LANCASHIRE FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY SOCIETY

Rossendale Branch Newsletter August 2006

Coming Events

Saturday 5th August

A Celebration of Family History

hosted by the Chorley Group at Astley Hall. 12 noon to 5 - 00 pm

Everyone welcome.

Information, displays and resources provided by the LFHHS. Representaives from Chorley Branch, Irish Ancestry, Chorley Reference Library, Latter Day Saints, Wigan History Shop, Southport & North Meols FHS, Chorley Local & Social History Society, etc. For further information email: family.history@Chorley.gov.uk

Sunday 8th October

Society Dinner

To be hosted by Blackburn & Darwen Branch, Whitehall Hotel, Darwen

4.00 "Welcome" & Drink

Speaker: Peter Park- "A different look at the Records".

6.00 - Dinner or Buffet

Details in your next "Lancashire" magazine

Did you miss.....

our talk "What you didn’t see on TV?"

Jackie Ramsbottom and I related some of the humorous incidents which led to our appearance on the programme "Who do you think you are? and more seriously we posed the following questions:

Did the production company make the best use of the story? To what extent were they justified in manipulating the facts?

Details were given on the following families:

Cunliffe: - the descendants of John Cunliffe 1812 - 1878, who was married to Alice Ingham in 1833.

Taylor: - the descendants of John Taylor, 1813 - 1916 chemist and druggist of Bank Street, and his wife Elizabeth Tattersall who were married in 1855 at St. Mary’s church Rawtenstall. Their son John Ashworth Taylor married Sarah Alice Cunliffe.

Both the Taylor and Cunliffe families had strong connections with Longholme Methodist Chapel, Rawtenstall.

Ashworth - the descendants of Edmund Ashworth 1813 - 1870, a tailor and his wife Ann Ashworth who were married at Bury, St. Mary in 1835. Joseph Ashworth married Doris Taylor in 1923 at Longholme Methodist Chapel.

Rossendale Sources: -

Longholme Methodist Chapel Records.

The following records are available:

Bap. 1824 - 1837 Lancs. R.O. (MF 1/84)
Bap. 1827 - 1879 R’stallt. Lib. (m’film)
Bap - 1826 - 1837 Man.City Lib. (MFPR 282)
M. I. - 1841 - 1978 R’stall Lib. (book)
Grave Reg. - 1859 - 1978 R’stall lib. (m’flm) Index 1859 - 1978 R’stall lib (book)

Also: available on 4 microfiche from the LFHHS.

Burials. MIs and Grave Register 1820 - 1987. £3.

Contact Dorothy Haworth, fiche@lfhhs.org.uk or write to Mrs. D. M. Haworth, 24 Cecil Street, Oswaldtwistle. Lancashire BB5 3HF.

A message from the LFHHS Chairman

Greetings to you all. If you are reading this in your branch newsletter, allow me to introduce myself.

I am Stephen John Ward and I was elected to be Society Chairman at the AGM on the 27th of May.

I am following a man who has great respect among Society members. This is Tony Foster, who is now Society President.

Over the next year I hope to visit all Society Branches, I will be introducing myself to each branch, so come and have a chat, give me your ideas about what you want from your Society, Those of us who have Society roles do not have all the best ideas, I also want to bring a challenge to all our members, that is to get involved.

At our last executive meeting the following decisions were made:

1. A Working Party was set up to bring recommendations to the next Executive Meetings about the Straits at Oswaldtwistle.

2. You should get your Members’ Interests to Tony Foster by the end of August. If you have sent them in, you will get a free CD-Rom with all the Members’ Interests on it.

3. The Society was represented at the York FH Fair on the 24th June, and will be attending Southport (NW Family History Fair) on Saturday 23rd September and Aintree in October.

4. Don’t forget to book for the Society Dinner at Whitehall Hotel. Darwen. Booking forms will be in your August copy of Lancashire.

5. Two new CDs are available from Dorothy Haworth

Stephen John Ward. email chairman@lfhhs.org.uk

Rossendale Ancestry

Sausages! A Strange Lead. Musk/ Mawdsley

How do you get ideas to find a trail to follow? I have a new one to add to my lost of oddities - a website about sausages,

to explain -

There can be many names circulating in the grey matter of family historians and whilst browsing the net, I came upon a seller of speciality sausages in Newmarket. "Musk", the name rang a bell. A man named Musk had married one of my mother’s aunts, and butchers were connected with the name.

A quick search of my files brought me to the marriage certificate of Albert Edward Musk and Bertha Mawdsley, February 11th 1903 at St. John’s Church, Bacup. Albert aged 22 was a shuttlemaker, living at Daisy Bank, his father Phillip Musk was a butcher. Bertha aged 19 was the daughter of James Mawdsley, wine and spirit merchant of Dale Street. Witnesses were James Edward Musk and Caroline Meyer Mawdsley. At this stage, this was all I knew about the Musk family.

I found Phillip Musk in 1901, living at Rosebank Street, Broadclough (St. John’s Parish), Bacup. He was a pork butcher born at Geicison, (probably Gissing) Norfolk, his wife Rose had been born at Peterborough, Northamptonshire. They had 4 children, Edward Albert born Chesterfield, Derbys; Carrie M, Herbert S. and William all born in Bacup. I found them already living at Rosebank Street in 1891 with the same 4 children.

However, in 1881, Phillip and Rosey were living in Leeds at the home of Herbert Murgatroyd listed as brother/ sister in law. At this time Phillip was an unemployed pork butcher, Albert Edward, born Chesterfield was 5 months old. He had a two year old brother born in Durham. Herbert’s wife Flory was born at Diss in Norfolk, so the assumption at this stage is that she is sister to Phillip.

I could not find Phillip in 1871 but I did find a William Musk aged 19 born at Gison, Norfolk, as a boarder in Chapel Street, Spotland. He was a pork butcher.

So far none of the names tie up with the founder of Musk’s sausages of Newmarket, in 1860. I live in hope of a supply of family sausages.

I remember visiting my mother’s Auntie Bertha in Waterfoot - it was wash day and she emerged up the cellar steps. She would have been in her 70s and being a Southern girl, I had never seen anyone wearing a hessian sack as an apron or clogs! In the censuses for Rossendale, there are a number of Musks listed as being born in Norfolk/Suffolk. Do I have any relatives left in the valley? email: berylvenables@onetel.com or write to

Mrs. Beryl Venables, 6 Aspen Court, Tuxford, Newark, Notts NG 22 OQB

Jurors’ Lists - transcripts

Lower Booths. 1800 & 1810 A-He

These lists cover the years 1796 - 1834. They are to be found in the Quarter Sessions documents at the LRO. They are listed under Blackburn Hundred and then by town. They give address, occupation and age.

Barlow, James Rawtenstall, Shopkeeper, 1800, 42
Barlow, James, Rawtenstall, Shopkeeper, 1810, 58
Cunliffe, John, Rawtenstall, Inn Keeper, 1810, 50
Hargreaves, Henry, Rawtenstall, Engineer, 1800, 38
Hargreaves, Henry, Damhead, Miller, 1810, 32
Hargreaves, James, Constable Lee, Holmes Woollen Manufacturer, 1800, 32
Hargreaves, James, Holmes, Engineman, 1810, 38
Hargreaves, John, Rawtenstall & Cowpe Lench, Shopkeeper, 1800, 36
Hargreaves, John, Rawtenstall, Shopkeeper, 1810, 50.
Haworth, George, Chapel Hill, Yeoman, 1800, 30.
Heap, John, Meadowhead, Farmer, 1810, 44
Heyworth, George, Chapel Hill, Farmer, 1810, 41.