The Family and Times of

David and Hannah Eastwood

This little endeavor is to

Place the family of

David and Hannah Eastwood

In a context of more than

Just a name from somewhere in Yorkshire.

Rich Eastwood, editor

The map on the following page was originally produced by

Samuel Lewis, a renowned cartographer

about 1840ish

On the page after I have enlarged the area that we are interested in

to give greater detail.

RIPPONDEN

The following was taken from “The Rishworth Branch” a history of the Rishworth Branch of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and gives a brief history of the area, printed 1990. Ed.

General Description of the Area

“Rishworth and Ripponden are situated in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the parish of Halifax, and in the valley of the River Ryburn. Rishworth (or Rushworth) derives its name from the quantities of rushes which were prevalent within its boundaries or which were stored there, the word “worth” meaning a barn or a place of storage. It is not so easy to determine the derivation of Ripponden, but it is probable that it is formed from the River Ryburn, or Ryborne, as it was written in ancient deeds. Rhe signifies a river, and Rhy means a ford. Borne is a river, and dan, dene or den is a Teutonic word for a deep wooded valley. Rhy, or Rhi, also denoted a king in the ancient language of this country, almost as if the valley through which the Ryburn flows was, on some account, a royal dale, although this is something which cannot be accurately determined. A local historian called Watson, however, claimed he had seen the name in a very ancient document written as “Ryburghe”, which signifies “the king’s borough” or “station”. It is possible that some king camped in the area with his forces in Saxon times as there is a large hill overlooking the village called Coney Garth, which is from the Anglo-Saxon cynig, a king, and the British, garth, mountain; i.e. the king’s mountain.

“Although the village itself is small Rishworth covers a significant area being 6,548 acres in extent. The majority of this, however, is moorland. There is very little level ground in the district and there is clear evidence to show that it was once well wooded. By and large the quality of the land is not good in agricultural terms, the bulk of it being used for the grazing of sheep. Lime can only be obtained from some distance away which, prior to the development of communications, made it a necessarily expensive commodity. There are significant quantities of good quality sandstone to be obtained in the district.

“The River Ryburn was well stocked with fish prior to the establishment of paper mills in the upper reaches of the valley. The river has been prone to flooding from time to time with the earliest definite record being 18th May, 1722. This event damaged the church in Ripponden to such an extent that it was necessary to build a completely new one shortly afterwards. It is reported the graves were washed open and coffins forced out, with one being lodged in a tree some considerable distance away. No loss of life was noted but two instances have occurred since that date which did have such a result. Early one morning in November 1866, a newly married woman and three children aged 16, 14 and 11 were attempting to cross a wooden bridge on their way to work, when it broke in the centre and all were drowned. On 26th November, 1881 a Mr Kenworthy, together with his wife and daughter, were drowned in attempting to cross the river at night with their horse and cart when returning from Halifax.

“There is no doubt that until comparatively recent times travelling about the district was very difficult. A certain John Taylor in his book called News from Hell, Hull and Halifax tells the reader ‘that on leaving Halifax he rode over such wayes as were passed comparison or amending, for when he went downe the lofty mountain called Blackstone Edge he thought himself in the land of Break-Neck it was so steep and tedious.’

“Prior to 1758 communication throughout the country was very bad. In this particular area all goods had to be carried on pack horses as the roads were too narrow for wheeled vehicles and were in a dreadful condition. By an Act of Parliament passed in 1766 the narrow and rutted highways were to be replaced by macadamised roads, so called from their Scottish inventor McAdam. By this Act the leading gentry of Lancashire and Yorkshire were empowered to act as trustees to a major road in the area, and as this was adapted to the requirements of stage waggons and coaches, toll bars were placed at intervals to collect taxes to pay for the road. This trust was one of the oldest in the country. The tolls on this road were discontinued on 1st November, 1873.

“It is very difficult to get any positive ideas of the level of population in very early times. In the days of the Normans and up to the middle of the last century, Rishworth was mainly an agricultural area which, means that the population of necessity would be relatively low. There is little indication as to what extent this part of the West Riding was de-populated by the ravages of war, and especially the massacre by William the Conqueror, but the Domesday Book describes this part of the country as “waste”.

