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Thursday 18 June 2015

History challenge

Going along one of the genealogical byways, I came across the Abbott family, of Blackburn.

This has opened up another area of investigation; this time concerning the town of Blackburn. Doing my usual forage around the internet; I came across an area called Mill Hill. The area is still there but has changed beyond recognition.

As its' name suggests it was a factory area. 

The cotton industry began in England in 1774 when Parliament reduced duty on cotton fabrics from sixpence to threepence a yard. Suddenly, there was an incentive to produce cotton fabric (sixpence a yard was prohibitive). Manufacture in the Blackburn area is disputed; some claim 1774 and others 1776.

Mill Hill became a calico printing area (1794). Apparently, Mill Hill was in the township of Livesey. 

John Abbott in the 1881 England Census was a lodger in 

20 Mill Hill A Common Lodging House

Name
Age
John Wilkinson
47
Margaret Wilkinson
32
Emily Ann Wilkinson
2
Cornelius Driscoll
50
Richard Ward
44
Richard Dickinson
31
Elizabeth Dickinson
39
William Heaton
40
Henry Heys
36
Joseph Pickup
48
William Ashworth
39
John Marsden
46
James Graham
28
William H. Harwood
28
John Dunn
26
Robert Scholes
50
John Abbott
30
Jonathan Wade
36
John Cheetham
50
John Grimshaw
36
W. Edward Briggs
26
Henry Richardson
33
Andrew Grimshaw
36
Mark Rawsthorne
40
Jeremiah Riley
68
Bridget Lonsdale
35
Margaret Parkinson
40
What stunned me at first was the number of people!

Time to do more research...




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