LANCASHIRE FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY SOCIETY

Rossendale Branch Newsletter July 2013

LIBRARY DROP IN SESSIONS
Beginners Welcome. Haslingden Library every Monday 5.30 – 8.30 pm
Note: the doors to Haslingden Library close at 7.30 pm.

and at Rawtenstall Library every Tuesday 1.30 – 3.30 pm

We may be able to do simple look-ups for distant members. When contacting us with an enquiry, please include your membership number

The LFHHS Resource Centre.

The Society’s Resource and Research Centre at 2 Straits, Oswaldtwistle, BB5 3LU is open every Thursday from 1.00pm – 5.00pm and 1st Saturday of each month 1.00pm..

Coming Events

Tuesday 9th July

St. Annes on the Sea – The Rossendale Connection.
A talk by Peter Shakeshaft at Haslingden Library at 7pm. Free but entrace is by ticket.
Please book early as places are limited.
In case of query ring 01706 215690 or email haslingden.library@lancashire.gov.uk This talk is part of a project exploring the links between the Fylde Coast town and Rossendale.

Saturday 3rd August

 9th Annual Celebration of Local History.
Astley Hall and Coach House, Chorley, PR7 1XA. Astley Park has a restaurant, woodland walks and children's areas. There will also be talks with a family history focus. Admission to the “Celebration” and parking at Astley Village's Hallgate car park are both free. For further details telephone 077 30 793 990 or see www.lffhschorleybranch.org

20 July - 6 October 2013

Lancaster City Museum
Market Square, Lancaster, LA1 1HT
Exhibition: Lancaster charters and Lancaster and the pageant

SPECIAL NOTE:
Conservation staff from Lancashire Archives will be demonstrating seal repair and other archive conservation techniques on THURSDAYS during this period.
For more information see www.lancashire.gov.uk/museums and www.archives.lancashire.gov.uk

Our 40th Anniversary Celebrations

14th September 2013.

The LFHHS is holding a Family History Fair at King George's Hall, Northgate, Blackburn BB2 1AA. The day starts at 10.00 am until 4.00 pm. It is expected that each branch will have its own stall. There will also be bookstalls and representatives from other relevant bodies, the GRO, local Register Offices, etc. Admission £3. Children free.

15th September 2013

The Rossendale Branch will be hosting the Society's Annual Dinner which will be held at the Masonic Hall, Ashday Lea, Haslingden Road, Rawtenstall. 12.30 for 1.00pm. For full details see the May edition of “Lancashire”. or you can click through from our Rossendale Branch website where you will find an application form, menu and information on how to reach the venue.

Rossendale News, Notes and Queries

Last month, Anne Booth gave us a talk entitled “A tragedy too far” based on a book she has written based on the life of her great great grandmother, Hannah Blackburn. She says that it was her life-long interest in history and more recently genealogy, that inspired her to write the life stories of her ancestors'.
Whilst keeping all the known historical facts she has imagined the motivations for her ancestors' actions. She has written two books. A Tragedy Too Far and The Joiner's Secret,Both books have Rossendale connections and are available from www.amazon.co.uk

The CHEST

Just imagine your excitement, if you found a chest which had been handed down through the generations, containing a thousand documents (pedigrees, wills, letters, avadavits, and certificates, etc) collected by your great great grandfather. This is what happened to cousins Jean Nimmo and Kay Line. Together they have produced a book entitled “The Chest”. The presentation and reproduction of the documents is brilliant.

Richard Henry Dearden (1847-1901) was born in Waterbarn, Rossendale, the youngest son of Samual Dearden and Jane Holt. He was in business as a hairdresser in Stacksteads, Manchester, Southport, Ramsbottom and Bury. For the last 20 years of his life, he fought tirelessly to prove his ancestry in order to claim a share of the estate of a wealthy Manchester merchant, Robert Hamilton (1725-1781). Richard's obsession ruined his life, led to bankruptcy and incarcaration in the County Asylum at Prescot.

Copies of “The Chest” by Jean Nimmo and Kay Line have been donated to the local history departments of Rawtenstall, Ramsbottom, Bury and Southport libraries. Copies are £15, via Jean Nimmo. It is not available on Amazon. email jean.nimmo@btinternet.com

HARDMANS of Marcroft and Greens

Durng the First World War my grandfather or probably his brother commissioned an extensive genealolgy of the Hardman Family. The pedigree is initialled FHL with the date 1917. But we don't know who he was. There is a copy in the Lancashire Archives but ours is the original. It is done by a skilled antiquarian, using oral memory and original documents, including the three I am trying to trace. FHL is not terribly interested in the 19th century because at that time the details were well known.

For example the only detail we get of George of Newhallhey -an important man- is 'George, Newhallhey'. On the other hand we get copious details about my fifth-great-grandfather, David, who was an influential Baptist and died in 1766.We are very lucky to have this genealogy.

I have been working for some time on the history of the Hardman family of Marcroft Gate (near Rochdale) in the 16th century and later from c.1800 of Greens, near Stacksteads. The basis of the research is the detailed genealogy drawn up by ‘FHL’. There were a number of early documents consulted by FHL which I have been unable to trace in any of the relevant archives. My hope is that some of the members may have had sight of these. They may be in the possession of the senior line of the family which had Greens from c.1600 to the 20th century, The last members I have been able to trace are Edwin Hardman, Mayor of Bacup, who died in 1919, leaving a son, James and a daughter Annie.

James married late in life (1920) to Elizabeth Cunliffe. Does anyone know if there are any descendants of James' sister, Annie. She married James Heyes, of Rakehead Quarry and they had a son, John Hardman Heyes who qualified as a solicitor in 1914 but continued I think working in the family quarry. Again, does anyone know if they had descendants? The documents I am anxious to find are:
1. The lease for Greens taken out by Lawrence Hardman on 25 June 1625 from Thomas Holt.
2 The 1696 renewal of that lease between John Hardman and Myles Lonsdale of Bury.
3 The purchase of the freehold of Greens by John Hardman c1800 from either the Rev. Formby or an Ormerod. Any other material would of course be welcome.

A simplified version of the family is as follows: a single line to David, a Baptist leader, who died in 1766. Then 3 branches of the descendants of his sons.
1. The main Greens branch who had Acre Milll and quarries in the 19th centuries.
2 The Newhallhey branch descended from David's second son, George.
3 The Rockcliffe Branch descended from David's third son Robert, who had Rockcliffe Foundry.
4 The descendants of David's brother Robert of Hallfold, based at Whitworth and Gauxholme.

If you can help with this enquiry contact John Hardman email john@hardman3911.freeserve.co.uk