Daniel Mayon (c1801-1862) & Susannah Archbald (c1811-1850)
Daniel Mayon was born in Ireland around 1801 according to the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census returns and nothing is known of his early life; even the spelling of his surname varied in official documentation, appearing as Meyon, Mayohon and Mahon before settling for Mayon.
Susannah Archbald (again, the spelling vary, but this later appears as a middle name) was born around 1811.
In 1829 Daniel, son of Daniel and Elizabeth Mayon was baptised at Manchester. The father’s occupation was bookkeeper. In later census records, the birthplace of Daniel (junior) was Ardwick (to the south-east of Manchester) – and in 1831 a Daniel Mayhon was paying rent in Ardwick. An Elizabeth Mayhon of Salford, age 33, died of asthma,` and was buried at Rusholme Road cemetery in March 1833.
There is no certain information regarding the early lives of Daniel and Susannah, but on 4 August 1833, Daniel Mayohon and Susannah Archbald of Oldham were married at St Mary’s Prestwich, Manchester, about four miles north of Salford & Manchester. They then settled in west Salford.
In 1841 the family were living at Oak Street in Salford, and Daniel was working as a factory overlooker (a superintendent or overseer, especially in the textile mills). Later records described him as a bookkeeper. Daniel and Susannah had four children who survived infancy: John born in 1837, Edward born in 1838, Susannah born on 22 April 1841, and William born in 1843. Susannah’s birth certificate listed her place of birth as Oak Street/Hope Street and her parents as Daniel Meyon, bookkeeper, and Susannah Meyon (Archbald).
Oak Street was one of a set of small streets, off Hope Street which ran from Oldfield Road towards Cross Lane on the western edge of Salford. It was sandwiched between the Hopetown Cotton Mill and New Cotton Mill, north of the London and North Western railway and immediately to the south of the Manchester and Leeds railway (which opened in 1838) and the Manchester, Bolton and Bury canal alongside it – the original Salford terminus of the canal led to a number of cotton and silk mills (and a dye works) being built in the Oldfield Road area from the 1800s, followed by iron works.
The neighbouring New Cotton Mill of Hope Street, owned by John Thompson, stood out in the 1842 cotton workers strike over pay as the workers there were higher paid than those at other mills and so they remained working and “when the mob came down upon Mr Thompson’s mill in Hope Street, Salford, the hands armed themselves with bludgeons and bravely defended their employer and his property” (Patriot, August 1842).
Maps of mid-C19th Salford showed the Hope Street area being less densely populated than areas to the east and across the River Irwell in Manchester. However, an idea of the living conditions was given by Friedrich Engels: “The working men’s dwellings between Oldfield Road and Cross Lane, where a mass of courts and alleys are to be found in the worst possible state, vie with the dwellings of the Old Town in filth and overcrowding” (The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1845).
Susannah died on 5 September 1850, aged 39 at Greengate workhouse, which was situated in the centre of Old Salford. The cause of death was certified as disease of the heart and bronchitis. She was described as the wife of Daniel Mahon, bookkeeper; the informant named on the death certificate was “Catherine Dyer, present at the death, workhouse Salford”.
The Salford workhouse at Greengate had opened in 1793 and continued in use until 1853 when the new Salford Union workhouse was opened and after which it was demolished. By 1850 the old building was in a poor state such that, in the same month of Susannah’s death, a special meeting of the Salford poor-law guardians was held to consider a report on the existing accommodation and a proposal to build a new workhouse: “the present workhouse arrangements are detrimental to the interests both of the poor and of the ratepayers…The aged, infirm, and sick, cannot conveniently be separated from the more robust and rougher inmates; nor have those of deficient intellect sufficient accommodation, without mixing with those who are more disposed to annoy, than sympathise with them. The virtuous and the good cannot be protected from the language and conduct of the most abandoned and depraved of their sex. The sanitary condition of the workhouse is in a very unsatisfactory state.” (Manchester Courier September 25 1850). At that date there were 259 inmates in the workhouse.
In the 1851 census Daniel and his children were still living at Oak Street in Salford. He was described as a widower born in Ireland, aged 50, whose occupation was overlooker & bookkeeper. His son Daniel was working as a mechanic, John and Edward were iron turners, and Susannah and William aged 9 and 8.
At the time of the 1851 census there with 9 households occupying 6 houses listed in Oak Street. Of these, 30 adults and children were of working age (the youngest, a general servant, aged 12) and 13 younger children (scholars), and 2 other adults. The majority of workers were weavers but also some metal workers (iron turners).
On 11 June 1851 at the Cathedral Church Manchester, Daniel Mayon, aged 22, a mechanic of 5 Oak Street in Salford and son of Daniel Mayon (bookkeeper), married Sarah Ann Mott, aged 18, of 41 Greenbank in Salford, the daughter of Charles Mott (a pattern designer).
On 16 January 1958 at St Philip’s Liverpool, Edward Mayon, an engineer and son of Daniel Mayon (Agent) married Alice Ann Emery, daughter of Henry Emery (governor of Kirkdale gaol).
In 1859, John Mayon married Mary Harrison (both of Everton) at the Catholic church of St Francis Xavier in Liverpool.
From the 1850s onwards the area around Oak Street became the Hope Street goods, mineral and wagon repair depot, which may explain why in the 1861 Census Daniel was living at 8 Sharratt Street in Salford (and working as a house agent); Susannah and William were living with him and working as cotton weavers.
On 9 August 1862 at the Cathedral Church in Manchester, Susannah, aged 21 of 8 Sharratt Street, daughter of Daniel Mayon (bookkeeper) married John Henshaw, aged 26 and a warehouseman also of 8 Sharratt Street, son of James Henshaw (gardener).
Daniel died on 21 December 1862 at 8 Sharratt Street in Salford. His death certificate described him as a “repairer of houses and collector of rents”. The informant was John Henshaw, who was present at the death; the cause of death was chronic bronchitis exhaustion.
Daniel Mayon was buried on 25 December 1862 at the Salford Borough Cemetery (now called Weaste Cemetery). In the cemetery record the place of death was Sharratt Street, cause of death was bronchitis. He was a buried in a common grave (no. 3047; plot b/17) in the Church of England section – possibly because it was Christmas day, no entry was made about who performed the ceremony.
In 1865, William Mayon, a brush maker, married Clara Adams at Edgbaston where they lived. John Henshaw was a witness.