SOME PARTINGTONS

(notes by P John Partington)

THOMAS (bef. 1802 - aft. 1846) AND HIS FOREBEARS

‘Partington’ was a village, and is now a suburb, on the edge of Manchester;   and it is presumably from there that our family takes its name.  The name is very much a localized one until recent decades, with the large majority of Partingtons being found in north-west England, especially Lancashire.  At the point at which our family becomes identifiable, they are working (like so many at that time) in the weaving industry.

Our earliest known Partington ancestor to date is Thomas, born in 1775/6.  He married AliceAshcroft at Croston in Lancashire on 20 May 1819.  They had at least two children – John Ascroft, born in 1822/3 and Margaret, born in 1825/6.  In 1841 Thomas, Alice and Margaret were living in Croston – Thomas was working as a “hand loom weaver”.    An Alice Partington was buried in Croston on 27 June 1857, “aged seventy-eight”.

It seems quite possible that the Partingtons at this time were Roman Catholics – see John Ascroft’s wedding below.  Details of other Roman Catholics in the Croston area named Partington are given in the Appendix below.

THE CHILDREN OF THOMAS  (bef. 1802 - aft. 1846)

Thomas & Alice’s son John Ascroft was born in Croston in 1822/3.   On 11 July 1847 he married Eleanor Waring at St Bede’s Roman Catholic chapel in Clayton Green, Leyland:  the certificate shows him as a ‘labourer’, and illiterate.  They had at least seven children – Catherine in 1848/9, Thomas in 1850/1, Annie in 1852, Alice in 1856/7, William in 1857/8, Catherine T (or Susan?) in 1863/4 and John James A in 1870.  The 1851 census records John and Eleanor as living at Berry’s Cottage in Brindle (shared with the Berry & Cliffe families) with their baby son Thomas:  John is described as a farm labourer and Ellen as aged twenty-seven, born in Walton-le-Dale.  The following year they had a daughter, Annie.  By 1861 John and Ellen were living in Walton le Dale:  John was working as a groom, and Ellen as a housekeeper.  In  1871 John and Ellen were living at 1 Abbey Street, Preston:  John was now working as a “labourer in iron works”.  Ten years later John and Ellen were still in Preston, now at 29 Whittingham Street:   Catherine/Susan and John were with them, and John was now working as a farm labourer.  By 1891 John had died;  Catherine was then living with her two youngest children at 2 Ashton Drive, Preston.

Thomas’ daughter Margaret was born in 1825/6.  In 1841 she was living with her parents in Croston.  Nothing further is yet known of her – though a Margaret, daughter of Thomas, a weaver, married John Dalton in Croston on 3 November 1862, aged forty-two (ie born in 1819/20).

THE CHILDREN OF JOHN ASCROFT  (abt. 1822 - aft. 1850)

John Ascroft’s first child, Catherine, was born in Brindle in 1848/9.  In 1861 she was living with her family in Walton le Dale, and working as a house servant.  Nothing further is yet known of her.

John Ascroft’s second child, Thomas, was born in 1850/1 in Brindle.   In 1861 he was living with his family, in Walton le Daleand working “half-time in cotton mill, half time as scholar”.  Ten years later he was with them at 1 Abbey Street, Preston, and working (like his father) as a “labourer in iron works”.  In 1877 he married Catherine Lomax, and they had four children:  Susannah born in 1877/8, John in 1879/80, Richard Lomax in 1882 and Thomas in 1887/8 (further details on page 2).  The 1881 census records the family at 19 Defence Street, Bolton:  Thomas is a “Police Officer”.  In 1891 they were at 29 Gibbon Street, and in 1901 at 241 Deane Road;  Thomas was now a “police sergeant”.

John Ascroft’s third child, Annie, was born in ?1852.  Nothing further is yet known of her.

John Ascroft’s fourth child, Alice, was born in Brindle in 1856/7.    In 1861 she was living with her family in Walton le Dale, and ten years later with them at 1 Abbey Street, Preston, working as a “cotton weaver”.

John Ascroft’s fifth child, William, was born in Brindle in 1857/8.  In 1861 he was living with his family in Walton le Dale, and ten years later was with them at 1 Abbey Street, Preston, working as a “cotton spinner”.  He seems to have married Elizabeth (surname unknown), with whom he had a son, Richard, born in 1876/7:  in 1881 the three of them were living next door to William’s parents, at 28 Whittingham Street, Preston – William was working in a cotton mill.

John Ascroft’s sixth child, Catherine T, was born in Walton le Dale in 1863/4.  In 1871 she was with her parents at 1 Abbey Street, Preston, and ten years later at 29 Whittingham Street – though the census return appears to give her name as ‘Susan’.  In 1891 Catherine was living with her widowed mother and her younger brother at 2 Ashton Drive:  herself recorded as blind, she was working as a “teacher in blind institute”.

John Ascroft’s seventh child, John James A, was born in Preston in 1870.  In 1871 he was with his parents at 1 Abbey Street, Preston, and ten years later at 28 Whittingham Street.  In 1891 he was living with his mother at 2 Ashton Drive, and working in a cotton mill.

