The origin of David's wife Ann Smith is problematical. She is described as having been born in Croydon, Surrey around 1798 or 1799 in both the 1851 and 1861 censuses. Although no baptismal record has been traced, this origin cannot be doubted because of the nature of the double record. However, in the census of 1871, shortly after the death of David, she is described as having been born in Dublin! How these records can be reconciled is uncertain; it could be that the latter is a mistake on the enumerator's part or that the details provided to the enumerator at the time by her son Philip or his wife Winifred were erroneous. Unfortunately, no record of the marriage of David Brandon and Ann Smith around 1820 has been found. Note that Catholic marriages were not recognised until the passing of Peel's Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. If Ann Smith is the mother of David's Irish-born son Andrew, then at the very least some degree of to-ing and fro-ing across the Irish Sea has to be involved.

EARLY DISPERSION AND LIVING CONDITIONS OF THE BRANDON FAMILY IN LANCASHIRE

David arrived in Manchester, probably via the port of Liverpool, around 1820 no doubt looking for work as a handloom weaver. This was a time when work was particularly scarce because it followed a 5-year period of riots, including the Bread Riots and the Luddite Riots, which culminated in the Massacre of Peterloo. His daughter Ann (possibly one and the same as daughter Susan) was baptised on the 26th June 1823 in St Mary's RC Chapel, Mulberry St, Manchester.

By 1833 at the latest, the family had moved to Bolton-le-Moors, Bolton, close to the former Fletcher St Workhouse and also to the then Pilkington St. RC Chapel, later in 1856 to become Ss. Peter and Paul's. All David's later children were christened there between 1833 and 1845 and his grandchildren were christened there up to at least 1858. In 1841 they are known to have resided in the adjacent Pump St. Very unhealthy living conditions then existed in Bolton as in other Lancashire towns. The streets were unpaved and there were no drains. Overcrowding was rife with many people living in back-to-back houses. Average life expectancy was a mere 19½ years for a cotton operative and 51 for a gentleman. Typhus was a frequently recurring scourge; child mortality and women dying in childbirth were common events. There was great distress among the poor of Bolton from 1839 to 1847, many of who were Catholics. Cotton operatives suffered a 10% reduction in their wages and many families had little or no income. In 1841 thirty of Bolton's fifty mills were closed and by 1842 more than 10, 000 Bolton people were receiving Parish Relief. David Brandon's family were caught up in this for there are records of them receiving 2/6 per week in 1845 and 1850 as an 'unemployed Irish pauper' on outdoor relief from the workhouse in Fletcher St. around the corner.

It was during the later 1840s and early 1850s that the trickle of Irish immigrants dramatically increased due to the repeated failure of the Irish potato crops. Between 1847 and 1853, over half a million Irish paupers arrived in Liverpool, fleeing from the disease and starvation in their own country. They drifted into the surrounding towns in search of work and by 1851 there were 4,500 Irish people in Bolton, 7.3% if its population. These desperate emigrants found little relief in the poverty-stricken town. They settled mainly in the town centre, causing the ghetto around Great Moor St. to become known as 'Little Ireland'. Movement of possibly related Irish Brandon families into Lancashire through the port of Liverpool occurred but none appear to have settled in Bolton. In 1847 there was a public fast and soup kitchens were established to feed the starving. When typhus, the 'Irish fever', broke out that year large fever sheds were erected behind the Fletcher St. Workhouse. So many deaths occurred that a communal grave, covered only with planks, was kept open at Pilkington St. Chapel for people who could not afford to pay for their own grave. It was mostly this church that looked after the Bolton Irish immigrants but even the incumbent priest, Father Dowdall, succumbed to the disease. A return to this 'open grave' policy was caused by a cholera epidemic in 1849. The Workhouse master even complained of an evil smell coming from the direction of Ss. Peter and Paul's. However, David's family appears to have been spared from these epidemics.

