Notes on Front Burial Ground interments

WINDHILL WESLEYAN

FRONT

BURIAL GROUND

Additional Notes

The information in these Notes is an effort to unearth the connections among the people interred here. The sources were:

* Interment Book held by Bradford Bereavement Service;

* Ancestry, Family Search and Probate Search websites;

* Calverley Info website (contains a transcription from the Interment Book, which was used as the source of the database);

* Newspaper articles, inquest reports etc.;

* Official General Register Office certificates - because of the cost, these have only occasionally been purchased. The use of the quarterly prefixes Mar, Jun, Sep and Dec indicates that only the GRO Index has been consulted.

Where there are no official sources, some of the information provided may be speculative.

A large number of people who were interred here have no visible graves: either no gravestone was ever commissioned, or the stones are buried, or they were removed.

A few people who are noted on the stones were buried elsewhere.

Most families came from Windhill Crag or Wood End. A number came from Shipley, possibly because of limited burial provision at its Wesleyan Providence Chapel. [The earliest version of this chapel was located in Otley Road, opposite Viewcroft Road. It had a small burial ground of about 960 ft2 that contained 14 headstones when Arthur Blackburn transcribed them in 1931.]

Some of the information concerns infants who were noted on pages in the Interment Book entitled “Unbaptised Infants Interred” and also as notes (some undated) scribbled inside the back cover and on the flyleaf of the same Book.

KEY

* Names in red bold text refer to people noted on the stones.

* Names in black bold text refer to those who were interred in the Front Burial Ground (as noted in the Interment Book), but may not have a visible grave.

* A1, B2 etc identifies the graves or plots and was the notation used in the Interment Book.

* Numbers in brackets (No 131 etc) were used in the Interment Book to identify individuals.

R/N - NORTON / RHODES / KENDALL

Martha Norton, born abt 1825, was the daughter of William Rhodes. She married Joseph Norton in Dec 1867 and died on 23 July 1895 aged 70.

William Rhodes, her father, was a cordwainer born in Leeds abt 1787, who married Rachel Booth in 1809. They had at least 6 children. He died on 30 January 1853 aged 66.

Rachel Booth / Rhodes died on 7 May 1867 aged 76.

Jane Rhodes / Pedley, who died on 24 June 1854 aged 26, was Martha Norton’s sister, born on 1 November 1827 (and baptised on 11 July 1834). She married Peter Pedley, a weaver from Linton, on 23 February 1852. She died on 24 June 1854 aged 26. Her married name was variously spelt as Pedley, Peddles or Peddley.

Jane Pedley, their only child, was born on 15 June 1854, but died 21 days later on 6 Jul 1854. Jane, her mother, died 9 days after her daughter’s birth.

George Kendall, born abt 1811, may have married Hannah Thompson. He died on 16 January 1855. At some stage, his remains were removed and reinterred at Owlet Road cemetery, I1.

A1 - OLIVER

John Oliver, a husbandman, married (1) Sarah Hird at Bradford PC on 31 May 1840.

They had 2 children:

Joseph Oliver was born in Frizinghall in Sep 1842 and died on 6 May 1843 aged 11 months.

William Oliver was born in Sep 1845 and died on 8 February 1846 aged 9 months.

Sarah Hird / Oliver died on 6 March 1846 aged 25.

John Oliver married (2) Ann Bradley on 13 Jun 1847 at Bradford PC.

They had 3 children: Rachel (baptised on 14 May 1848), Jesse (1853) and Raper (born in 1856, died in 1937).

Jesse Oliver was born in Dec 1853 and died at Red Beck Mill, Frizinghall, on 23 November 1854 aged 1 year.

Ann Bradley / Oliver died on 10 March 1859 aged 41.

John Oliver married (3) Ann Brooks on 18 March 1860 in Calverley.

Ann Brooks / Oliver died in 1887 aged 68.

John Oliver died on 10 July 1892 aged 78 and was buried with his third wife Ann Brooks in the Wesleyan cemetery at Owlet Road, Grave V75. His estate was valued at £113 2s 10d.

There is no inscription for the following child:

Robert A (Albert) Oliver, listed in the Interment Book, was born in Jun 1882 and died on 7 December 1885 aged 3. He was the son of Raper Oliver and Martha Holland George, who married in 1875.

