Haley Bateson
Charles
Bateson’s fourth son, born in 1853, was named Haley after his grandmother. He
turned out to be rather a dark horse, an appropriate figure of speech given
that he was often employed as a groom.
What little is known of his life is noted below, together with notes on members of his putative family.
Although he
started his working life as a dyer, the 1881 census gives his occupation as a
Horse Keeper, an experience that would later help him to find work as a Cabman
/ Groom. The enumerator has added “Huntsman (Allerton)”, which suggests that he
worked for one of the estates that used dogs and horses to hunt for game over
the hills and moors of Allerton, a village just to the west of his home in
Manningham, Bradford. Haley would have known these verdant lands well and, as
an exuberant young man in his early twenties, might have thought little of
venturing out on a suitably dark night for a spot of poaching. Unfortunately,
on the night of
For at
least 20 years at the end of the 19th Century, Haley lived with a
married / widowed woman called Mary Midgley (née Shackleton) and her children. Her
husband, Amos Midgley, was absent from the end of 1871 onwards. In the 1891 and
1901 censuses, Haley was described as a Boarder but in the 1881 census, he was
the unmarried Head of Household. Mary and the last four of her children were
present. It was almost certainly no slip of the enumerator’s pen that all the Midgley
children were listed as being related to the Head of Household, despite not
bearing his name. However, following the practice of the day, the children's birth
certificates typically showed only their mother's name.
Haley may have been
their father but the definitive proof that he was more
than he seemed comes in passenger manifests for the SS Saxonia and SS Cymric,
which arrived in
But first,
after the birth of Mary Ellen in July 1881, something seems to have persuaded
Haley to accept an invitation to visit his brother John in
He soon got
work in a worsted mill, perhaps with his brother’s firm, the Fitchburg Worsted
Mill Company, and established himself in the community. It was not long before
he found a regular place in the works cricket team – he was a wicketkeeper,
while his brother, an opening bat and occasional bowler, made less regular
appearances.
Haley returned
home in 1884 or 1885 – in the city directory of 1885 he is listed as “removed
to England”.
Ten years
later, Haley got the urge to travel again - his first documented visit to the
On
There is no
record of his return to
The document also indicates
that Haley was a married man. Here Haley was clearly anticipating his marriage to Mary Shackleton or Midgley later in the year.
In early July 1907, Banns were read for the couple at Bradford Cathedral. Unfortunately, the clerk later wrote across the entry,
in a neat, careful hand, the word "Lapsed", suggesting that the dues were not paid
and the union called off.
Also onboard the Saxonia in January 1907 was a
26-year-old weaver who was on her way to stay with her sister at
In the
On 9 May
1908, a 33 year-old Elizabeth Bateson was onboard the SS Cymric, travelling to
Pawtucket, to stay with her sister Mary Ellen Ward at her new home in Power Rd.
On the passenger manifest,
In the 1910
These passenger records
strengthen the case for Haley being father to the later Midgley children.
What’s
more, while the eldest child, Hannah, has Amos Midgley’s name
on her birth certificate of 1871, neither Elizabeth (1874) nor Mary Ellen (1881)
have a father recorded on theirs. And, when all the children, apart from
Hannah, were baptized en masse at the parish
It is not
known for certain that Haley became a
He returned to
In the 1911
English census, he was again noted as married.
None of these documents mentions a wife by name and,
other than the 1907 Banns, there are no records of a union.
He died at
Harry
Bateson Midgley
Notes
on a chequered Army career
The only
child who ever officially bore Haley Bateson’s name was born in Manningham,
Bradford to Elizabeth Midgley on
Harry was almost certainly brought up by Mary, his grandmother.
Although the 1901 and 1911 censuses list her as such, Harry was probably led to
believe that she was his mother, a deception that would cost them dear in 1910.
Many
members of the Bateson family crossed the
Harry was no exception. On
The ship's manifest originally said she was Harry's mother.
Her contact in England was given as Mrs Lee (her daughter, Hannah).
But to maintain the deception, Hannah was stated to be Harry's sister, when she was really his aunt.
They were going to visit Mary's daughter Mrs Coles (Ada) in Pawtucket.
Once again, to maintain the deception, Ada was said to be Harry's sister.
Sometime later, the entries were overwritten so that Mary became Harry's grandmother and he was her grandson.
It may have been changed by the immigration officer responsible for interrogating the steerage passengers to
check the accuracy of the 29 items of information they had to give on the manifest.
Perhaps he thought Mary looked a bit too old to be the mother of a young lad and she was forced to reveal the truth.
People were denied entry to the United States for two main reasons:
Contagious diseases were a common cause of deportation. But trachoma, the reason for more than half the medical
deportations, would not have been the Midgleys' problem as it is a tropical disease.
