Not all of the Coles, as I have learned, stayed in and around the Rowley hamlets. And previous posts have noted that women often had to move with their husbands for work and make new homes in distant places. Sarah Cole was one of these women.
Sarah Cole was born, probably, in 1826 and was baptised on the 11th June that year, the third child of Edward Cole and Leah, nee Clift, whose address was given at various times as Oakham, Turner’s Hill, Portway and Lye Cross. (Leah’s uncommon first name was useful as it enabled me to trace the family later and to be confident that I had the right family.) It is not impossible that all four of these locations are actually the same place, place names did vary with who was making the record and there do not appear to have been any definitive boundaries in this area. Even if they were not the same place, they are all quite close together.
I say Sarah was probably born then (and Sarah’s age does become of particular interest later in this story) because the baptismal registers do not show dates of birth at this period and civil registration had not yet started so there is no way of knowing her actual date of birth. But her older brothers were baptised Joseph in May 1823 and Edward in March 1825(who died in April of that year) so it’s pretty likely that she was born close to the date of her baptism.
Looking at Sarah in the Censuses
In the 1841 Census Sarah was living on Turner’s Hill with her parents and brother Joseph , plus two more siblings Edwin 12 and Mary Ann 11.
A baby Catharine Cole was born in the second quarter of 1843 in the Dudley Registration District, with no mother’s maiden name indicated which usually means that the child was illegitimate. The baby died the following year, aged 1 year and six months and was buried at St Giles on 10 Nov 1844, with her abode given as Lye Cross and the cause of her death as ‘inflammation’. As far as I can see from the 1841 Census there was only one female Cole of child bearing age in Lye Cross and that was Sarah Cole who I think was her mother. A later child of Sarah’s was baptised Caroline but known as Kate, so perhaps she liked the name. Unless I buy the Birth Certificate, I will not know for certain so perhaps I will, one day!
By the time of the 1851 Census Sarah had married her first husband John Winwood on 29 Jul 1846 at Tipton St Martin. He was a widower, of full age, a Labourer. And they were living with her parents on Turner’s Hill. Their firstborn child William, abode given as Lye Cross, had lived for only a few weeks but they now had two daughters Hannah, born in 1847 and Charlotte born in 1850. Sadly Charlotte died in June of that year, a couple of months after the Census. Another daughter Caroline was born in 1852 and another Mary Ann was born in September 1855.
Alas, they did not have long together, John and Sarah. On 12 Apr 1856 John was killed in an accident at work at Rounds Green Colliery. He was on the top of an old pit frame to assist in taking it down when it fell with him, killing him outright, according to a Mines Accident Record.
So Sarah, with her three daughters was left living, presumably, with her parents and with little means of support, although like most women in this area, she was a nailmaker. Eighteen months later, on 20 Nov 1857 Sarah married Jonas George Walker Holdsworth at St Edmund’s, Dudley. Jonas was a Yorkshireman, a collier.
In the 1861 Census, the family were living in Ashes Road, Langley along with Sarah’s mother Leah Cole, by now a widow, and Sarah’s daughters Hannah, Caroline and Mary Ann Winwood and a new baby, son Joseph Holdsworth, who was 1. So Sarah had already moved from Turner’s Hill/Lye Cross, albeit only a mile or two away, down the Portway.
At some point between this census and the next, the whole family moved to Yorkshire. Looking at family events helps to narrow donw when this happened. Another son William was born in the second quarter of 1862 in Oldbury. And another, John in the last quarter of 1864, both in the West Bromwich Registration District so probably in Langley.
Sarah’s daughter Mary Ann Winwood, from her first marriage and born in 1856, had died in April 1867, aged 12 and was buried in Oldbury Cemetery. Both Death Registration and burial, however, were in the name of Mary Ann Holdsworth, her stepfather’s name but that was not unusual in those days. So it appears that the family were still in Oldbury in 1867. And Sarah’s oldest daughter Hannah was married to George Holloway in 1868 in Dudley and they had remained in Oldbury so it is possible that Jonas and Sarah moved north after that. But it is also possible that Jonas moved back first while Sarah stayed to see her daughter Hannah married.
In December 1870, Sarah’s mother Leah, who was living with Sarah in 1861, died in Yorkshire and was buried in Rawmarsh which is near Rotherham.
In the 1871 Census Sarah is living in Hall Street, Rawmarsh, apparently in the household of a Thomas Etheridge, aged 24, a labourer who gives his place of birth as Stourbridge. I say apparently because the enumeration is less than clear about where one household stops and the next starts.
In the same household are Sarah’s daughter Caroline and her husband William Potter or Leather who had been married in the Rotherham Registration District in the first quarter of 1871. William was a Lancashire man, a miner or labourer. He was illegitimate and his birth was registered in 1847 as William Leather, his mother’s name. The following year his mother married Thomas Potter and it appears that William then used the name Potter – sometimes. Up until and including the 1891 Census the whole family were listed as Potter (apart from their daughter Sophia who was staying with Sarah and was listed as Leather. But from 1901 onwards the family were known as Leather. It is, to say the least, very confusing!
