© 2016 David E. Spencer
Author's note
This Roberts family has its roots in the Lancashire countryside although Roberts is more usually thought of being a Welsh patrionymic surname. The family are well documented in the Goosnargh area near Preston, Lancashire from the mid-eighteenth century onwards until,like the rest of the extended Sellers family into which they married they found themselves migrating to nearby Longridge where work was more available in places like the quarry.
My most distant Roberts ancestor was Philip Roberts, a tailor born about 1751 (a date estimated from his age given in the burials register for his eventual funeral in 1819). In 1777 he married Ann Bailey at Goosnargh Parish Church. John, their second son was born in 1781. He married twice - his second wife Hannah, my 3 great grandma is one of the more elusive of my ancestors. I have never found the record of their marriage - all I know is from census records. Hannah was born about 1786 in the nearby village of Thornley where the surviving church records are sporadic, leaving a Hannah a genealogical dead end. John died in 1848, Hannah in 1854. John is variously described as a farmer but sometimes as a tailor. After John's death, Hannah farmed at Withy Trees, Whittingham.
John and Hannah had a total of twelve children but two of their daughters are of special interest. Mary born in 1819 at Whittingham is my great great grandma. She married Thomas Sellers in 1851 at Goosnargh. Mary's sister Nancy was born in 1825 but married earlier than Mary in 1850 at Longridge.She married John Sellers, brother to Thomas who married Mary.