On Friday, the 22nd January, died, at Failsworth Lodge, the Rev. Joseph Hordern, M.A., curate of Shaw Chappel, one of his Majesty’s justices of the peace. Disorder, jaundice; age, 53 years. It is but little we can learn of the history of the Rev. Joseph Hordern. As a magistrate, he must have found what a difficult matter it was to administer the law contained in the old criminal code. He seems to have been a devoted magistrate, and it would seem died young. The following is a statement of the prices of the following articles:- Meal, from 2s. 5d. to 2s. 7d. a peck; flour, from 2s. 10d. to 3s. 1d. per peck; malt, from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per peck; treacle, 5d. to 5 1/2d.; butter 12d. to 14d.; new butter, 16d.; candles, 11d. to 12d.; cheese, 9d. to 10d.; pork, 7 1/2d. to 8 1/2d.; beff, 8d. to 8 1/2d.; mutton, 8 1/2s.; bacon, 11d. to 12d.; salt, 4d.; sugar, 9d., 10d., or 11d.; soap (white), 11d.; soap (brown), 9 1/2d. per pond; pottatoes, 8d. to 9d. per score; peas (grey), 4 1/2d. to 5d. a quart; peas (green), 5d. to 6d. a quart; hay, 11d. to 12d. a stone; straw 5d. a stone; cotton boads, 15d. a pond; bale, 18d. a pond; coals, 14d. to 18d. a horse load; onions, 4d. a pond. Trade of all sorts brisk, but wages not high. Hatting as been very brisk, but is of late rather flatter. February 4th -Yesterday it fell a quantity of snow, and as been a slight frost for a few days past, but is in a fine thawing way this morning. February 11th -Died, Molly, widow of the late Robert Lord, of Chadderton Fold. She was upwards of 80 years. Intered at Oldham this day. February 24th -Died, at Top-o’th’-Moor, Ann widdow of the late John Whittaker, of that place. She was far advanced in years. February 14th -Died, at Chadderton Workhouse, John Clegg, bobbin maker, butcher, &c.,; age, 73 years; and john Taylor, of Chappel-street, Oldham, a weaver and barber. John Wamsley, Esq., of Castlemeer, near Rochdale, high sheriff this year. February 21st -Joel Bardsley, a carter, and remarkable for stuting in his sleep, intered this day at Oldham. This month concludes with extreem heavy rains, and sometimes a slight frost, but in general very warm. |
February 22nd -Died, at Wood, near Burnley-lane, Isaac, son of James Cocker ; disorder, an inflammation; age, 28 years. And died Abraham Standring, of Newton-lane, formerly keeper of the Royal Oak, Magate-lane; age, 39 years. February 25th – At the sessions held at the Angel Inn, Oldham, James Wilkins and Samuel Taylor, esquires, and the Rev. Mr. George Cheetwood, the magistrates, the Rev. John Hulme, of Chamber Hall, near Hollinwood, and curate of Hollinwood Chappel, was sworn in a magistrate, and took his seat accordingly. The sessions seems to have been transferred about this time from the Spread Eagle to the Angel. The Rev. John Holme, J.P., will no doubt be remembered by many who read these annals. Many a tale still survives of him, both of his weak points and of his strong ones. March 2nd -Uncomon cold day, with slight frost. March 4th – The remains of Sir Joseph Radcliffe, Bart., of Mills Bridge, and formerly Pickford, of Royton, passed through Oldham this day in order for interment at Royton Chappel. He died near Bristol, aged 74 years. Perhaps no public man’s memory has been so neglected – I might almost say so shamefully neglected – in Oldham as that of Sir Joseph Radcliffe. Why this should have been so I know not, except that he died while his greater fame was yet young; by his greater fame I mean that fame which he achieved as a magistrate in connection with a great industrial insurrection in the West Riding, for which he was made a knight and a baronet; perhaps it was the fact of this tumult being in the West Riding that caused him to be forgotten in Oldham. Charlotte Bronte’s “Shirley” has crystallised these events in the public mind. Sir Joseph spent some of his best days in Oldham, and was born on its outskirts. The house pointed out as Sir Joseph’s birthplace is at Althill, a place just outside the railway station at Parkbridge, on the left hand leaving the station with one’s face towards Ashton and going in that direction. Its quaint gables, Ashlar window dressings, and noble doorway bespeak for it an importance above the ordinary farmhouse. |
