42 - The Fletcher Family

Household 42 was made up of a 74 year old widowed grandmother named Martha Fletcher, her 24 year old grandson Alfred, who worked as a hatter, his wife Susannah and their 1 year old daughter, Mary Jane.

Martha Fletcher was born Martha Downing in Bradfield, Sheffield. She married James Fletcher in 1823 and they moved to Romiley where he worked as an agricultural labourer, and then as a stone quarryman. James died in 1855.

The couple had only one child, Mary Ann Caroline Fletcher, who at 15 was working as a weaver. At the age of 21 she gave birth to Alfred Fletcher. She was unmarried. I wasn't able to find any other evidence of Mary after this point. The name Mary Fletcher was very common.

Alfred was brought up by his grandparents in Romiley and after his grandfather died Martha became a lodging house keeper with 5 lodgers, including a family of 3. They were likely living in the same house so the extra occupants would have been squeezed into a few rooms.

Martha died in February 1874. The newspaper article was somewhat blunt, describing her death as "she appears to have been seized with illness, and some two hours later was a corpse."

Alfred and Alderley Edge born Susannah (nee Adshead) had 9 children, 6 of whom survived to adulthood. In 1881 they moved to 8 Robinson Street in Godley, Hyde, where Alfred worked as a hatter. 17 year old William Adshead was boarding with the family.

Alfred was still working as a hatter in 1891, by which time the family had moved to 27 Rochefort Street, Newton, Hyde. 3 of their children were working as hatters and 2 as cotton weavers. A cousin named James Cash, working as a collier, lived with the family. By 1901 very little had changed, Alfred working as a felt hat planker.

By 1911 the couple were at the same address but most of their children had flown the nest. Their son Alfred had died aged 29 in 1904. Daughter Annie had married Harry Proctor and they lived with their parents along with 2 year old Eva and 5 month old Eric. Another grandson named Joseph Collins lived with the family.

Susannah died in 1912. Unbelievably, at the age of 75, Alfred was still working as a hat planker at Thomas Lees and Sons in the 1921 census, still living with Annie and her family. He died in the December of that year.

Their daughter Mary Jane Fletcher, aged 1 in the 1871 census, married John Sunderland, a tailor from Yorkshire, in 1900. They moved to Catherine Street in Hyde and had 7 children, 2 of whom died young.

By 1921 John Sunderland was working as a journeyman tailor at the tailoring department of Hyde Co-operative Stores. 3 of their sons were still living with them; one still in school aged 12, one working as a bobbin stripper aged 15 and one a warp carrier aged 18.