“The poll tax returns of Richard II give the earliest and most accurate information of population. At that time every person over 21 years of age who was not a beggar was taxed. If the number of persons in each township who paid the tax is multiplied by five it is possible to tell approximately the population at that time. Unfortunately for detailed comparison with the present day, the figures for Rishworth are combined with those for the adjoining district of Norland, the figure being 140.

“From 1000 to 1764 A.D. is a long interval in the record and one which would have seen many changes, but it is not until 1764 that it is possible to again gauge the level of population. This information comes from the records of the then Vicar of Halifax and is based once again on allowing five people per family. The approximate population of Rishworth at that time was 645 people in 129 families; there were 131 houses, two of these being vacant.

“By comparison the following figures were taken from official records which began on 10th March, 1801:

Rishworth: houses- 73, empty-12, families-159, males- 518, females- 442, persons- 960

Although this is the official record it is considered that some mistake was made when looking at the number of inhabited houses compared with the number of families.

The following census returns showed the fluctuations in population during the last century:

Rishworth: 1801-960, 1821-1588, 1841-1683, 1861-1244, 1881-1110, 1891-982, 1901-915

The number of inhabited houses was 1831-253, 1891- 189, 1901- 189.

“So far as trade and manufacturing industry is concerned the sparse population of the neighbourhood meant that agriculture formed the main pursuit. Initially each family tended to provide their own necessities with the labour being divided between the spinning and weaving of the wool from their own flocks, the care of the sheep and the growing of corn etc. A few corn mills were built to facilitate the grinding of the corn.

“As time passed certain districts began to specialise in certain trades, particularly as the hilly nature of the land was not well suited to agriculture and it was only possible to grow enough corn for home consumption. More and more time was devoted by the local population to the weaving of cloth and ultimately the area became noted for this industry.

“A large hall was built in Halifax, known as the Piece Hall, or Manufacturers’ Hall, and was opened with considerable ceremony on New Years’ Day 1779. It was used for the sale and display of “pieces” or lengths of woollen and worsted cloth. There had been other halls prior to this one used for the selling of cloth, Halifax probably being the first town in this country to erect a hall specifically for this purpose, the earliest mention of such being recorded in 1572.

“The land for the construction of the Piece Hall was given as a gift by a local merchant, John Caygill (1708-1787). It was a fine building, constructed in a rectangular manner surrounding a courtyard some 10,000 sq.yds in size. The architects adopted the principle of Roman classical architecture. There were 315 rooms, and the manufacturer would display his goods in one of these. John Caygill gave a donation of £840 towards the construction of the building, and each manufacturer who contributed £28 4s. became owner of one of the 315 rooms. The total cost of construction was £10,000. By 1860 use of the building had declined and in 1868 it was sold to Halifax Corporation.

“Under Corporation ownership the Hall experienced a variety of uses and gradually deteriorated in condition. In 1972 the Department of the Environment listed the Piece Hall as a Grade One property of historical and architectural interest. Shortly after this date it was agreed to restore the Piece Hall to its former glory. The official re-opening subsequently took place on 3rd July, 1976.

“The building now houses an Industrial Textile Museum, Art Gallery, Tourist Information Centre with many of the individual rooms being used as shops. An open air market is staged in the courtyard on two days per week and various entertainments are staged there throughout the year.

“A number of fulling mills and corn mills were erected on the Ryburn as early as the 16th and 17th centuries to provide the increasing population with work. It is recorded that in 1730 a Don Manuel Gonzales, formerly a merchant at Lisburn, made a voyage to England and he speaks of the importance of Halifax in the reign of Queen Elizabeth as follows:

‘If such was the character and condition of the place then, what must it be since the great demand for kerseys to clothe the troops abroad. It is remarked that this Halifax and neighbouring towns are all so employed in the woollen manufacture, that they scarce sew more corn than will keep their poultry, and they feed very few sheep and oxen.’

“At this time there was a considerable manufacture of kerseys in the valley from Sowerby Bridge to Ripponden, these being purchased by merchants from Leeds and other places and forwarded to Hamburg and Holland. The whole of the British navy were said to be clothed from this source. As Rishworth was somewhat away from the main populated areas it was to a certain extent an exception to the development outlined above. Hand looms did come into this district however, this being explained in the following extract of a description of Halifax by an author called Pennant:

‘The manufacture is far from being confined to the neighbourhood. The great manufacturers give out a stock of wool to the artificers, who return it again in yarn or cloth, but many manufacturers taking in a larger quantity of work than they can finish, are obliged to advance farther into the country in search of more hands which causes trade to spread from place to place.’