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Sir Joseph, known in the earlier part of his life as “Pickford,” took the name of his mother’s family, in accordance with his uncle’s will, and was, therefore, knighted as Sir Joseph Radcliffe. He is said to have been of the Pickford’s of Macclesfield by his father and of the ancient fighting Radcliffes, of Radcliffe Tower, by his mother. He was one of the first local acting magistrates for Oldham, and, along with Sir Watts Horton, held the first petty sessions in Oldham, probably at the Spread Eagle, in the year 1788. So long as he remained in this neighbourhood he was a very active magistrate, the mere mention of his name being a sufficient quietus to incipient evildoers. “Aw’l tay thi before Pickfort” being a power in the mouth of a constable,. Among Raine’s MSS are preserved a few of his letters which show him to have been a man of spirit, but they mostly relate to hunting feuds. A description of Pickford in Bamford’s “Early Days,” in 1794 is not calculated to convey a very favourable impression of him, but it must be remembered that the incidents therein alluded to could not have been witnessed by Bamford himself, as Bamford was only six years old at the time when the incidents occurred. The magistrates of that period, as already seen from these annals, had grave and difficult duties to perform, and it often required on their part much personal courage, I had almost said heroism, to perform them. Apart from all this, however, Oldham is indebted to Sir Joseph and his family for much of the material which forms James Butterworth’s history of Oldham.. Poor Butterworth had a great veneration for Sir Joseph, and dedicated his first history of Oldham to him. Many of Sir Joseph’s papers are still preserved by his grandson, Sir Percival Radcliffe, of Rhudding Park. Some of them belonged originally to Mr. Thomas Percival, Sir Percival’s great grandfather, to whom James Butterworth acknowledged his indebtedness. There is a mural tablet in St. Paul’s Church, Royton, which reads as follows:- “To the memory of Sir Joseph Radcliffe, Bart., of Milnsbridge House, Yorkshire, and Royton Hall, Lancashire. Died at his house, Clifton, near Bristol, on the 19th of February, 1819, in the 74th year if his age, and is buried in the vault beneath. An upright and conscientious man in every situation in life, for whose prompt and judicious exertions as an intrepid magistrate during a period of insubordination, danger, and alarm, in which he stood alone, his Sovereign created him a baronet, with the singular favour of a gratuitous patent. He acted up in every sense of the word to the motto of his family, “Virtus propter se.” |
As I write, I have before me a portrait of Sir Joseph Radcliffe, an old line engraving. He is the very picture of a spanking country justice of the last century. Those who have seen the original painting in the dining hall at Rhudding Park, cannot fail to have been impressed with it. From head to foot he is every inch a magistrate. His features portray a man of courage, decision, and penetration, and his bodily presence has a dignity and power about it that can almost be felt at this distance of time. Why does his portrait not adorn the Municipal Hall of Oldham?
The Duke of Hamilton, of Ashton Hall, near Lancaster, was interred at Lancaster. His age, 79 years. March 7th -Died at Chadderton Mill, Sarah Greaves (formerly Sarah Dyson); age, 66 years. March 10th - Last night the loom shop of John Kershaw, Royton-lane, was broken into and robbed, and work cut out of the looms, with wich the villains made off without detection. March 12th -Died, Mary, wife of William Scoles, of Tonge (yeoman); her age, 62 years. March 14th -Was interred at Royton, Mary Taylor, formerly of Holden-fold; her age, 79 years. March 19th -Died at Oldham, wife of Joseph Watterhouse, butcher. She died rather sudden. March 31st -Died at Busk, Thomas Blomaly; aged 58 years. This month concluded with extreme fine weather, such as was scarcely ever remembered. April 2nd -Died at Bank, Oldham, Mally, wife of Mr.John Radcliffe, hat manufacturer. Disorder, consumption; age 44 years. Excellent fine weather and has been so for some time. April 11th -John Taylor, jun., of Primrose Bank, near Oldham, corn dealer and badger, interred this day. April 13th -Uncommon fine weather, and as been so for some time. This spring is such as perhaps was never equaled for fine, the sun shining with its greatest splender, and the air uncommon warm; the wind, wich is generally in a calm way, south; the meadows are covered with grass, as in a fine May; the edges in a state resembling May, and gardening uncommonly forward. |
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William Rowbottom's Diary as published in the Oldham Standard |
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