THE SMITH STORY

The earliest record of a Smith is that of Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandpa William Smith born about 1738 in Great Marsden, Lancashire who married Susannah Shackleton in Colne, July 1767.

Next in line is Great-Great-Great-Grandpa William Smith who married Martha Eckroyd in Little Marsden, Lancashire in August 1789.

Records exist following Martha Eckroyd’s family right back to the 1300s.

After the Williams come the Henrys, Great-Great Grandpa Henry Smith born in Colne, October 1811 and marrying Alice Hartley in December 1844 in Great Marsden. The Hartley family in the Colne area are very difficult to follow, it being the most popular surname in that area so it has not been possible to firmly establish Alice’s parents but we believe her parents were William and Mary Hartley (nee Ridehalgh). Henry and Alice are buried in the burial grounds alongside, what was the Wesleyan Chapel, Winewall.

One son of Henry and Alice was Great-Grandpa Henry born August 1852 in Colne. He married Emma Riley in Colne in December 1874, her parents being John and Elizabeth Riley (nee Jackson), John and Elizabeth were married in Colne in March 1832. Initially Henry was a weaver but sometime between 1881 and 1891 he became a baker and this was the business followed by the Smiths through to my Dad. My Grandfather John Willie Smith was born to Henry and Emma in December 1876 in Colne and married Maggie Battrum in Jan 1900 in Colne.

Maggie’s parents were Great-Grandparents Frederick and Cecilia Battrum (nee Grant) who were married in Burnley in July 1875. At the time of their marriage they were both working and living at the Crown Hotel in Colne, Frederick as an ostler and Cecilia as a barmaid.

Frederick originated from Suffolk the son of Great-Great-Grandparents John and Martha Battrum (nee Sheppard) and was born in the village of Stoneham Aspell in November 1855. John was born about 1816 in Norfolk and Martha was born March 1818 in Little Stoneham, Suffolk . Fred’s father John died in 1855 just three months before Fred was born.

The marriage certificate of Frederick and Cecilia gives Cecilia’s father as James Grant, stonemasons labourer and in subsequent census returns she claims to have been born in Edinburgh, Scotland, none of this has been verified.

My father Fred Smith, son of John Willie and Maggie Smith, was born in Colne in August 1900 and married Mary Webster in Wheatley Carr Booth in September 1925. Mary was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Webster, more of the Websters later. Fred and Mary had three children all born in Colne, Margaret on the 21st April 1927, Victor on the 27th October 1929 and myself John on 4th February 1932.

My mother Mary was born to John & Elizabeth Webster and many years before I started my family research my Uncle Jack Webster had evidently made a start on researching the Webster family tree but had never finished it. Uncle Jack told my cousin, Jimmy Hunter, that he did not want to continue his research because he had discovered he was not a Webster at all. My own research proved this to be false but I can offer an explanation as to why Uncle Jack was led to believe he was not a Webster - a skeleton in the cupboard worth recording.

Uncle Jack’s father, Grandpa John Webster, was in fact born John Watkinson as his mother Ann Watkinson, had three sons before she married Great-Grandpa Thomas Webster. Ann and Thomas were married in Penwortham, Lancashire in June 1862. When Thomas and Ann married the three boys took Webster as their surname, so in fact Uncle Jack, my Mum and all the other children born to John Webster were in fact Websters.

The earliest Webster I have located is Great-Great-Grandpa Edward who was born about 1815 in Longton, Lancashire. We could find little information about Edward other than he was married to Sarah who gave birth to Thomas Webster, my Great-Grandfather in June 1830 in Longton.

Grandpa John Webster (Watkinson) was born in Longton in June 1859 and married Elizabeth Mayor in September 1888 in Longton. My mother, Mary Webster, was born in November 1900 in Little Hoole, Lancashire. Sometime in the early 1900s the family moved to Colne. Most of the Webster family were employed in the cotton industry, the earlier Websters worked in their own cottages as hand loom weavers and later, as mechanisation came along, they went into the mills as weavers. Grandpa Webster worked all his life as a weaver. Some of the Websters had farms and one, Thomas Webster, at one stage was a carter for the local mill.

My earliest recollections of Grandpa Webster are of the many occasions that he took me for a walk before I started attending school at 4½ yrs of age. These were always long walks but I enjoyed them, especially the treat I always got if we went via Barrowford. Here there was a small, hexagonal shaped, stone building which was a shop where they sold liquorice, the black type that looked like a strap about an inch wide and 12 inches long and it was possible to tear the strap into small strips making it last so much longer. Grandpa Webster loved the countryside and one of his favourite sayings was “your greatest enemy is the armchair and your greatest friend is the countryside”