“The hand loom was a common article of furniture up to almost the middle of the 19th century, with nearly all the wool being combed at home.

“In the latter part of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century mills began to be erected on the banks of the river, all of which were worked by water power. One of the largest water wheels on record was installed at a Rishworth mill as late as 1865. The cotton trade also began to grow about this time and many mills which had worked wool changed to cotton. Until about 1850 this became the staple industry of the valley.

“In 1842 self-acting twiners came in to fill the place of hand twiners, and the first that were made were put in at Messrs Wheelwrights Mill, Rishworth. The silk industry was also introduced early in the 19th century.

“With the increasing demand for paper a few of the mills were adapted to the manufacture of this commodity. Clean water was an essential factor and consequently such mills were located at the head of the river; due to the use of chemicals the fish stocks in the river were destroyed. At the beginning of the 20th century as many as 21 mills were located in the valley.

“From a local government point of view, in 1937 the three townships of Soyland, Rishworth and Barkisland with Ripponden united to become Ripponden Urban District Council, which enjoyed wide ranging responsibilities of administration. Prior to this each of the townships enjoyed its own system of self government. On 1st April, 1974 the Urban District Council, by an act of 1972, relinquished its power of administration and became a Parish Council.

“By amalgamating with nine other local councils within the new Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, Ripponden and its surrounding townships became part of the Metropolitan County of West Yorkshire which covers the towns of Halifax, Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield and Huddersfield. Calderdale covers an area of 138 square miles with a population of approximately 190,000. This makes it one of the smallest metropolitan districts. Approximately 20 per cent of the land is more than 1,200 ft above sea level and 27 per cent has a slope of about 1 in 10, this factor proving to be a constraint upon its industrial and residential development, particularly in the Ryburn area which is predominantly upland in character.

“Much of modern Ripponden comprises a conservation area which embraces both banks of the river which are linked by a fine pack horse bridge. The conservation area contains the church, cottages, a centuries old inn and a farm museum. Textiles no longer dominate the valley having been superseded by a variety of industries which include foam plastics, car components, chemicals, plastic feed bags etc. Paper is still manufactured and Rishworth Mill, which was courageously built during the 1860s cotton slump, now produces carpet yarn. At Kebroyd Mills synthetic fibres are processed but of the cotton mills only one remains in production.

“Agriculture is still practised and happily, at least from a visual point of view, new farming methods only have limited application due to the physical nature of the land. Sheep farming, cattle rearing and dairy and poultry production predominate, much of the land being used for hay making. Many acres which have been farmed have returned to the wild, often due to the construction of reservoirs rather than neglect. The nature of the land, being in the heart of the Pennines, makes it ideal for water catchment and hence the construction of reservoirs, there being six main reservoirs in the locality.”

THE EASTWOODS

Before we get to the people I thought it would be good to view the social environment from which they came. Here are three excerpts from “Textiles And Tools-19^th Century Industries in Calderdale”, printed 1990. Ed.

From Fleece To Piece

THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY OF CALDERDALE

“In the course of the 19th century Halifax grew from a market town with around 8,000 inhabitants to become the centre of a County Borough with a population approaching 100,000. The towns of the Calder Valley grew in proportion. Sowerby Bridge with seven hundred families, perhaps 3,500 people, in 1846 had a population of 10,500 in the Local Board area by 1891. Todmorden, Hebden Bridge, Elland and Brighouse expanded in the same way, usually at the expense of the hill top villages such as Heptonstall, Midgley, and Rastrick. Most of the valleys too had mills in what today may seem to be most unlikely places- Cragg Vale, the Colden Valley and Wainstalls and Luddenden.

“The basic industry of this part of West Yorkshire was wool textiles, the unit of production being, originally either the home and family or the occasional mill such as those known to have been in the occupation of dyers or fullers at North Bridge, Halifax or at the confluence of the Calder and Ryburn in Sowerby Bridge in the 13th century. By the late 15th century the Parish of Halifax, which extended westwards almost to Todmorden and eastwards to beyond Brighouse, produced about twenty per cent of all Yorkshire woollen cloth.

