p11

Smith List Page 11: 33-SSM

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ID: 33-SSM
Town/s of Interest : Lancs - Warrington, Newton
Researcher : Stan Smith
Location: Nottingham, England
Email: s t a n . s m i t h 1 [at] n t l w o r l d .com
Smith Chat Forum Username: Stan Smith
Online Office Pigeon-hole: 33-ssm
Submitted 2005/Update 2006/ 2008 update in progress
Summary of Interests  [Includes links to additional files]
My Smith lineage
My g-g-gfather, James Smith, born 1799 in Newton. married Mary Forster, on 29th Oct 1821 in Warrington, Lancashire James witnessed the marriage of his son, my g-grandfather Isaac Smith.  Isaac was born in 1829.
James Smith on the Census:
1841 Census (with young Isaac)
1851 Census (without young Isaac, who is just married I guess)
1861 Census : Isaac and Mary located.
(Further details of the above Census returns including siblings of Isaac are included in the “James Lineage” File, a link provided at the end of this summary.)
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Isaac & Mary’s marriage details: 15-4-1851 St Paul's, Warrington : Marriage by banns. Isaac SMITH (full age) fustian cutter, Lygoes Lane (sic) father: James SMITH, sailcloth weaver.+ Mary HEWITT (full age), spinster, Lygoes Lane; father:Joseph HEWITT, pinpointer witnesses named are: Joseph HEWITT, Ellen SHAW
nb: Isaac's father: James SMITH, a sailcloth weaver – see notes Column 2 “Sailcloth Weaving in Warrington”.
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FUSTIAN-CUTTING
My g-grandfather Isaac Smith, son of James, had a small fustian-cutting business, in the second half of the 19th century.
The family home at that time was 6 Hopwood St
The fustian-cutting work would have taken place in the attic spaces above the house and the adjoining houses, as long tressle tables were required to stretch out the rolls of cloth. Someone (almost entirely a female work force, my dad said) would then move with a cutting knife along each thread of the cloth in turn, half cutting into it and then fluffing it out at the end of the process, to produce the effect of fustian. It was a very precise business, and very bad on the eyes, particularly in ill-lit attic spaces.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Isaac Senior (born 1829) died on 27 June 1902 at 16 Dial Court (very close to where his son, my grandad, had his bicycle and hardware shop 40 years later, and to where I grew up in the 1950s). He was 73 years old and described as a 'retired master fustian cutter', and the death certificate read:-
"Killed by falling over bannisters down the stairs. Accident. Certificate received from S. Brighouse, coroner for Lancs. Inquest held 28 June 1902"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Isaac's son, my grandad, also named Isaac whom I never knew, was born in Warrington in 1872. He met his future wife, Agnes Thomason, while she was working for the Fustian-cutting business. At some point they lived in General St, then no 4 Howley Lane.
Marriage of Isaac Smith & Agnes Thomason, ________________  1895 Warrington, St.Elphin (ref C25/16/86 _________________________________________________	___

Grandad 'Ike' had the hardware and bicycle shop in the 'Tudor Cottages' in Church St, after WW1, then got turfed out by Rylands, who owned the property, so they could turn it into a managers' canteen.
He then had a shop in a condemned building on Dial St, which my dad, Stan, took over after he came back from WW2.
My dad, Stan, moved to 96 Buttermarket St about 1949-50, and the family (I was the only child) moved in above the shop about 1951. He stayed there till he retired about 1973, when they moved to Gainsborough Rd, and the shop became a Chinese chippy
My dad's parents, Isaac & Agnes Smith were buried in the cemetery on Manchester Road, Warrington.
(the pub across from the cemetery gates used to be called 'The Cemetery Arms' - not a place full of good cheer, you'd think).	___
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updates resuming - Please call back
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>>> Continue to Column 2 >>>

	ID: 33-SSM: continued from Column 1: Smiths of Warrington
_	Children of Isaac Smith and Agnes nee Thomason:
	Mary (b.1897) (married Lee) I think the oldest -
	--- had a son and a daughter, both still living
	Lily (b.1898, m. Flannery)
	--- one son not married, deceased;
	--- daughter Hilda (Warburton)
	Arthur (b.1900, never married)
	Ellen (b. circa 1903-4?) (married Minshull)
	--- no children
	Agnes (b. ?1905, died aged 3)
	Ernest (b. circa 1906-1912?)
	--- (two children, I think, possibly both daughters
	--- - no information here)
	Stanley (b. 1908) my dad, the youngest.
	I think I'm the only Smith continuing in this line, with two sons Philip (London) and Stephen (Birkenhead) and one daughter (Northants)
	updates resuming. Please call back
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	Links to Documents :
_	2 x Smith Family Lineages of the Warrington Area.
	These have been compiled from research by several Warrington area researchers
	(These are both very large html files)
	1) The Lineage of James Smith, my g.g.grandfather.
	Additional notes from my research on the family of Isaac Snr & Isaac Jnr have been inserted.
	>>33-SSM Lineage of James Smith, Warrington Area>>
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	2) The Lineage of John Smith
	I can't really comment on John Smith's line as I've not been able to establish any connection with them, and this is all the information I have. I put it here for general information, and in the hope that someone can establish a link from their own data. Stan, Nov 2006
	>> Lineage of John Smith, Warrington Area >>
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SAILCLOTH WEAVING in Warrington

Warrington during the first part of the 19th century supplied over half the canvas for the Royal Navy, and made therefore a major contribution to the defeat of Napoleon and Britannia's subsequent ruling of the waves and her global empire. Rylands Brothers, which later became a wire-works, started out in the first decade of the century as a sailcloth industry, combined with pin-making.

James Smith probably came from Newton to work there, as the houses in which the family lived for the next two centuries all clustered round the Rylands site on Church Street (now demolished). By the end of the 19th century wire-working had completely replaced the earlier industry. Presumably Isaac Jr was working there when he married Agnes. Their son Arthur worked there as a wire-drawer until his death in 1955.

The following poem is an attempt to understand how James Smith must have felt, moving all of ten miles (!) to a new town, following work.

Hands

James Smith, sailcloth weaver
(b. 1799, Newton, Lancashire; d. Warrington, between 1861 and 1871)

Admiral Lord Nelson, bless his good left arm,
did all right by me. Never a better time
to have been apprenticed as a sailcloth weaver,
while Warrington supplies half of the Fleet.
_____

The year he took back Naples a’ were born;
when a’ were six folk wept and cheered together
for Trafalgár, him dead, but Froggy beat.
Yet Boney had a big hand in my fortune,
for if he’d not been so boneheaded, vexed
by greed and envy, a’d have empty pockets.

_____
A’ saw the Iron Duke that day the Rocket
ran the unfortunate Mr Huskisson down.
We rule the waves, and the land too. Our town
buzzes with industry. England expects **

____________________________

** (see refs - external links included here>>) At the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, at Newton-le-Willows, near Warrington, on September 15, 1830, the Liverpool MP William Huskisson, crossing the line to speak to the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, was knocked down by George Stephenson’s Rocket, which mangled one of his legs. He died later that day. So as not to disappoint the large crowds all along the line to Manchester, it was decided to continue with the rail procession. At Manchester the passenger carriages of the Duke’s train were pelted with stones by weavers and other artisans, protesting against his role in the Peterloo Massacre, his fierce opposition to the proposed Reform Bill, and the threat to their work of the new steam-driven engine.