65 - The Bennett Family (Mark and Elizabeth)

I found this family a real challenge to research so if anybody has anything else to add, please let me know.

Mark Bennett grew up in Heald (near where Heald Wood now is). His father John had been a hatter but by 1851 was an agricultural labourer.

In 1854 Mark was working as a cotton spinner and he married a widow named Elizabeth Johnson, nee Stafford. She was the daughter of Daniel Stafford, a weaver.

By 1861 they were living in one of the buildings at Oakwood Farm and Mark worked at the cotton mill. They had a daughter, Ann Thomasine, and a son, Daniel Jubal. Jabez was born in 1862.

In 1871 Mark was working as a newsagent and the family lived on Romiley Road. Mark worked for the Glossop Times and other newspapers, and would gather advertisements and local information to be printed. He also worked as a book binder and stationer.

This is where the story becomes surprising. Mark appears to have taken a boat in 1873 to New York City, and then travelled to Massachusetts where he found work as a cotton operative and lodged with an Irish family.

Meanwhile, back in Romiley, Elizabeth had to find work as a laundress to support her family. Jabez lived with her, working as a labourer, but they also had Ann's daughters Elizabeth and Edith to look after. Ann had married John Booth but by 1881 she was lodging in Hyde and working as a hat trimmer. She then moved to Bury with William Edward Beardshaw and they had children together. Elizabeth moved back in with her mother and new step family but Edith continued to live with Elizabeth and her uncle Jabez until at least 1891.

Elizabeth died in 1896 in Romiley. Her husband Mark had settled in Massachusetts, marrying Mary McKenzie Frazer. Mark died in 1892.