“In 1555 the ‘Halifax Act’ stated that ‘the inhabitants doo lyve by clothe makyng’- but ‘only by dint of exceedinge great industrye’. This Act gave the Parish exemption from the requirement that wool must be bought through middle men. The special circumstances were the remoteness of the area from the main areas of wool growing. Local wool was in short supply even at that time so the plentiful supply of soft water, plus the presence of industrious people must have been the prime reason for the importance of the cloth trade here.

“ ‘Industrial inertia’, although it may not have been known by that name in the 19th century, kept the industry here when mechanization was applied to wool textiles. This required the driving power of steam, produced by burning coal which was another commodity most of which had to be brought in. Many local manufacturers in the early 19th century were reluctant to invest in machinery driven by costly steam power when cheap water power was there in abundance; so the change over was retarded. We must add to this the fact that the application of power technology to textiles originated for the most part in the cotton industry of Lancashire. This meant that, in the first place at least, machinery and the “know how” had to be imported and this took time.

“There is an interesting reference and confirmation of this dependence on machinery from ‘over the border’ in Mrs. Gaskell’s novel ‘Mary Barton, a story of Manchester life.’ She has Jem. Wilson, the hero of the story of the 1840s being ‘away in Halifax, installing machinery for his master.’ Mrs. Gaskell’s novels were usually well researched in their social details and, in mentioning Halifax in this context she was probably making use of a frequent occurrence in Manchester at the time.

“The cotton industry also spread well down the Calder Valley, as it did to several other parts of Yorkshire adjacent to the County boundary. In the Upper Calder Valley Todmorden and Hebden Bridge particularly developed as a result of the spread of the cotton industry. There were cotton spinning mills in the Ryburn and Cragg Valleys. Halifax too had several large concerns spinning cotton as did Brighouse where silk spinning was another major employment in the town. Carpet manufacture was another industry based upon textile skills and employed thousands of people from Sowerby Bridge to Brighouse by 1900.

“So there was considerable diversity within textiles and we shall be concerned with the rapid growth and also the change from the Domestic to the Factory system that took place in the 19th century. This change, brought about by the mechanization of many processes, completely changed the face of Halifax.

“As late as 1894 White’s Town Directory referred to Halifax as ‘a well built market town’ although by that time the town was also referred to as ‘the town of a hundred trades’. If we turn to Bainse’s Directory for 1822 we get a wider interpretation of the market idea. ‘It has a good market which is held on Saturday where, besides provisions and other articles common to all markets, a considerable quantity of the manufacture of the neighbourhood are brought for sale.’ The provisions were on sale in the ‘New Market’ (now the Old Market area!); the manufactures were on sale in the Piece Hall.

“In 1822 the writer also asked the traveller “to regard from the adjacent heights (Beacon Hill no doubt) the extent to which manufactures and commerce have so wonderfully changed the prospect, overspreading the scene of a dreary desert with wealth and population.” There was more than one opinion about this change. Dr. Whitaker, six years earlier in his “Loidis in Elmete” wrote the district had “declined into manufacture!”

“The writers in the first quarter of the century could have had not the faintest notion of what was to follow. Anne Lister of Shibden Hall writing in her diary in 1837 of the scene from Godley, noted a definite change from earlier years and said that “a black canopy hangs over Halifax”. This was to be the case from that time onwards until the implementation of the Clean Air Act in the mid 20th century

.

THE DOMESTIC SYSTEM OF MANUFACTURE

“We must briefly examine the earlier methods of manufacture before going on to a study of the 19th century.

“Daniel Defoe, best known for his story of ‘Robinson Crusoe’, journeyed through England and Wales in the 1720’s. His account of walking over Blackstone Edge, through Soyland, Sowerby Bridge and Halifax on his way to Leeds contains what is generally regarded as one of the best contemporary accounts of the conditions in which the Domestic System of textile manufacture operated.

