9 - The Robinson Family
A family of 8 lived at household number 9, headed by Samuel Robinson's 54 year old brother John. Like Samuel, John spent his whole life working as a hatter, specifically as a hat blocker, forming the hat body into the required shape.
He married Ellen Hallam in June 1842. Ellen was originally from Disley but was living on Collier's Row in Bredbury just before the marriage. They settled in Bredbury and had 8 children together but daughter Sarah sadly died in 1859 aged 9 years.
By 1871 they had moved into a terrace on Robinson's Row, just a few doors away from Samuel and his family and brother Hiram. John's mother Sarah lived with the family and is listed as "annuitant", living off the money left to her by her husband William who had taken his own life in 1859 (see Household 7). Just days after the census was taken, John died aged 55. Son Samuel Robinson would follow when he died in an "unexpectedly sudden manner" after a brief illness in April 1875. He was 18 years of age and had worked as a fur blower.
Widowed Ellen moved back to Bredbury, to George Lane, where she lived with 4 of her children, her bricklayer son-in-law Samuel Adshead (husband of daughter Mary Robinson), and 1 year old grandson Ernest. Later that same year Samuel Adshead died aged 29, leaving Mary a widow. Unusually for the time, Mary didn't quickly remarry, instead living with her mother for 11 years before marrying George Booth, a grocer and provisions dealer and a widower with 2 children. George later became a Liberal candidate and in 1910 he beat the Conservative politician to become a Guardian of the Stockport Union. They lived next door to the Craven Heifer pub and Mary continued to run the grocer's after George's death. Ellen lived with the family until her death in December 1902.
John and Ellen's eldest child Martha doesn't feature in the household in 1871 as she had married John Benson at Household 17.
Their son William, who was 17 and a felt hatter at the time of the census, went on to marry Sarah Chappell in 1881. She was the daughter of James Chappell of the Duke of York pub.
Daughter Ellen Robinson was 11 in 1871 and later married Samuel Brayfield. They had 6 children and lived in Bredbury.
Son Hiram was 9 in 1871 and still in school. He never married, living with his sister Martha, and met a very sad end. In May 1901 he was working as a labourer at Messrs Ashton's, Newton Bank Printworks. He and 3 other men were in the soap dye engine house. One man was putting a strap on a pulley whilst Hiram and another man, Levi Booth, were turning the wheel with an iron bar. Whilst holding the bar, the engine started and Hiram was struck on the head and knocked onto the engine before falling, unconscious, to the floor. He was initially taken home where his brother in law spoke with him briefly. He was then taken to the infirmary where he died age 40.