John Ramsdale (1796-1875) and Alice Heyes (1805-1856)
Our great-great-great grandparents
John Ramsdale was born in Culcheth in 1796, the second child and son of Richard Ramsdale and Ellen Heyes. He was baptised at St. Mary the Virgin Leigh on 19 May 1798.
Alice Heyes was born in Leigh Lancashire in 1805, the second child and first daughter of William Heyes and Hannah Morris. She was baptised at St. Mary the Virgin Leigh on 3 August 1805.
John and Alice married at St. Mary the Virgin Leigh on 10 May 1824, aged 26 and 19 respectively. They had fifteen children:
- Elizabeth (1824-1878) – baptised at Leigh on 6 November 1824, she was also known as Betty. In 1851 she was still living with her parents, and was a “Servant at Two Bells”. She had an illegitimate son, Thomas, who was born in 1850. She may have married James Howarth in Manchester on 3 July 1858 and died at Flixton in June 1878.
- Alice (b.1826) – baptised at Leigh on 22 February 1826. She was not listed living with her parents at the 1841 census (taken on 6 June 1841), at which time she would have been aged 15. There was an Alice Ramsdale of the right age listed at Westhoughton, a cotton spinner in what may have been a factory. She married Samuel Irlam (1832-1871) at the Cathedral in Manchester on 6 June 1852, and they had three children together: John (b.1852), Mary Ann (b.1854) and James (b.1856). Alice appears to have died at some time between the 1881 and 1891 censuses.
- Margaret (b.1828) – baptised at Leigh on 16 March 1828. She is possibly the Margaret Ramsdale who married William Kenyon at Manchester on 20 August 1849.
- Charlotte (b.1829) – baptised at Leigh on 8 November 1829. She was not living with her parents at the time of the 1841 census, at which time she would have been 12, so is presumed to have died before then.
- John (1831-1884) – baptised at Leigh on 16 October 1831. John married Sarah Gilbody at Flixton on 8 June 1851. They emigrated to the colony of Victoria aboard the Spray of the Ocean, arriving at Port Phillip on 24 May 1856, and subsequently had seven children born in Melbourne: Annie Laura (b.1856), Louisa (b.1857), Florence Catherine (b.1860), Emily Frances (b.1862), Arthur Cecil (b.1865) and Ada Florence (b.1872). John was the toll-keeper at Carlsruhe Victoria. He died on 19 July 1884, and was buried at Carlton Victoria.
- Harriett (1833-1835?) – baptised at Leigh on 22 September 1833. She is presumed to have died before 1836.
- Mary (1835-1855) – baptised at Leigh on 29 March 1835. She died at Eccles and was buried there on 12 March 1855.
- Harriett (b.1836) – baptised at Leigh on 11 September 1836. Harriett was living with her parents at the 1841 and 1851 censuses, but was not with her father in 1861. She may have married or died in that ten-year period, but there is no record of either.
- James (our ancestor - 1838-1872)
- Anne (1840-1876) – baptised at Eccles on 22 March 1840. She was still living in her father’s house at the 1861 census, aged 21. Anne is believed to have emigrated to Victoria on the Champion of the Seas in 1866. She married Jeremiah McGrath at Kyneton Victoria on 24 June 1871. Jeremiah had two children from a previous marriage, and he and Anne had one child together, a daughter named Ellen.
- Richard (b.1841) – no baptism detail is known, but his birth in May 1841 can be inferred from the 1841 census. He married a woman named Harriet prior to April 1861. He is believed to have died between the 1871 and 1881 censuses.
- Charles (b.1842) – baptised at Eccles on 31 July 1842. He married a woman named Elizabeth around 1864 and they had two children: John (b.1865) and Harriet (b.1867). Charles worked for the railway and was residing in Crewe, Cheshire in 1871. He appears to have died between the 1881 and 1891 censuses.
- Frances (b.1845) – no baptism details have been located, but she was living with her parents at the 1851 census, and with her widowed father at the 1861 census. There is no entry for a Frances or a Fanny Ramsdale in the 1871 census, so she is presumed to have either married or died before then.
- William (b.1847) – baptised at Eccles on 30 May 1847. He does not appear in the 1871 census, and is presumed to have died before then.
- Lucy Jane (b.1849) – baptised at Eccles on 16 September 1849. She does not appear as Lucy Ramsdale in the 1871 census, and is presumed to have married or died before then
According to his daughter Elizabeth’s baptism record in 1824, John Ramsdale was a weaver and the family resided in Bedford, a suburb of Leigh. The family seems to have lived at Culcheth by 1828 and remained there until 1835.
Prior to 1841 John had become a railway employee, and he is shown as being with the London and North Western Railway police at Barton Moss station in that year’s census. In 1851 he is shown as a clerk at Barton Moss station, and in 1861 as Station Master. In 1871 John is shown as a retired railway worker, although he still lived in Barton-upon-Irwell with his widowed daughter Alice and her two children.
Alice Heyes died in December 1856. John Ramsdale died at Wigan in June 1875 and was buried there on 19 June.
<< Previous page | Next page >>