Halkyard, Jane, died at Oldham Workhouse, Dec. 4, 1788. James Schofield, of Bottom of Northmoor, had a cow hanged herself in the shippen, Dec. 8th, 1788. Some notorious villians cut a pear tree down belonging to James Clegg, of Northmoor, Dec. 6th, 1788, and the following night some rogues stole a valuable box out of the house of Thomas Buckley, of Beartree. Travis, wife of John Travis, grocer and chandler, was buried at Oldham, December 11th, 1788. Ward, John, butcher, of Oldham, died very suddenly, December 15th, 1788. Marlor, Robert, shoemaker, of Oldham, died in an advanced age, December 15th, 1788. FIRE – The factory belonging to Messrs. Travis, Ogden and Kay, situated at Shapashes, was burned to ashes. It was insured for £800. December 16th, 1788. E. Butterworth says:- Messrs. Jonathan Ogden, machine maker, Thomas Kay, fustian manufacturer and John Travis, grocer, formed a partnership, and erected Lower Sheepwashes Mill, about 1784. Buckley, wife of John Buckley, yeoman, died Dec. 20th, 1788, at their house at Cowhill. Ogden Isaac, died at Chadderton Workhouse, Dec. 24th, 1788, aged 82. (He was master of the Workhouse) Daughter of John Hardman, innkeeper, died of a mortification in her face, December 26th, 1788. Age 4 years. The year 1788 concluded with a severe frost, and the New Year began the same. It froze with uncommon severity for upwards of eight weeks. On the 13th of January, 1789, it was an uncommon day for wind and snow, that it was not safe for persons to stir out of doors. At night it happily turned to thawing, when it was so uncommon slippery that a deal of persons had the misfortune to break their limbs, especially in Manchester, where it was so uncommon slippery that people were skating in the very streets. It was proved that it had not froze so since the great storm in 1739. The frost of 1788 is spoken of by Hone as one of great severity. There was a frost fair on the Thames. In the winter of 1739-40 people dwelt in tents on the Thames for weeks.
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In 1715-16 the Thames was frozen over for miles, and an ox was roasted on the ice for the regalement of the people. In 1694 was a great frost, lasting seven weeks, and producing ice eighteen inches thick. These may be looked on as national frosts. Ogden Jane, wife of Alexander Ogden, of Burnley-lane, died January 17th 1789, disorder, a palsey, age 63. Sarah, wife of Jonathan Dureding (ancient way of pronouncing Dearden), tailor, of Oldham, died January 21st, 1789; disorder, a fever. Ashton James, of Wood, died of a few days sickness, January 28th, 1789; disorder, dry gripes; age 33. Thursday, February 5, at the sessions, at Joseph Taylor’s house, Sandy-lane, four weavers were ordered to the house of correction for embezzling their masters’ work. Higson says those were the first petit sessions held in Royton. ROBBERIES – The house of one Whitehead, of Lane-Ends, near Denton, was broken open, and robbed of a sum of money, between five and eight; the 6th of February, 1789. Barnes Nathen, butcher, of Oldham, died, after languishing one year and a half, for about so long ago, he, lying drunk in the highway, was run over by a cart, and both thighs broke. Died February 7th 1789. Partington, wife of William Partington, bricklayer, of Chadderton, died February 8, 1789. Patten, James, of Chapel Croft, was interred at Oldham, Feb. 15th, 1789. Henthorn, Adam, of Oldham, was interred at Oldham, Feb. 16th, 1789. Woolstencroft, Jonathan, commonly called Donty at Barn, was buried at Oldham. The Wolstencrofts are an old family, hailing from Chadderton. Among the ‘incroachments made by dyvers p’sons within the Manour of Chadderton,’ sometime during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. ‘John Woussyncrofte, junior (had enclosed) 63 falls of lande of Cowhill.’ Feb 19th, 1789. – Lingat (Lingard), Betty, of Leeshall, buried at Oldham, Feb. 24, 1789. She was a long time sorely afflicted with fits; age nearly 18 yrs. |
