27 - The Thompsons at the Post Office

At Household 27 we have John and Harriet Thompson with their 3 young children, Emma, Joseph and John James, living above the Post Office where John worked as sub-postmaster.

John's job was a secure and well paying one and would have earned a certain level of respect from the people of Romiley. Perhaps surprisingly, John did not have a good education or start life in an administrative role. He was the son of a Rochdale labourer and he worked as a labourer himself at the Calico Printworks in Furness Vale. Harriet's father George Hill was a grocer and provision's dealer and he allowed his daughter and son-in-law to live with him when they first started their family.

The couple, then with 2 children, moved to Romiley, and John managed to secure the much better position, working for the postal service. He would have worked long hours, especially after the telegraph service arrived. They added a 4th child to the family - Francis William.

Their children had very mixed outcomes. The eldest, Emma, never married and spent her life living with her parents and helping out at the post office.

Joseph Thompson initially worked for the Midland Railway as a clerk, then worked as a grocer, before finally taking over the role of postmaster at Romiley in 1897 when his father retired. He and his wife Hannah had no children of their own, but did "adopt" their niece Mabel for some years. Adoption within families was a very unofficial affair. Sadly Hannah died at just 48 years of age, and 18 months later Joseph remarried. Lucy Tommis was a 31 year old dressmaker from Fallowfield. She was 22 years younger than him and they had a son together named John Renard.

Joseph, like Susan Ridgway, was an organist at the Wesleyan Church, a role he volunteered in for 50 years.

John James Thompson was intelligent and did well at the Wesleyan school. They funded his education, which allowed him to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree and to become a teacher. This took him to London, where he met Lucy Hortop, an incredibly bright woman who had also managed to train as a teacher. They had 3 children together.

The youngest child, Francis William faced tragedy when his wife Clara died aged 32, around a year after they had lost their baby boy John. Francis was widowed with 4 children, including 17 month old Madge.

Francis, who had been working as a post office clerk with his father, couldn't cope alone. Madge went to live with his mother Harriet and sister Emma, whilst Mabel was "adopted" by his brother Joseph. The 2 eldest girls stayed with their father who had various jobs during this period. Their luck changed when he applied to be sub-postmaster at Marple Post Office and he was successful. His eldest daughters lived and worked with him at the post office and his mother and sister moved in with him. Mabel moved back with her father but worked at the Ministry of Labour. Sadly Madge died in 1919 aged 13.

Francis retired from the post office in 1935, handing the job over to his son-in-law Richard Brooks Ridgway. He died in 1947 at a psychiatric hospital in Stockport.

You can find out more about the Thompson family in the book "Residents of Romiley Road" which will be coming soon.