‘The sides of the hills everywhere spread with houses, the land being divided into enclosures from two to seven acres; not a beggar nor an idle person to be seen except here and there an alms house where people, ancient, decrepit and past labour might be seen; for it is observable that the people live to a great age, a testimony to the goodness and wholesomeness of the country. Nor is the health of the people lessened but helped and established by their being constantly employed. Among the manufacturer’s houses are scattered an infinite number of cottages in which dwell the workmen that are employed, the women and children of whom are always busy carding and spinning so that all can gain their bread from the youngest to the ancient. Hardly anyone above four years is insufficient to itself. If we knocked at the door of any master manufacturer we presently saw a household of busy fellows, some at the dye vat, some dressing cloth, some in the loom. All hard at work and fully employed. At almost every house was a tenter and on almost every tenter a piece of cloth, or kersey or shalloon.’

“Kersey was a narrow cloth manufactured in great quantities locally. It had the advantage that a single piece could be produced by the average family in one week, bringing in a regular amount (assuming there was a market for the goods) and also leaving time for the members of the family to carry out farming and household tasks. Reading Defoe’s account carefully enables us to at least understand, if not to agree with, the source of the attitudes towards employment of children that were carried forward to the Factory System that was to follow.

“Defoe’s idyllic picture of domestic industry gives an incomplete account of the life. In his ‘History of Bowers Mill’ in the Blackburn Valley, A. A. Muir fills in some of the domestic arrangements for the same, and later, period.

‘The children worked as hard as the older folk. At four they could earn a penny a day quilling (making the reeds on which the weft was wound). When they were able to spin they could earn threepence a day. Many weaver’s cottages were far from being a rustic paradise. The father or mother sometimes bent over the loom from five in the morning till eight at night, six days a week. One process, the ‘lecking’ of the piece was abominably unhealthy particularly when carried out in domestic surroundings consisting as it did of treading urine into the material to remove grease.’

“The process of fulling the cloth was carried out in water driven mills and every side valley of the Calder, as well as the Calder itself had at least one of these in the mid 18th century. In the district seen by Defoe Watson’s History of the Parish in 1758 tells us there were two fulling mills at Swift Place, two at Slitheroe, one at Ripponden, one at Thorpe and two at Kebroyd as well as corn mills on similar sites.

“While we are in the Ryburn Valley we must mention also the remarkable Sam. Hill of Making Place, Soyland who represents the entrepreneur and merchant of the mid-18th century. Between the years 1744 - 1750 his annual turnover varied between £23,000 and £35,000. His letter books show that he was trading his shalloons, bays and kerseys through Hull and London to a merchant in Antwerp and, presumably through him, across Europe.

“From the diaries of Cornelius Ashworth in the 1780’s we obtain yet another view of the system, less harrassing than that told by Muir but certainly authentic. Ashworth lived at Walt Royd in the Wheatley Valley and had a small holding as well as being a hand loom weaver. No doubt he was rather out of the ordinary since, first he could write and kept a diary and also he was, for a time, Overseer of poor in the Ovenden township. He produced a piece about every fortnight and carried it to Halifax; he was a regular attender at Square Chapel; he notes some of the happenings of the times; part of every day had to be spent in work about the farm. Four brief quotations from his fascinating record must suffice:

1782, Wednesday 23 October: Showers in the

forenoon, droughty in the afternoon. Worked out till

3 o’clock, wove 2 yards before sunset. Clouted

(mended) my coat in the evening.

Thursday 24 October: I churned till 10 o’clock. Wove

61/2 yards.

Thursday 1 November: A fine frosty, clear day.

Sized a warp and churned in the forenoon; in the

afternoon wove 5 yards.

Thursday 28 November: Carried my piece; wound on a warp in the forenoon.

AN ENQUIRY INTO THE WOOLLEN TRADE IN 1806

“The methods of manufacturing and merchanting so far noted were those that prevailed locally during the 18th and well into the 19th century. The most reliable evidence of the gradual change is contained in the answers of Halifax operatives and merchants to questions posed by a Parliamentary Committee considering the state of the woollen manufacture of England in 1806.

“William Walker, a cloth merchant of Halifax was questioned; John Lees, merchant and woollen manufacturer also; Thomas Priestley, one of a family of seven sons, all brought up as woollen weavers; all spoke of their work. But we learn most from the lengthy evidence given by John Edwards of Pye Nest, “a merchant and manufacturer of flannels, baizes and some kinds of cloth for above forty years”. The site of Pye Nest mansion is now occupied by a housing estate; Edwards Road leads off towards Washer Lane; the Edwards family were obviously people of importance during 18th and 19th centuries and the evidence given by John Edwards spans the period of early transition from Domestic to Factory systems.