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Lingard Clough took its name from the Lingards who owned part of the Lees Hall estate. After it was divided, in the17th century, the Lingards owned the northern part of it. Brierley, John, Taylor, of Oldham, intered. March 6th, 1789. March 13th, 1789. – This day, an uncommon cold day, was attended with a great wind and a deal of snow; it hath been very cold for several days past, and like nothing but a cold bleak spring. Ogden, John, of Chadderton Fold, died, after a tedious illness, March 31st, 1789. Nield, Hannah, relect of the late John Nield, parish clerk and innkeeper, died, at Oldham, April 1st. 1789. It was probably this innkeeper or his son who kept the Shoulder of Mutton, afterwards the Punch Bowl, who is alluded to in a narrative of the life of John Murlin, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, who was one of the first preachers of the sect who introduced the Methodist doctrines at Oldham, says E. Butterworth:- “Murlin’s words are: At a village called Oldham, about seven miles from Manchester (a place famous through all that country for daring and desperate wickedness, we had heavy persecution for a season. As I was going to preach in the street one Sabbath day two constables, with a great mob at their heels, took me into custody for riotous behaviour in singing about two verses of a hymn as the people were coming out of church. They took me to a public-house (the Shoulder of Mutton). The constables and their assistants were soon special drunk and began to quarrel with one another; from words they soon went to blows. The house where we were belonged to the clerk of the parish, whose son, thinking me ill-used, took my part.” One of the constables took him by the collar, on which he wrested the staff out of the drunken constable’s hand and broke his head with it. The next day I was taken before a justice, and bound over to the Quarter Sessions, where it was given against me.” Heywood John, son of John Heywood, of Maggott-lane, died at an early age. April 3rd, 1789. Thursday, March 19th, there was the greatest elumination and other demonstrations of joy in Oldham ever remembered, and in other places, on account of his Majesty’s happy recovery from sickness.
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According to Green, King George III, was visited by an attack of insanity in 1788, and during the King’s absence a claim of right to the Regency had been advanced by the Prince of Wales, who was a Whig and who was supported in this claim by Fox and some of the Whig party. Pitt successfully resisted this claim on the constitutional ground, that in such a case the right to choose a temporary regent lay with Parliament, under what limitations it should choose to impose. Considerable interest was taken in the matter by country politicians belonging to both parties. Foreign difficulties were also increasing on the hands of the minister Wm. Pitt. Russia and Poland, Russia and Turkey, with other continental complications were grave causes of anxiety. The French Revolution had begun to rankle, and the rising storm of political faction seems to have whistled a high note in the keyhole of every cottage door in Oldham. It was in this crisis that the King was suddenly restored to health. Hence the great rejoicings all over the country. This entry shows how thoroughly in touch Oldham at that time was with the great political events of the nation. There seems to have been a slight sprinkling of Jacobins in Oldham and the neighbourhood, but the great majority of the inhabitants sided with what was called the Church and King party. Scott Alice, wife of Joseph Scott, hatter of Oldham, died April 12th, 1789. A child of about two years old, killed at Bottom of Hollinwood, by a cart belonging to Mr. J. Clegg, timber man, Oldham, owing to the negligence of Ashworth, the driver, for which he was sent to Lancaster Castle for six months, April 16, 1789. April 20th, 1789, an otter hunt at Bottom of Northmoor. Otter hunts seem to have been not uncommon during last century. An old ballad published by Harland and Wilkinson, supplied by my old friend, John Higson, will perhaps be remembered as commemorating a state of things now passed away, although much to be wished for again as to the condition of our streams.
The ballad was entitled, “The Radcliffe Otter Hunt”, but we may reckon that our Oldham streams were then peopled with fish or there would have been no otters to hunt. |
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William Rowbottom's Diary as published in the Oldham Standard |
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