A2 - OLIVER

There is no visible grave at A2.

Esther Oliver, born in 1827 to Matthew Oliver (a brother of the John Oliver mentioned in A1) and Hannah Sunderland (who married on 5 Oct 1824 in Halifax), died on 15 June 1844 aged 17.

William Oliver was baptised on 20 July 1845 in Shipley and died on 15 December 1847.

A3 - FARRER

Richard Farrer (No 1), who died on 25 November 1835 aged 34, was the first interment in the new Wesleyan Front Burial Ground. He was the son of the Richard Farrer snr (No 366), who is noted in A4.

Nancy (Ann) Farrer / Bateson, his sister, was born on 5 July 1795, married George Bateson on 25 October 1829 and died on 24 May 1853 aged 57. George was the son of Joseph Bateson (No 29, G6).

William Farrer, Richard’s brother, was born abt 1806 and married Nanny Pullan on 10 March 1834. He died on 26 July 1837 aged 30. The couple had 2 children:

Richard Farrer was born in early 1837 and died on 9 September 1837 aged 30 weeks.

John Farrer was born on 6 October 1834 and died on 30 March 1844 aged 9.

The following person is not noted on the gravestone:

Hannah Smith / Farrer, Richard Farrer snr’s second wife, was born abt 1785 and died on 19 June 1851 aged 64.

A4 - SENIOR / FARRER

Richard Farrer, who died on 18 February 1857 aged 88, was the father of the Richard Farrer (No 1) in A3. He married (1) Hannah Lee on 5 September 1791 and had 5 children, two of whom are noted in A3. Hannah probably died in 1813 and was buried at the Wesleyan Chapel in Shipley. Richard married (2) Hannah Smith on 23 March 1838.

Mary Farrer / Senior, Richard Farrer’s daughter by Hannah Lee, was born abt 1798. She married William Senior, a farmer and innkeeper, abt 1818. She died on 1 December 1874 aged 77. The couple had at least 11 children.

Benjamin Senior, born abt 1826 and baptised on 16 August 1829, died on 13 June 1839 aged 13.

Sarah Senior, born abt 1825, died on 9 April 1847 aged 22.

James Senior, baptised on 10 August 1831, died on 1 February 1869 aged 30.

William Senior, their father, died on 24 August 1873 aged 81.

A5 - INGHAM / JENNINGS

The owner of A5 was Mrs Ingham, presumably Mary Ann Ingham, the last to be buried there.

Mary Ann Nicholls was baptised in Horsforth on 29 April 1827 and married Thomas Ingham, a quarryman, at Bradford PC on 3 December 1848 when they were living in Thornton. They had at least 5 children, none of whom were buried in A5. They were in receipt of Poor Relief in 1894.

Thomas Ingham died on 26 October 1896 aged 71.

Mary Ann Nicholls / Ingham died on 19 November 1903 aged 78.

The following person is not noted on the gravestone:

Fred Ingham had no grave assigned to him in the Interment Book, but has been placed in A5 because he was the son of Mary Jane Murgatroyd and Sam Ingham (who was the son of Thomas Ingham (No 551). He was born on 27 April 1898 and died on 6 January 1899 aged 8 months.

No connection has been found between the Inghams and the following Jennings individuals:

William Jennings was born abt 1772 and married Elizabeth Dunwell (born abt 1775) in Otley on 9 December 1794. William was a stuff manufacturer who owned Wood End (Ogden's) Mill. They lived in Menston and then at Windhill Woodend and may have had 13 children, one of whom, Thomas (No 191), was interred at B9.

Elizabeth Dunwell / Jennings died on 22 June 1846 aged 78.

William Jennings died on 15 April 1856 aged 84.

AM - OLDFIELD

No grave is visible at AM.

The Plan shows 'H Oldfield'. This probably refers to Hudson Oldfield, the owner. He was the son of Thomas Oldfield (No 54, E6) and Betty Barker, who married in Bradford PC in 1814. A weaver, he married Rachel Rhodes on 18 February 1849. Rachel was the daughter of William and Rachel Rhodes (Nos 230 & 451, who were interred in R/N). She died in Melbourne on 19 May 1880 aged 58. He died in Melbourne on 11 January 1899 aged 75.