Lack of funds (or not having an onward ticket) was the other major reason for deportation. But Harry
and his grandmother had $35, more than the required $25 per adult.
But there was surely one more compelling reason for denying entry: the immigration authorities would not have looked favourably on
attempts to deceive them.
So, on
As a 14
year-old in 1911, Harry was employed as a Bobbin Carrier in a wool spinning
mill, possibly at Illingworth’s Whetley Mills.
Three years
later, on
Midgley’s
unit was posted to
In October
1917 he was transferred to the Labour Corps and given a new Regimental number: 424696. He probably returned to
He was demobbed on 20 January
1919.
However, as
the next instalment of his life shows, here was a man who appears to have loved
army life, despite his frequent absences from it. And yet, knowing what we now
know of the horrors of life on the Western Front, it seems inconceivable that
any volunteer soldier would want to remain in the army.
On
The new
year, 1920, failed to prompt any resolutions to modify his behaviour – on 2
January he was absent from a Tattoo and was AWOL until apprehended by
A Court of
Enquiry was convened to investigate and report on his escape. The President of
the Court and its 2 members were all officers of the Regiment. There were 4
Prosecution witnesses. Midgley did not appear to have any legal representation.
The witnesses gave their evidence and he was asked if he wished to cross
examine them but declined. Finally, he was cautioned and asked if he had
anything to say. This was his chance to give his version of events and to
explain his behaviour (and our only opportunity to learn something of his
motives and personality) but he said only that “I reserve my defence”.
It is
unlikely that the Court ever reported its findings because, as we shall see, it
was overtaken by events.
In prison in
A new Court
of Enquiry was convened “for the purpose of investigating and reporting on the
illegal absence and deficiency of kit (if any) of No 54213 Pte H Midgley No 1
Company”. Lance Corporal Unsworth got
the blame for the escape but, in extenuation, the Court highlighted problems in
the management of security at the prison and made recommendations to improve
matters.
The Enquiry
reported on 19 February but there is no information in the surviving papers on the
verdict or the sentence or on Midgley’s recapture, if it was ever effected.
What
happened next suggests that he remained at large, uncaptured. Paradoxically, he
seems to have yearned to be back in uniform: perhaps he missed his mates;
perhaps he needed the money; perhaps his grandmother needed the money. Whatever
his motives for wanting to return to army life, he knew that as a deserter he
could not do so without further punishment. In desperation, he took the only
course available to him.
On
Around this
time the Army must have realised that Harry Lee was not all that he seemed: a
Royal Regiment of Artillery Conduct Sheet for Harry Lee has “Alias (Harry Bateson
Midgley)” scrawled across the top.
Clearly,
Harry had borrowed the surname from his aunt Hannah Lee, who lived for a time
at the family home at
At a Court
Martial on 27 April, Harry Midgley was charged with Fraudulent Enlistment,
Absence and Losing Kit by Neglect. He was sentenced to 6 months detention at
York Barracks and ordered to forfeit all his former service along with stoppages
of £4 13s 2d.
On
Epilogue
After his
demob, Harry married Louisa Horne at St Michael’s
Such a man, who must have died between 1897 and 1919, has not been found in the records, so where did Harry get the name?
Well, Alfred (Keighley, the husband of his aunt Lily) was the name of one of his uncles....
Between
1920 and 1939 Louisa gave birth to 6 girls and 5 boys, at least 4 of whom died
in infancy. Little is known of the others although it is thought that they
stayed in the
All that is
known of his mother
His
grandmother, Mary Shackleton,
died in
She had a
brother, George, an unmarried dyer, who had managed to accumulate
the substantial sum of £760 when he died in 1900.
Luke, another brother, seems to have inherited the family’s
maverick streak: he was a career mugger and burglar who served at least six
terms in prison.
He was also
a violent man. On
On his release, he was convicted,
on 9 March 1872, of mugging a farmer in Allerton, using
a garotte, stealing a silver watch and a quantity of gold. He was sentenced to
10 years and 20 lashes with a cat o’ nine tails.
He must have committed further crimes on his release: this
picture of
a Luke Shackleton was taken in Pentonville Prison in 1883.
At the time of the 1891 census, he was a prisoner at Chatham, a bricklayer who was probably doing
hard labour on the reconstruction of the dockyards.
On 27 September 1900, Luke received a (legitimate) windfall - his brother George had died and left him £716.
In the 1901 census he was a warp dyer at 72 Thornton St Bradford with a wife, Lavinia.
Despite being quite a rich man, Luke appears to have continued his life of crime.
On Christmas Day 1913 he was caught breaking into a shop in Bradford and sentenced to 18 months.