“As part of their remit the Commission were enquiring into Acts dealing with fraud and embezzlement of material under the ‘putting out’ system, the system of ‘Truck’ whereby operatives had to accept some or all of their payment in their masters goods or by way of rent instead of in money, and some Acts that controlled the methods of manufacture. As an example of the last named problem, gig mills were being used for raising the nap after fulling. Workmen, who could see that these machines would eventually deprive them of their work, had discovered and invoked an Act of Edward VI which forbade the use of the gig and had thereby restricted the use of the machine locally. The shearing frame, used for finishing the cloth after raising the nap was the object of similar treatment by the croppers or shearmen. Originally the machines, being imperfect in their operation, could spoil the cloth at a late stage of its manufacture and this had been the reason for the Act centuries ago. But, John Edwards said, these difficulties had been overcome and ‘these machines were absolutely necessary. We could not finish one half of the goods we make without them’. Only superfine cloths were, by 1806, being put out to master dressers who completed the process by hand, this being known as ‘fine drawing’.

“Objections to the use of machinery were quoted to the Committee and their Report quotes a letter, apparently from a Huddersfield source, signed by ‘The Cloth Workers” and sent to two fire insurance companies advising them “not to insure any factory where any machinery is installed’. Another matter dealt with by the Committee was the ‘Institution’ or, as we would say, the closed shop. It is obvious from the Report that some cropping shops in or near Halifax had been affected by this and some employers had difficulty in obtaining workers.

“Trade was good in 1806 at the time of the enquiry — at least according to John Edwards who was dealing with 150 to 200 pieces a week. To get his yarn spun he was ‘sending out eight or ten packs a week to be worked ten miles off’. Apprenticeship, instituted in the reign of Elizabeth I was scarcely known in this area. ‘It would be oppressive and unjust to bind a young lad to apprenticeship for seven years when he is capable of learning his trade in seven months or even less’…’I have a great many women, boys and girls that are now good weavers at the age of twelve to fourteen, very decent, good weavers’. They were, at that age so he said earning journeymen’s wages often to twelve shillings a week, none of them ever having been apprenticed.

“He spoke also of children aged five or six, earning half a crown to four shillings a week. It must be noted in passing that some half timers were still only taking home this amount, from the mills some ninety years later! ‘We have enhanced the wages lately from the cotton business coming among us.’ A great deal of use was being made of the spinning jenny used in the cotton trade. By its use one person had the care of sixty to seventy spindles and could earn more than three times as much as twenty years before when working upon a single spindle! John Edwards also remembered the introduction of the carding engine into woollen manufacture ‘not well received among the lower orders!’

“Much of his trade seems to have been supplying half thicks, serges and flannels, principally for the army and the navy -these were the years of the wars against the French. This trade is mentioned throughout the 19th century as being the staple market for the mills in the Ryburn area. White’s Town Directory for 1838 –‘The vale from Sowerby Bridge to Ripponden is celebrated for its blue cloth and the whole of the British Navy is said to be clothed from that district, which also exports large quantities to Holland and America’.

“Edwards said that there was considerable trade with the continent of Europe, and competition too, particularly from Saxony. Some of the trade with Turkey had been lost to foreign competition. Cloth was sold according to its actual length and “no regard” was now paid to the stamping of cloth though this was still being done. Prices quoted by Edwards were: Flannels a forty yard piece for forty shillings-but this could be up to £5 or £7 a piece according to quality: Half thicks a thirty yard piece for forty two shillings: Kerseys fifteen pence to two shillings a yard - although Half thicks and Kerseys were not classed as ‘cloth’ in 1806!

“John Edwards was a manufacturer in a big way. The business grew in later years and was concentrated first at Ripponden Mills in 1815 then at Canal Mills in Wakefield Road. But in 1806 the Domestic System prevailed with both spinning and weaving being put out. There is also some evidence which leads us to believe that Edwards did have some of the weaving processes under his direct control with perhaps a ‘loom shop’ at Pye Nest.