Also in the household in Rawmarsh are Sarah’s youngest son John Holdsworth, aged 6 and another lodger John Henry Smith, aged 18, a puddler born in Oldbury. Puddlers worked in iron foundries, another skill which would enable people to move.
So where was Jonas Holdsworth, Sarah’s husband,in that census? And where were Sarah’s two other sons by Jonas, Joseph aged ten, born Rowley and William aged eight, born Oldbury? I found them listed as Inmates and Scholars in the North Bierley Union Workhouse, in Clayton, Yorkshire, which was thirty miles away from Rawmarsh and under a different Poor Law Union. There is no Jonas Holdsworth listed in the Workhouse and I cannot find a death for him in this period. But immediately above the two boys on that 1871 census page is a George Holdsworth, aged 44, a collier, born in Halifax. Jonas had a second name of George and he was a collier and also born in Halifax. An age of 44 gives a birth year of 1827, Jonas was born in 1825. I think that this is the same man. There is also a Jonas Holdsworth in the neighbouring Bradford Workhouse in the 1881 Census, place of birth not known and described as an Imbecile, which probably accounts for the loss of information over the period, especially as he appears to have moved from one workhouse in the group to another and possibly back again. This Jonas seems to have been chronically ill and died in 1885, aged 60 (so born in 1825, the correct age) after at least 15 years in the Workhouse system and was buried in Clayton St John, with his abode in the parish register entry for his burial marked as the Clayton Workhouse so I strongly suspect this is our man.
The Age Puzzle!
Meanwhile…in September 1871, Sarah Holdsworth, daughter of Edward Cole, was married at Rawmarsh. She gave her age as 43, which was a bit of a white lie because she was nearer 45. But either way, she was considerably older than her new husband Thomas Etheridge – yes, the one whose household she was living in earlier that year in the Census. He gave his age as 24 in the census but that is also slightly uncertain. I have not been able to find his birth registration but his baptism was in March 1848 which would make him 23 in 1871 so this census entry appears to be correct. He gives his age on the marriage record as 20 – four years younger than on the Census, she as 43, quite an age gap. In the 1861 Census, Thomas was living with his family in Parsonage Street, Oldbury but born in Brettell Lane which is in Amblecote, and he was then shown as 12. So it seems likely that in 1871 he was about 22, so it appears that neither the 1871 Census or the marriage show his correct age. Later censuses show him as 40 (in 1881), 45 (in 1891) and 57 (in 1901) – not exactly consistent! But many illiterate people were not absolutely sure of when they were born.
There are no photographs that I can find of Parsonage Street, which was on the Oldbury/Langley border and which has several connections with Sarah’s family but this is the chapel there which probably gives an indication of the sort of houses which were there, probably of a design and size similar to thousands of other Black Country houses of this era. Copyright unknown but will be willingly acknowledged on supply of information.
Sarah’s ages in the Censuses are even more varied. Up to 1871 her age appears to be shown correctly but in 1881, her age is shown as 45, a drop of 9 years since the 1871 and in 1891 her age was given as 50. It appears that when you are living in a place where no one knows your history you can get away with quite a lot.
Did Sarah and Thomas know each other before they arrived in Yorkshire? How did they come to be living in the same house in Rawmarsh? They had both previously been living in Oldbury. Why did Thomas move from Oldbury to Rawmarsh, near Rotherham? His brother John, two years younger was also in Rawmarsh in 1871, working as a Puddler so probably the brothers moved together for work but we do not know. Their father George Etheridge was a furnaceman and John had been born in Cwmbran where there was a large foundry and steel works, then George’s younger children were born back in the Black Country so this is yet another instance of men moving to other places for work and then back again. In 1871 George was still in Parsonage Street, Oldbury but his son Pharoah was born in Jun 1873 in Wombwell , Yorkshire which is where two of Caroline’s children were born so George had obviously followed his sons up to Yorkshire quite soon. George Etheridge was born in 1826, the same year as Sarah Cole, I wonder what he thought of Thomas’s marriage?
Why was Sarah separated from her husband and older sons who were thirty miles away in the Workhouse? We do not know.
A bigamous marriage?
How could Sarah marry Thomas Etheridge when it appears that her husband Jonas Holdsworth was alive and would be for another 15 years? Again, we do not know. There are several possibilities. Jonas may have been injured or suffered a stroke which resulted in him being admitted to the Workhouse. If Sarah had no means of supporting all of her children, the two older boys may have had to go into the Workhouse with their father. Perhaps Sarah moved to Rawmarsh to be with her daughter Caroline who was married there. This part of the family appear to have been in Rawmarsh since at least December 1879 when Sarah’s mother Leah died and was buried in Rawmarsh.