He died in January the following year and was interred in Armley Gaol.
Amos Midgley Amos Midgley's family history has taken quite a bit of unravelling. The only
recorded birth of a suitable Amos Midgley was on 16 October 1854, in
Illingworth (a district of Ovenden, near Halifax), to William Midgley, a Farmer
and Hannah Sheard. By 1863 this family
of six children had moved to Bradford, where William sold beer. By the 1871 census he was still working for
a brewery and his son Amos was described as a Warp Dresser in a worsted mill. Thirteen
weeks later, on 8 July 1871, he married Mary Shackleton in Bradford. A daughter,
Hannah, was born just four days later. Amos's wife Mary was born on
24 May 1852 to John Shackleton and Hannah Hollings.
Curiously, John Shackleton had married Hannah Illingworth on 4 June 1842.
Yet the mother of his first child, George (born on 5 April 1843) was given as Hannah Hollings.
His next child, Luke, was born scarcely 9 months later on 12 February 1844, but to Hannah Illingworth. At the end
of 1871 an incident involving the Midgley family was reported in the Bradford
Observer. It was
alleged that Mary’s brother, Luke Shackleton, had behaved indecently towards
her. Amos had upbraided Luke and been assaulted for his trouble. One imagines
that the assault must have been a serious one for it to have been brought
before the court. On 2 January 1872, Luke was sentenced to 2 months hard
labour. This was
the last event connecting Amos Midgley to the Shackletons. He was not present
with his wife and child at any of the succeeding censuses and must have
abandoned them.
The only
other event of note at this time came on 21 February 1874, when his elder
sister Mary got married: Amos and his younger sister Emma were the two
Witnesses. In the 1881 and 1891 censuses
he declared that he was married to a woman called Sarah Jane or Jane, born in Pateley Bridge around 1852.
Sarah Gill had married a
Samuel Parkinson in Windhill in 1870. She already had a child, Annie Tillotson Gill, who was
born in 1868, presumably fathered by a man called Tillotson. By 1878 the Parkinson marriage, apparently
childless, had broken down; over the next two years, Sarah Jane had a son, Bainbridge, and a daughter,
Florence, by Amos Midgley and took his name. Her illegitimate daughter, Annie Tillotson, retained the
Gill family name until her marriage in 1934. In the 1901 census,
Bainbridge, Annie and their mother were living together in Manningham (Florence had died in 1882)
but Sarah was described as a widow. In fact, Amos was alive and living at 56
Clayton Place, near Barkerend Mills in central Bradford, where he remained until 1904. In the 1901 census he was aged 46,
a married Warp Dresser born in Halifax. Living a few blocks away in Garnett Street was his mother Hannah,
the widow of William Midgley, sometime Farmer from Illingworth. At some point in the mid-1860s,
William had moved to Horton, Bradford, where he worked in beer retailing; he then moved to Tong and became a self-employed Wood Turner.
By 1891 he had moved to central Bradford, to Garnett Street, where he died in 1896. His Will made no
mention of any of his children – his entire estate, an impressive £370, was left to his wife. Amos died of heart failure at 4 Penn Street, near Bowling Station,
less than half a mile south of Barkerend, on 28 August 1905. Remarkably for one whose estate was valued at a mere £30, he left a Will. There is no mention of a wife or children;
the sole beneficiary of his assets, which included a horse and wagon, was Annie Higgins, the recently
widowed occupant of 4 Penn Street. One of
Amos’ executors was a Fred Whitehead of Garnett Street. Fred was a Chair Maker
by trade. He had been placed in receivership in 1900, so may have been working
for his brother John, who had a chair and stool making business in Tong. Chair
makers work with wood and with lathes – the trade directory for 1900 actually
lists Fred as a Wood Turner. Since
William Midgley had lived in Tong for a time, working as a Wood Turner, his son
Amos might have known Fred Whitehead as a business associate of his father. Hannah Midgley Hannah, Amos
Midgley's only legitimate child, was born on In August
1926 she travelled alone onboard the SS Laconia, sailing from She returned to England and died, aged 89, in 1961 in Bradford.
Elizabeth
Midgley was born on Her son, christened Harry Bateson Midgley, was born on 23 February 1897.
There was no father on his birth certificate.
On She was recorded as an unmarried Weaver.
Curiously, on the In the 1910
Elizabeth Baxter
remained in the
She stayed in touch with her husband Harry, who remained in Yorkshire.
Just before the end of the War he enlisted in the Labour Corps.
When he was demobbed in February 1919, his record states that
a Separation Allowance of 14s 7d per week was paid to his wife in Pawtucket.
Elizabeth probably died in 1955.
