Mottram PR batch was, in fact, collected from the BTs & not the PRs or that the PR entry is for banns & the marriage took place elsewhere. It would need an inspection of the actual register to decide this. However I'm inclined to the latter explanation; I can find no Burch[ai]lls in Mottram that early so although she may have been living there her home parish was probably elsewhere.

There was an Elizabeth Birchill born near Nantwich, Cheshire in an appropriate time frame but she got married in Nantwich to someone else - ironically AFAICR also on 1 Apr 1810.

Mottram parish borders on Holme township at the top of Holme Moss. In fact Woodhey Laithe must have been the closest habitation to Mottram on the Holme side. At one time the schoolmaster of Holme was the curate of Woodhead chapel in Mottram parish.

Holme-Mottram link [2 August 2010]

Thanks for the great info.

Do you have any more info for the (schoolmaster) link to Mottram. the Holme school existed since 1690s - would the link have been that old.

Yu are probably aware that many marriages relate to people "Over top" and probably the main source of spouses outside Cartworth and Austonley (that is much more than further down the Holme valley)

I detcted there was a major trading ling and wool products were brouught by Pack Horse to Holmfirth from Glossop. You suspect the route over the top would be a busy one at times. Making it much more practical for a Schoolmaster to make before automated transport.

I have a sneay suspicion the Howards in Holme may have been sourced from Glossop - very common name there - much more than in huddersfield--Dsrodgers34 00:08, 2 August 2010 (EDT)

Schoolmasters of Holme etc [9 January 2011]

I have a booklet on the history of Holme published in 1994 to celebrate the tercentenery. It has a very limited list of appointments of early schoolmasters including Rev Broadurst in 1771. He is said to have "also officiated at Woodhead" and, as Woodhead was a chapel that must mean that he was curate there. The previous name given is that of James Crosland appointed in 1727 but as his gravestone in Holmfirth gives his date of death as 15/10/1763 there must have been someone else in between. It also lists George Fawley in 1829 who died in 1833; his son born in Nov that year was posthumous. George Fawley was my gggfather. He married Hannah Kay of Holme. In 1841 Soloman & Amelia Briggs were schoolmaster & mistress but they're not listed.

The trade route through Holme is a very ancient one as it's one of the easier cross-Pennine routes. Salt from Cheshire was one of the main commodities. Anciently the main problem was one of travelers getting lost on the moors so the best routes were those which minimised the possibility. Longdendale runs deep into the Pennines and at its head has a well defined pass into the Don valley. The route to Holme is a side valley running up to the top of Holme Moss is only a few yards across. Both routes are well defined. In Anglo Saxon times they would have offered a back door into Mercia for Northumbria (& vice versa). Mercia would have needed to have defended this area and I'm sure the fact that Longdendale & the back of Holme Moss were part of Cheshire rather than Derbyshire until 1974 is a legacy of that.

Howard is one of a number of names such as Mettrick & Garlick shared across the tops & this is probably the origin of the family. I do, however, have a little worry about Howard in that there were a good number of spelling variations and there could easily be overlap with Heywood, also a known local name, which must be derived from the placename near Oldham. --Iang 06:14, 2 August 2010 (EDT)

This marriage is becoming a little clearer but still no easier to sort out.

Whilst browsing for likely Birchills on the Familysearch site I realised that some of the spelling variations were suggestive of Beardsell so I started looking for marriages of Elizabeth or Betty Beardsell and found a possible in the York marriage allegations with the groom's name as Caleb Heywood. As I couldn't find any other reference to such a name I think it must be Caleb Howard that is meant here. See also [1]

I now have a copy of the marriage allegation. It's dated the 10th of March which was a Saturday. It describes him as Caleb Heywood of the Parish of Almondbury, Clothier, bachelor, and her as Elizabeth Beardsall of the same parish, spinster. Both are said to be over 21.

The marriage was to be in Almondbury parish but it's not there. The problematic records from Cheshire are on the Sunday 3 weeks after the date of the licence.

The plot thickens.

Firstly Caleb wasn't over 21 unless he was baptised very late; he appears to have been 19. The baptism was 1 Jan 1791.

Secondly the the marriage bond is in the names of Caleb Heywood and Abel Beardsall. The only baptism I can find is Betty Beardsell, d of Thomas of Holme (something fits!) bapt 13 Jan 1883, so if this is her, Abel wasn't here father nor was he a brother and she is also somewhat older than her age given in her death certificate. The connection may well be there but I'll have to dive into the Beardsells of Holme.--Iang 07:42, 9 January 2011 (EST)

If this is indeed Betty Beardsell, d of Thomas it looks as if he was s, bapt 18 Nov 1738 of Joshua. At least I have no alternative Thomases. Joshua had another son, John, bapt 8 Jul 1742. There are two alternative Abels, one son of Luke, bapt 28 Dec 1776, the other son of John, bapt 22 Oct 1785. Looking at all the baptisms in the area it's clear that there was more than one John Beardsell around at the time. If the Abel who swore to the marriage bond was the son of John and if that John was son of Joshua then Abel would have been Betty's cousin.