70 - The Addison Family

This family turned out to be a complicated one.

William Martin Addison was born in Romiley to Martha Higginbottom (or Heginbotham) and Charles Addison. Charles was the son of the Calico Printer Robert Addison who was partners with his brother-in-law Joseph Lawton Syddall (Chadkirk Calico Printworks). Robert Addison died in 1839, equally distributing his wealth between his 3 children (Charles, William Martin and Elizabeth Thorp). However, both Charles and William Martin had died by 1841 and Elizabeth married a French man named Louis Augustin Collos.

In 1841 widowed Martha was living at Barlow Fold with her 1 year old son John. She is listed as "Ind" or Independent Means. We know from the 1849 Tithe apportionments that Martha lived in the same property as Thomas Needham (possibly semi-detached) and that the property was owned by Ormerod Heyworth of the Oakwood Estate.

The inheritance must have run out by 1851 as Martha was working as a hand loom weaver. All 4 of her children were also working in the cotton mill, including William Martin.

On the 17th of October 1860 William Martin Addison married Emma Wilkinson, who grew up at Padden Brook. Her father was a hatter. By then William had become a bookkeeper, providing the family with a much better wage than working on the looms.

When we find the family in 1871 William was a warehouseman and they had just one child, Martha. They had a second child named Louis (perhaps named after his French relative) and later moved from Romiley to Dukinfield where William found work as a cotton weaver.

William died aged 49 in 1882.

By October 1883 Emma had married again. Riley Pangburn was a widowed hatter from Bredbury. He had 4 children with his first wife Ann Bradley.

The families joined together and lived on Albion Street in Hyde. As well as the children of Emma and Riley, Emma's daughter Martha had married John Robinson and they had children of their own. A total of 10 people lived there in 1891.

Emma and Riley appear to have separated. Though they both remained in Hyde, they were living apart in the 1901 and 1911 census. Emma took in lodgers to get by. She died in February 1915.

Daughter Martha had a child out of wedlock in 1881 but Beatrice died in 1882. She married John Robinson in 1890 and they had 2 daughters, Emma and Louie. They seem to have separated by 1901 as Martha was living with a man named William Buckley who worked as a collier. She and Louie are listed with the name Buckley but Martha and William had not married.

Martha died in 1908 aged 47.