“In making their Report to Parliament the 1806 Committee, while appreciating the advantages of the Factory system remained convinced that the old domestic system had much to recommend it and would probably continue to be the main method of production. What seemed to attract them was that the ‘small men’ employing two to seven journeymen and assisted by their wives and children could work the cloth up to the undressed stage. Then various processes, formerly done by hand under the manufacturer’s own roof were now being performed in public mills which worked for hire, there being several such mills in each village. They stated that when the cloth had reached the un-dressed state the manufacturer ‘carries it on market day to a public hall or market where the merchants repair to purchase’. Such a place would, of course, be the Piece Hall which had this function for a fairly brief period before being overtaken by the Factory System of production.”

JOHN EASTWOOD

The oldest known of the Eastwood ancestors, it sticks in my mind that someone once told me that he came from Huddersfield, the 1851 Census says Rishworth. Ed.

Born: Rishworth (?) Abt.1796

Married: Betty _________, date unknown. Betty was born in Rishworth according to Aunt Florence.

Occupation: School Master according to the 1851 Census.

Died: Feb. 12, 1853, Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church, Ripponden

The Gen. Library, Huddersfield lists John as a weaver, in all probability he was both. The 1851 Census shows in his household at Intake, Rishworth; son Joseph, age 27, a Cotton picer, son William, age 21, a Cotton picer, daughter Mary, age18, a Card room hand, son Luke, age 15, a Cotton picer and son David, age 11, a Cotton picer and Scholar.

Interestingly, a widow, Betty Bottomly in the adjoining unit at Intake is listed as a farmer with 12 acres. In her household are various sons, daughters and grandchildren 10 in all, listed as; Cotton reelers, Cotton picers, Cotton twisters and an Errand boy.

The Methodist Church was started by John Wesley in the later 1700’s and rapidly spread throughout England as an alternative to the Church of England. Stone’s Methodist Church was founded about 1809 and John and Betty’s families may have been a part of it, maybe they were married there. Stone’s Marriage and Christening Books where damaged and are unreadable but the Burial Book has survived. Many of John and Betty’s family are buried there.

Children of John and Betty:

Ely Eastwood

Born: April 7, 1822, in Rishworth. He lived 19yrs.

Resided at Intake, Rishworth at the time of his death.

Died: March 4, 1841, Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church

Joseph Eastwood

Born: April 10, 1824, in Rishworth. He remained a bachelor.

Resided at Sowerby Lane Top, Soyland at the time of his death.

Died: Sept. 8, 1897

John Eastwood

Born: 1827, in Rishworth. He lived 13yrs.

Resided at Intake, Rishworth at the time of his death.

Died: Sept. 9, 1840, Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church

William Eastwood

Born: 1829/30, In Rishworth.

He married, and moved to Huddersfield. He had two sons, Ernest and Horace.

Ernest Eastwood went to Philadelphia, PA and was married to Margaret. They had a daughter. Aunt Florence visited them in Mt. Airy, PA in 1925.

Horace Eastwood lived in Blackpool, married and had a retarded daughter.

Mary Eastwood

Born:1832/33, in Rishworth.

Resided in Blatchworth, Littleborough at the time of her death.

Died: July 24, 1889, Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church

Luke Eastwood

Born: 1835

Resided at Westfield Cottage, Dalton, Huddersfield at the time of his death.

Died: Jan. 7, 1908

David Eastwood (more on David in his own section)

Born:1839

Married Hannah Stansfield

Died: June 11, 1912, Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church

Elijah Eastwood

Born: 1843

Died: Dec. 14, 1845, Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church

DAVID EASTWOOD

Born: 1839, in Rishworth

Married Hannah Stansfield of Soyland, born in 1840.

Occupation: Overlooker (Supervisor) in a Cotton Mill.

Died: June 11, 1912 Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church

Hannah died: May 17, 1919 Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church

David and Hannah’s first child was born in 1862, the American Civil War was about to create hardship for the people of the Ryburn Valley. The following is an excerpt from “Textiles And Tools”.

COTTON MANUFACTURE

“Having strayed for a while from the traditional woollens and worsteds of the West Yorkshire textiles we may as well deal here with another slight deviation that was of great importance. John Edwards mentioned in his evidence in 1806 that ‘cotton manufacture has come among us’ and we have also seen that, by 1835, Fieldens at Todmorden had probably the largest number of power looms of any one concern in the Calder Valley. The manufacture of cotton material, particularly the spinning process, spread throughout the Calderdale area and in several districts the number of mills spinning cotton out-numbered the wool textile mills. The Trade Directory of 1866 names 27 cotton spinners and manufacturers in Hebden Bridge, but no woollens; at Mytholmroyd, including Cragg Vale, there were 10 cotton spinners and manufacturers and two worsted manufacturers; in the Sowerby Bridge and Ryburn area 11 cotton spinners; at Brighouse 15 cotton spinners and seven silk spinning establishments outnumbering the 10 worsted spinners and manufacturers.