Spasmodic outbreaks of fighting occurred between the Irish and English for many years, spurred on by visitations from Protestant agitators. The indigenous Boltonians blamed the Irish for the fever epidemic, and the textile workers were fearful of the Irish taking their jobs. By 1851 the family had moved on to a cellar below Newport St. from where Ann earned money as a washerwoman. David meanwhile had desperately found employment as a handloom weaver in Chorley, staying in lodgings at 49 Bolton St. As the fever and famine receded, conditions in Bolton improved and more mills were erected providing work for the ever-increasing population. In 1852 'unexampled prosperity' and 'general improvement' are recorded but three years later there was again great distress in the cotton and iron trades and the soup kitchens were re-opened. Prosperity for working people was on a very shaky footing. Schools for the catholic 'lower classes' were well established by 1849 and schools at Pilkington St. Chapel were built in 1855 to cater for 600 children. The schools lacked funds and parents had to pay for their children's education but the schools distributed clogs and frocks to the poorer children. By 1856 the family had probably moved to Nile St, Bolton where daughter Ellen's second illegitimate daughter Susanna was born.

The Cotton Famine, a by-product of the American Civil War, lasted from the end of 1861 to the early part of 1865 and had dire effects on the Lancashire cotton towns. Some 6,405 Bolton cotton operatives were put out of work. Although a muslin weaver living at Albert Place, Farnworth in 1861, David with his wife spent much of the period between 1860-1865 in the Turton, Fletcher St and 'new' Farnworth workhouses, being described as unemployed, feeble and destitute. No doubt during some of this desperate period they attended the Catholic chapel at Farnworth that was founded in 1851. David finally absconded with the workhouse clothes after spending 224 consecutive days in the workhouse in 1865. What he was doing in the six years up to his death at the grand old age of about 72 at Barnsley workhouse in 1871, and why he moved across the Pennines, is unknown. His wife Ann moved in with their son Philip's family at 2 Cock Robin Row, Clayton le Moors and then with son John's family at Withy Trees, Walton le Dale, where she died in 1875, aged about 76!

The nineteenth century witnessed the first and second generations of the Brandon family moving from one Lancashire town to another in search of employment in the cotton mills (see below). After being raised in Bolton, and with various attempts to find work in the Farnworth & Hindley (Andrew), Barnes Green & Collyhurst (Philip), and Newton Heath & Leigh (David), David's sons Andrew, Philip, John and David eventually moved north to Blackburn and then to the smaller mill towns in the vicinity. Only the youngest son Thomas and the married daughters Susan and Ellen stayed behind in Bolton.

Most of David and Ann's children married within the Irish catholic community. Thus, Susan married Thomas Riley in 1855, Philip married Winifred McDermott in 1854, John married Mary Devenney in 1860, David married Emma O'Neill in 1869 and Thomas married Maria Connolly in 1871. Unusually, the eldest son Andrew married English Protestant Elizabeth Walker at Cockey Moor Church, Ainsworth in 1839 although their offspring were baptised at Ss Peters and Pauls. No doubt reflecting the misfortunes suffered by the working class Irish catholic community in mid-Nineteenth Century Lancashire, David's daughter Ellen produced three illegitimate children between 1853 and 1860 in Bolton and Salford before marrying John Tassiker, a labourer, in 1864. Even more remarkably, between 1861 and 1874, Andrew Brandon's eldest child Ann gave birth to seven illegitimate daughters in Blackburn before marrying Thomas Chippendale, a cotton grinder.

WORK IN THE COTTON MILLS

As children, all members of the first, second and even third generation Brandons found employment in the cotton mills after a brief spell in the classroom. In the mid- to late Nineteenth Century work usually started at the age of 11 years although unusually Philip's son David was a drawer at the age of 9. Between them one or other member of the Brandon family undertook most aspects of the more menial work in the cotton mills. The mills were dangerous, unhealthy, dusty and noisy environments with various ailments such as 'Carder's cough' commonplace. Carders comprised roughly equal numbers of young people of both sexes but also included men aged above 35. Drawers and frame tenters were exclusively girls and young women. Reelers, rovers, slubbers, winders and power loom weavers were mostly girls and young women, although about one third of the last were boys and young males. Stripper, grinder, self acting minder and shuttlemaker were positions held exclusively by young males; the last also being done by some older men. Creeler, doffer and piecer were mostly jobs done by boys and young males. Twisting was done by two thirds young males and a third young females while scutcher and spinner were tasks carried out by males up to middle age. There are few records of older Brandon men having jobs carrying greater responsibility. David's sons Andrew and Philip were overlookers at the age of 44 and 41 respectively and Philip was a cardmaster at 38. He may have been the most capable of the first generation children; he is recorded as a provisions dealer and shop keeper at 16 James St, Bolton in 1860-61, and was unique for his generation in being able to sign his own name (see chart)!

Allan Brandon, Rowen, Conwy, north Wales, December 2000.