John Midgley John
Midgley was born on
Until his early teens, it seems that he preferred to be known as John Bateson. We know this because on 10 April
1888 at the age of 12 he was bound over for stealing clothing. The following year, as John Bateson, he received
4 years in Reform School for a similar offence. From 1893, when he was mostly known as John Shackleton,
there were 8 further court appearances for petty theft and assault. His infamous uncle Luke was probably
his mentor - he was sentenced to 12 months in prison in 1896 for housebreaking, while John got 9 months.
The local newspaper reported that during the hearing, one of the pair, presumed to be Luke, became very
restless and, springing forward, assaulted the prosecutor, who happened to be the Chief Constable.
In 1897, he was given 9 months for shopbreaking and a year later, 18 months for the same offence. He was a stoker.
On 3 December 1904, as John Shackleton / Bateson / Smith, he was charged with housebreaking and sentenced to 5 years.
In 1909, a John Shackleton, stoker, received 3 years penal servitude for petty theft. He was probably in Dartmoor prison in 1911.
There are no further sightings until 2 January 1917 when he enlisted,
as John Shackleton, in the 89th Training Reserve Battalion. His army career was not entirely unblemished: on Curiously,
one of the witnesses to the offence was a Lance Corporal Midgley, probably no
relation.
In the 1921 census, as John Midgley, he was working
as a plasterer in White Abbey in Bradford, a single man living with his mother, Mary Midgley.
In the 1939 Register, he was on his own at 96 Ewart Street Bradford and was a widowed labourer.
He probably died on 26 March 1941 and was interred in Scholemoor Cemetery. Lily Midgley Lily
Midgley was born in 1878 in the White Abbey district of Bradford. She was a
silk cleaner or gasser by trade – this involved passing the cloth over a flame to remove extraneous fibres. She married
Alfred Keighley in 1907 and had a son, Norman, who married Mary Boocock in 1939 and died in 1973. When or where Lily died is not known. Ada Midgley
was born in 1880 and christened along with all her siblings, apart from Hannah,
at St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Manningham on On In late
1908 or 1909 she married William Coles, an Englishman from From her
base in January
1908 July 1908 July 1920 September
1920 June 1924 July 1925 March 1929 May 1929 When William died in 1949, she was recorded as his spouse, Ada Bateson.
A year later, she was still travelling - as Ada Coles - on a flight from London to Boston,
along with her grand-daughter Mildred.
She died in 1972 and is buried in Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls. Mary Ellen Midgley Mary Ellen
Midgley was born on A son,
Ernest Ward Midgley, was born on Some six
months later, on She gave
birth to a daughter called Annie Ward on Less than a
year after the birth, on On The family
was together at the 1910 Federal Census at After this,
Mary Ellen and her two children moved to She was recorded in the
city directories of the day but Harry's location at this time is less certain.
His First World War Draft Registration Card of 17 September 1918 put him in Norwood, Norfolk MA.
He disappeared from view for a decade, reappearing in 1929 in Laconia NH, where he resumed his former
trade as a butcher. He died in Portland City in 1957. The full history of Harry and Mary Ellen Ward and
their children is detailed in the Ward / Walsh family tree posted on Ancestry.com.
It is likely that Haley Bateson took a central role in the
family, possibly from as early as 1874.
There is no official record of any marriage, however.
She left a substantial £776 8s. Probate was granted to her nephew, Norman Keighley.
It may well be that Elizabeth rejected her son: in the 1901 census she was on her own in White Abbey while Harry was with the rest of the
Midgley family in Weston Street. Mary, his grandmother, probably took on the responsibilty for bringing Harry up.
Once Elizabeth went to America, there is no evidence that mother and son ever communicated with one another.
Elizabeth married Harry Baxter, a Machinist, in Bradford on 13 January 1902. Her sister Ada was one of the witnesses, suggesing that the family
had not ostracised her for having a child out of wedlock.
No children from the marriage have been found.
Elizabeth's next couple of appearances in the records show that she went to some lengths to avoid acknowledging her marriage.
No further records have been found.
The date is carved on a gravestone in Moshassuck Cemetery in Central Falls.
Elizabeth Baxter's name and year of birth are given, below the names of a James and Eliza Biggs.
However, there is no record of her burial in the cemetery database, suggesting that she died and was buried elsewhere.
A study of the US Censuses shows that although she was not related to the Biggs family she was probably a valued friend.
In 1910 she was at 30 Cooper St, Pawtucket, next door to the recently bereaved James Biggs.
By 1920 she had become his Housekeeper.
James died in 1923, yet 22 years later, she was still so well-regarded that her name was added to the Biggs family gravestone.
He was discharged from the army on 28 February 1919.