“At Todmorden the Directory states “Cotton spinning and the manufacture of calico, fustian, velveteen etc. are the principal trade of an area numbering 14,000 inhabitants.” It lists no fewer than 85 cotton spinners and manufacturers. Shortly before this total was compiled the American Civil War of the early 1860s had caused a cotton famine and areas such as Todmorden that relied almost entirely on imports of cotton had been very badly hit.

“In February 1963 for example twenty five per cent of the population of Todmorden were in receipt of ‘relief’. The Mayor of Halifax set up a ‘Cotton Famine Subscription List’ for distressed operatives in the postal district of Ripponden and 869 cases each received a small amount. In January 1863 Halifax sent £35 to Hebden Bridge along with nine barrels of flour. A relief fund in Manchester sent £500 to the area. At Todmorden 1500 people shared in a distribution of £140. Mass emigration was considered but the local committee decided against it. It was thought that cotton from India might provide an alternative supply. Sir Charles Wood, M.P. for Halifax was Secretary of State for India at the time and when he seemed to show no interest he was denounced by some of the manufacturers as ‘utterly unfit by his ignorance and indifference!’ Others were of the opinion that Indian cotton was of an inferior quality and often adulterated and they were better without it!

“After the set back of the 1860s cotton spinning and manufacture once again flourished and several concerns in the lower parts of the Calder Valley also became employers on a large scale. S. Whitley at the Hanson Lane Mill, just below Victoria Road, Halifax; Win. Hanson & Co. with mills at Beech Hill, Haley Hill and Jumples employed over 500 operatives; H. & J. Sugden, George Street, Brighouse with 65,000 spindles and 350 operatives; Jonathan Stott, Mill Royd Mills, Brighouse with 36 carding frames, 50,000 spindles and 300 workpeople. All these, and many more by the 1890s when, as we shall see spinning was more profitable than weaving.”

The 1881 census finds David’s household at Nursery, Spindly in Ripponden involved in the cotton business. David as a supervisor; oldest son, John Willam, as a Cotton Twiner and the next three children; Harriet, Sarah and Alfred as Cotton Piecers. The next family at Nursery was headed by John Mills a Silk Twiner.

Stone’s Methodist Church continued to play an important part in Eastwood life. David served as the Secretary for the Board of the Church one of his duties was to provide ale for the Board Meetings. He and Hannah are buried there along with some of their children.

The children of David and Hannah:

John William Eastwood

Born: 1862, Ripponden

Married to Abigail Barrett

Died: 1923

Harriet Anne Eastwood

Born: 1864, Ripponden

Never married

Died: April 25, 1924

Sarah Elizabeth Eastwood

Born: 1866, Ripponden

Died: 1908

Alfred Eastwood

Born: 1868, Ripponden

Married Hannah Marshall

Died: April 8, 1945

Emma Eastwood

Born: 1870, Ripponden

Married Alfred Murgatroyd

Died: Jan. 5, 1949

Wright Eastwood

Born: 1873, Ripponden

Died: Nov. 28, 1891, Buried at Stone’s Methodist Church

Samuel Eastwood

Born: 1875, Ripponden

Married Mabel Ellen ___________

Adah Eastwood (F)

Born: 1878, Ripponden

Died: Feb. 1, 1887

Helena Eastwood

Born: 1880, Ripponden

Evelyn Eastwood (M)

Born: 1882, Ripponden

Died: July 31, 1965

Lawrence Eastwood (more on Lawrence in his own section)

Born: April 20, 1884, Ripponden

Died: May 1, 1969, Buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Monrovia, CA

Lawrence always told his family the he was the youngest of 14 children. There is an undated tombstone at Stone’s for Anne Verenah and Herbert Eastwood, were they twins? There also may have been another child that died in infancy.

NOW WASN’T THAT FUN?

Rich