James Henshaw (c1805-1883) & Ann Baron (1800-1872)
James Henshaw was born c.1805 in the parish of Eccles in Lancashire, which contained the townships of Pendlebury, Pendleton, and Worsley. There are a number of Henshaw family references in this area.
Ann Baron was baptised at Eccles 12 October 1800, the daughter of Samuel Baron (1774-1818) of Pendleton, a weaver, and Margaret Nichols (1775-1842). Her parents had married at Eccles on 30 Sept 1795 and were buried in the churchyard there.
James Henshaw, gardener, and Ann Baron, spinster, were married on 4 March 1832 at Radcliffe, Lancashire, where they were both living at that time. Their children were all baptised at the Bethesda Methodist New Connexion chapel on Broad Street in Pendleton. (The New Connexion Methodists had seceded from the Wesleyan Methodist in 1797, and this Pendleton community was founded in 1802. The original chapel building dated from 1806, and this was taken down in 1862 “for the purpose of erecting a more commodious and ornamental edifice” Manchester Guardian 14 July 1862.) The baptism lists recorded:
- Margaret (born 6 March) was baptised on 14 April 1833.
- Samuel (born 26 June) was baptised on 20 July 1834.
- John Henshaw (born 13 July) was baptised on 28 August 1836.
- Thomas and Elizabeth (born on 6 June) were baptised on 9 September 1838. (Their birth is also recorded in the Civil Registration Birth Index, which commenced in 1857, with their mother’s maiden name listed as Baron.)
One aspect of non-conformism was the Sunday schools provided by churches – a subject that caused some anger when following the 1842 mill strikes, the mobs were accused of coming from ‘infidel institutions’ or ‘sectarian schools’. In the rebuttal from superintendents and conductors of Sunday Schools in Manchester and Salford, the list included the Pendleton New Connexion school – which had 40 teachers and 250 scholars; presumably this included the Henshaw children (Manchester Times April 1843).
In all their children’s baptism records James’s occupation was recorded as gardener, as he was in the 1841 census when the family were living at Priory Cottage, Brunswick Place, Pendleton. In 1823 Pendleton was described as “a very beautiful village now adjoining Salford…Brunswick-row chapel belonging to the Old Methodists’ Connection…is small and neat, and has a cemetery attached to it” (James Butterworth, Complete history of Manchester,1823).
James Henshaw very probably worked for the Gardner family who then owned the Priory, the gardens of which are shown in this map. (Possibly the Henshaws moved from here after the death of George Gardner in 1841. Pendleton Priory was demolished in the 1850s.)
By 1851 James and Ann had moved away from the centre of Pendleton and were living at Queens Street in Irlams o’th’ Height. In the 19th century, with the onset of the industrial revolution, the Heights village became a well-established community of handloom weavers. (Elements of the original village still remain today, including Queens – Street and 30 buildings, many of them 18th century cottages Salford.gov.uk.)
In the 1851 census their eldest son, Samuel, was described as an assistant gardener. Margaret was working as a twist winder and John as an errand boy. The family were living at 24 Queens Street in 1857 when Samuel married Martha Thornley the daughter of John Thornley, a bookkeeper, also from Irlams. Their son, Edward, was baptised there in 1859.
In the 1861 census Samuel and his family were living a few miles away at Chorlton-cum-Hardy where he was a “gentleman’s gardener”, and James and Ann were still living at 24 Queens Street, Irlams. James continued to work as a gardener, and still living with them were John, working as a commercial clerk, Thomas, a cotton dyer, and Elizabeth, a cotton twist winder. Margaret had gone into domestic service working in Salford for a widowed hosier and her son. Next door to them, at 22 Queens Street, was Ann’s brother, William Baron (formerly a provision dealer) and his family – the eldest daughters working as cotton weavers and two younger sons.
On 9 August 1862 their son, John, married Susannah Mayon at Manchester cathedral church. The parish records showed that John was working as a warehouseman and they both lived at 8 Sharratt Street, Salford. (Although it was common practice for marriages to be solemnised in the bride’s parish, for people living near Manchester a frequent choice for the ceremony was the Manchester collegiate church, or cathedral as it became in 1841.) In the late 1860s John and Susannah moved to Bristol.
In 1868 their son Samuel and his family emigrated to the USA, where he continued to work as a gardener, and became a naturalised citizen in 1874. Samuel went on to be a renowned landscape gardener – his designs included the grounds of Columbia University and the Rockefeller’s estate at Westchester. A sliver of information about his early life was given in Samuel’s obituary: “born in Manchester…and learned his profession under his father, one of the thorough old-time plantsmen of that day” (The American Florist 1907).
James died in 1870; the parish register of St John the Evangelist at Pendlebury recorded: “James Henshaw of Irlams O’th’Height, was buried 2 June 1870, aged 65 years”.
On 10 June 1870, their daughter Margaret married James Burkell, a widower who was a shoe/boot maker, at the United Methodist Free Church in Salford. The 1871 census listed them, together with James Burkett’s son, Arthur aged 4, living with Ann at Queens Street. Thomas was also living there, working as a gardener. Next door Ann’s widowed sister-in-law, Caroline Baron was living with her daughters Ann and Margaret (cotton weavers), and sons Samuel (a solicitor’s clerk) and John (a warehouseman).
Margaret’s son, James Burkett, was born at 24 Queens Street on 30 April 1872.
Ann died in 1872; the parish register of St John the Evangelist at Pendlebury recorded: “Ann Henshaw of Irlams O’th’Height, was buried 23 December 1872, aged 72 years”.