© 2016 David E. spencer
Thomas Ashworth was born about 1806 in Burnley. The Parish Register at St. Peter's Church, Burnley gives the name of his mother as Anne Ashworth whilst his marriage entry in the Parish register at St. Mary Magdalene, Clitheroe for his second marriage gives his father's name as William Sagar, a butcher.
Thomas was a chemist and druggist. When the pharmaceutical industry was regulated in the mid 19th century, Thomas had been a druggist already for many years and was allowed to continue to work as a chemist because he was already in practice when the new regulations were introduced. For all of his adult life he had a chemist's shop the in the village of Brierfield, near Burnley, at first on Colne Road and later at Halifax Road.His obituary in the journal of the Pharmaceutical Society comments that he was well respected within Brierfield whilst the report of his death in the "Nelson and Colne Express" described his an eccentric. He was locally famous for a patent medecine he called the "Poor Man's Friend". The recipe for this "cure-all" is lost in the mists of time but after Thomas's death his eldest son John apparently continued to make and sell it until his own death.
Thomas married twice - his first wife Mary died in 1840 and was buried at the Protestant Dissenters burial ground at Haggate, near Brierfield. There were two daughters, probably twins from his first marriage. I have only found out anything about one of these - his daughter Margaret who married an Irish-born shoemaker called Henry Ellis McAllen. They lived in Bury and had two children called Thomas and Agnes.
Thomas married his second wife, Mary Dyson in 1843 at the church of St. Mary Magdalene in Clitheroe. Their choice of church is interesting - he lived in Brierfield whilst she had been brought up in Roughlee in the Forest of Pendle. Neither would be expected normally to marry in Clitheroe. In addition both parties gave their residence as "Reedley Hallows", an area on the ouskirts of Burnley, close to Brierfield and the Forest of Pendle but was an extra-parochial part of the Parish of Clitheroe.
Thomas and the second Mary had three sons and two daughters, all of whom survived to adulthood with the exception of their youngest son Evan.
Their eldest son John had an interesting life, death and after his death.He was a cotton weaver but also was a poultryman on occasion. He married Isabella Uttley and had three children with her. The marriage broke down and they separated but in those days divorce was not possible and they simply parted company.
John's death was sufficiently unusual as to warrant an inquest reported in the "Nelson Leader" of 15th March 1907. Although his widow had stated that he was not a drunkard, his body was found one morning near the Cross Gates Inn in Barrowford, together with a nearby glass bottle. It appeared that he may have fallen, struck his head on a stone and had died of exposure to the cold.
Even after his death John provoked controversy. In 1908 the Probate Court in London heard the case of John's brother Thomas and sister Alice against John's estranged widow Isabella. It appears that John made a will leaving all to his siblings as security for a loan he had received from them. This will cut out John's estranged wif ; John's eldest son Abraham married Alice Elizabeth Nutter in Nelson and they had four children. Abraham was a cotton loom overlooker.
Second child and eldest daughter of Thomas and Mary was Alice, born in Brierfield in 1845 and died in Burnley in 1902.She married Richard Astin in Burnley in 1868 and they had seven children.
Thomas Astin was born in 1869, married Sarah Ann Greenwood in Todmorden and had two daughters.
Charles Astin was born in 1871 and died in 1872. In his grandfather's will his grandfather expresses a wish to be buried as near Charles as possible.
Margaret ("Maggie") Astin was born in 1877. She married John William Henry Mason from Ingleton with whom she had a daughter.
Mary ("Polly") Astin was born in 1874.
John Henry Astin was born in 1883 and died in 1884.
Renny Astin (1886 - 1949) was, according to Mary Fletcher, my dad's cousin, a bit of a character. Although he never did it as a full time occupation, he apparently had a repuation as a stage strongman, well known around Burnley. He married Hannah Jackson in Burnley in 1919.
Harold Astin was born in 1891.
The second son and third child of Thomas and Mary Ashworth was also called Thomas. He was born in Brierfield in 1848. He married Lucy Boardwell in 1877 and had two sons and six daughters. Thomas worked for Stuttard's Mill in Higham, near Burnley, initially as a book keeper and ended up as manager of the mill. Very early in the twentieth century he owned a mill of his own at Narrowgates in nearby Barley.
Thomash Ashworth 1848 - 1922
Narrowgates today
To read more about Thomas and Lucy's children and their families click here.
The fourth child of Thomas and Mary was Mary (1853 - 1932). She married Matthew Green in 1872 at St. Bartholomew's Church in Colne. They had two daughters - Elizabeth Alice who was born and died in 1883 and Gertrude Mary (1886 - 1974) who never married.