Did Sarah and Jonas separate for some reason after arriving in Yorkshire? Might Sarah have discovered that Jonas already had a living wife in Yorkshire, left behind when he moved to Oldbury to work, so that her marriage was null and void? I have not found any evidence of this but this would have left her free to marry Thomas Etheridge. Or was this a bigamous marriage? This was far more common than you might think at this period where marriages had broken down and divorce was very expensive and rare among working class people. So move to an area where you are not known and tell everyone you are a widow or widower. It is a total mystery but this last marriage lasted nearly thirty years, despite the age difference.
Later Years
In the 1881 Census, Thomas and Sarah were living in Wath-on-Dearn , near Rotherham in Yorkshire, where Thomas was working as a Forgeman at an Ironworks. He gave his age as 40, Sarah as 45! Also with them was Sarah’s son John Holdsworth, though shown under his step-father’s name, now 16 and a labourer at the Ironworks and also Emma Holloway, aged 13, described as a visitor. Emma was born in Oldbury and was the eldest daughter of Hannah, Sarah’s daughter.
In the 1891 Census the surname for Thomas and Sarah is shown as Hedgewood. Which I suppose may be how the enumerator heard Etheridge. At a pinch – perhaps the Black Country accent strikes again! They were living in Widnes, Lancashire and I only found them because I was searching Sarah’s grandchildren through her daughter Caroline (who was also living in Widnes)and Caroline’s daughter Sophia Leather aged 6 was shown in 1891 living with Sarah and Thomas as a granddaughter. And Sarah is shown there as born in Rowley, Staffordshire and Thomas as Worcestershire so that all fits. Had it not been for the presence of Sophia that night of the census, I would never have found them!
Sarah appears to have died in Widnes in 1900, or possibly in 1887.
There do not appear to have been any children born to Sarah and Thomas Etheridge, which is not surprising given that she was already 45 when they married.
What became of Sarah’s children?
Of Sarah’s children, Hannah Winwood stayed in Oldbury with her husband George Holloway living in Parsonage Street for much of the rest of her life and had ten children there, of whom five survived. She died in 1917, aged 70.
William and Caroline Leather nee Winwood emigrated to Schenectady ,New York as did most of their family, appearing in US censuses from 1920 onwards. Their oldest child William Leather was born in 1875 in the Barnsley area and I discovered from a photograph of his original birth certificate, uploaded to Ancestry by an American descendant, that his birth was registered by Sarah Cole, his grandmother who had been present at the birth, rather than either of his parents. William and Caroline had seven children, the first two born in Barnsley, Yorkshire and the others in Widnes where Thomas was working in a copper works. Caroline died in New York in 1928, aged 76.
Joseph Holdsworth survived his time in the Workhouse and was married in 1880 in Halifax. He stayed in the Bradford area for the rest of his life, dying in Bradford in 1926, aged 67.
William Holdsworth also survived but he appears to have moved back to the Oldbury area, marrying Annie Smith with whom he had seven children, (very possibly the Annie Smith who was living in Hawes Lane, Rowley in the 1881 Census) and later living in Halesowen Street, Blackheath where he was a hairdresser. If this seems an unlikely occupation for him, it is worth noting that many workhouses trained their young charges in occupations such as tailoring or hairdressing which would enable them to earn their living later. His date of death is unclear but may have been in 1915.
There are no indications that either Joseph or William were in contact with Sarah, or with each other but it is not impossible.
John Holdsworth , Sarah’s youngest child, was with his mother and stepfather Thomas Etheridge in Wath on Dearn, Yorkshire in 1881 when he was listed as Etheridge, born Oldbury and, aged 16, working as an Iron Works labourer – the family trade! But in records after that he used the name Holdsworth and on 22 May 1888 he had married Ann Hayfield (born in Oldbury) in Christchurch, Oldbury – both giving their address as 19 Parsonage Street and went on to have a first child in Oldbury and a further three children in Widnes. John’s half-sister Hannah was living at 18 Parsonage Street in 1881 so they must have been in contact. By 1901 he was back in Watery Lane, Smethwick, working at a Silver Works and a further two children were born there. He died in 1903, aged only 39.
A Wandering Cole
So, like many wives, Sarah moved for her husband’s work. More than once. And, as with quarries and sett making, the metal working skills and adaptability of Black Country men led them to find work in many other areas where metal working and foundry work were important.
Although Sarah left the Black Country in about 1869 and there is no record of her ever returning, at least three of her children remained or made their way back to the area. And from visiting grandchildren it is apparent that at least some of the siblings stayed in touch with Sarah and with each other too. We know from Shipping Passenger Lists that Caroline made at least three trips back to the UK after moving to New York, though we cannot know where she went on these visits.
There are recurring places – Parsonage Street, Oldbury, Widnes, areas of Rotherham, Yorkshire and Lancashire which crop up in the life stories of various children.
One Rowley woman, three husbands, nine children, thirty-one grandchildren – (that is to my knowledge, there may have been more grandchildren). And her Cole descendants were scattered across the Oldbury area , Birmingham, Yorkshire, Lancashire and New York.
Sarah Cole, I think, was quite a woman to be reckoned with!
rowleyregislosthamlets.co.uk 