THE CHILDREN OF THOMAS  (c. 1850 - )

Thomas’ first child, Susannah (‘Annie’), was born in Bolton in 1877/8;  in 1881 the census records her living with her parents at 19 Defence Street, Bolton.  In 1891 she was living with the family at 29 Gibbon Street and working as a “cotton weaver”.  Ten years later she was with them at 241 Deane Road, working as a “Household Furnishers Assistant”.  She subsequently married, and is remembered in old age as a widow looking after her widowed father.

Thomas’ second child, John, was born in Bolton in about 1879.  Two years later the census records him living with his parents at 19 Defence Street.    In 1891 he was living with his family at 29 Gibbon Street and working as a “cotton weaver”.  In 1901 he was living with the rest of the family at 241 Deane Road, Bolton, now working as a cabinet-maker.

Thomas’ third child, Richard Lomax, was born on 22 December 1882 at 19 Defence Street, Bolton.  In 1891 he was living with his family at 29 Gibbon Street, a ‘scholar’.  In 1901 he was with the rest of the family at 241 Deane Road, and working as a Post Office Clerk.  In 1904 he married Annie Elizabeth Osborne Warr in Bolton and had four children, the first two being Arnold Lomax (born in 1906), and Kathleen (born in 1908).

Thomas’ fourth child, Thomas, was born in Bolton in 1887/8.  In 1891 he was with his family at 29 Gibbon Street;  ten years later he was with them at 241 Deane Road.  Nothing else is yet known of him.

Our early family in Croston appears quite probably to have been Roman Catholic, and it is likely that they are related to some other Partingtons of Croston and Walton le Dale, some at least of whom were Roman Catholics:

The registers of Walton le Dale feature a number of Partingtons in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, among them Obadiah, the father of several children baptized in the closing decades of the seventeenth century.

    One of these may well have been the Obadiah who figures in a lease dated 1716, described as “of Charnock Richard, carpenter”.  He was the father of three daughters (on whom the three-life lease was conferred) – Margaret, Ann and Ellen.  He may well be the Obadiah “of Charnock Richard” who was buried at St Wilfrid’s Standish on 1 April 1747.

    Of the same generation as Obadiah is probably Thomas, born in about 1691.  He figures in a lease, dated 31 August 1742: “Obediah [sic] Partington of Charnock Richard, carpinter and the three lives of ... Thomas Partington, (51), Elizabeth wife of O P. (29) and Obediah his son (1)”.  This twenty-nine year old Obadiah is presumably the son of Thomas (baptisms were recorded in 1725 (?) of Obadiah, Ellen and Winifred, children of Thomas & Elizabeth, and the same couple had a one-day old son Obadiah baptized at Walton le Dale on 21 September 1729).

            On 23 April 1765 the fourth-generation Obadiah, a “joyner of this parish”, married Margaret Langtree at St Michael’s Croston.  The following year he was granted a lease for three lives on  a “messuage in Croston, with closes called the Langtrie Meadow, Garden, Oldfield, and part of the Finney” –  the lives being Obadiah himself, aged 25, “Margaret his wife, 34, and Richard his son, 6 months.  Obadiah is the subject of a lease in 1779, also referring to his synonymous father, in 1779.  Margaret died “of consumption” aged sixty-two on 4 November 1795 and was buried in Croston churchyard.  Obadiah was buried at Croston “by Roman Catholic” on 4 September 1820, aged seventy-nine.

                It was almost certainly this Richard, a joiner, who married Elizabeth and had a son James in 1795.  James died “of consumption” on 5 July 1796 aged just nine months and was buried in the churchyard of St Michael’s Croston.

                Obadiah and Margaret also had two daughters, both of whom (described as  “joiners of Walton le Vale”) died in early adulthood “of consumption” – Elizabeth on 28 November 1794 aged nineteen, and Agnes on 20 November 1795 aged twenty-three.  Both were buried in Croston churchyard.

                An unmarried Obadiah was buried at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic chapel in Brindle on 31 December 1784 – perhaps a son of Obadiah and Margaret, and therefore the fifth generation of Obadiahs recorded in these notes?

    A Thomas had two daughter who became (Roman Catholic) nuns:  Elizabeth born in 1744 and Mary in 1751.

            Elizabeth was born in Walton le Dale in 1744.  She made her profession as a Benedictine in 1772, taking the name ‘Benedicta’ and becoming a”choir nun”, and later cellarer, at Cambrai.  She was imprisoned at Compiègne during the French Revolution.  She died on 4 September 1820 at Abbots Salford in Warwickshire.

            Mary was born in Walton le Dale in 1751:  she made her profession as a Benedictine in 1775, taking the name ‘Ann Teresa’ and becoming a”choir nun” at Cambrai.  She too was imprisoned at Compiègne during the French Revolution (writing the “Narrative of the Seizure of the Benedictine Dames of Cambray”).  She was appointed Abbess in 1802 until her death at Abbots Salford on 28 December 1826.

Other Partington Sites       Partington Family Tree

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