GenieJen

My great grandfather, Peter (1849-1913) HEANEY was born in Manchester following his parents’ 1848 marriage in the Collegiate Cathedral in Manchester and he was the eldest of their 10 children. 

From this marriage certificate, we can see that John was a Chandler and that his father, Peter was a Mason while Sarah’s father, Richard BARLOW was a Carter. Of course, we can’t assume this is primary evidence as there was no need for identification in that time so they could have just said something to make themselves look good. In fact, I do wonder if it has been made up as I can’t find a trace of either John or Sarah or their family in the 1841 census some 7 years prior to their marriage or the baptisms of either or the deaths of their fathers. They should have been at home with their families in the 1841 census as both said they were born in Manchester.

I cannot find any info about these two prior to their marriage in 1848 – it’s like they just appeared in Manchester on that date even though in subsequent census they said they were both born in Manchester. Any help gratefully received!

I found the following information about the Manchester Cathedral on Wikipedia. Previously, I couldn’t understand why my poor ancestors would have been married in a cathedral but this explains why they were married there in 1848 probably with a bunch of other couples.

Until 1850, the Collegiate Church remained the parish church for the whole of Manchester (this is the ancient parish, including almost the whole area of the modern City of Manchester excepting Wythenshawe), an area which in 1821 had a population of 187,031.^[12] Within this vast parish there were considerable numbers of chapels of ease and proprietary chapels for parochial worship – as well as other chapels for dissenters and Roman Catholics.

Nevertheless, the Wardens and fellows of the Collegiate church maintained their legal right to a fee of 3s. 6d. for all marriages conducted within their parish; so, unless a couple were able and willing to pay two sets of marriage fees, the only place in Manchester where a marriage might legally be contracted was the collegiate church.

In practice, this religious duty fell on the pastoral chaplain employed by the Warden and fellows; who from 1790 to 1821 was the eccentric figure of the Revd. Joshua ‘Jotty’ Brookes. In 1821 a total of 1,924 marriages were solemnized in the collegiate church; commonly in batches of a score or more. The couples to be married were most often desperately poor but Brookes was no respecter of status, so all were subjected to his ‘production line‘ methods. Commonly, the groom and friends would decamp to a nearby ale-house while the bride kept place in the queue; but if there was one groom too few when a group of couples were lined up in front of the altar, Brookes notoriously would countenance no delay, but would continue the marriage with any passer-by (or even one of the other grooms) as a proxy stand-in.

Brookes is commonly reckoned to have conducted more marriages, funerals and christenings than any English clergyman before or since.^[12]

Here are 2 images I snaffled some years ago without recording the source; if you know where they came from and want an acknowledgement, I’m happy to do that. The images are of Long Millgate which was the address John HEANEY gave as his home address. This street is adjacent to the Cathedral and the Victoria Station which leads me to wonder if the HEANEY’s went to their next place by train. Sarah gave her address as Miller St., which intersected with Long Millgate.

As is obvious from these undated pictures, this area around the Cathedral was dreadfully poor. In fact, Friedrich Engels’ in his book “The condition of the working class in England” which was first published in 1845 in Germany actually mentions Long Millgate

I may mention just here that the mills almost all adjoin the rivers or the different canals that ramify throughout the city, before I proceed at once to describe the labouring quarters. First of all, there is the Old commercial district and the Irk. Here the streets, even the better ones, are narrow and winding, like Todd Street, Long Millgate, Withy Grove and Shude Hill, the houses dirty, old, and tumble-down and the construction of the side streets utterly horrible. Going from the Old Church to Long Millgate, the stroller has at once a row of old-fashioned houses on the right, of which not one has kept its original level; thee are remnants of old pre-manufacturing Manchester, whose former inhabitants have removed with their descendants into better-built districts and have left the houses, where were not good enough for them to a working class population strongly mixed with Irish blood. Here one is in an almost undisguised working men’s quarter, for even the shops and beerhouses hardly take the trouble to exhibit a trifling degree of cleanliness. But all this is nothing in comparison with the courts and the lanes which lie behind, to which access can be gained only through covered passages, in which no two human beings can pass at the same time.

My copy of Engel’s work is a Penguin Classic edited by Victor Kiernan in 2005.

The court he refers to was a narrow alley which lead to a number of units all sharing access to the street via the alley; So there was very little to no fresh air in the small homes as they often backed onto another group behind them. I don’t know if it is still on display but I saw a recreation of one at Liverpool’s Museum some years ago which clearly demonstrated how poor the quality was and the lack of privacy for the families sharing each court. I know many of the HEANEY family lived in courts in Manchester and Macclesfield.

Below is a modern view of Long Millgate looking towards the Cathedral (Google Maps)

This is my great grandfather, Peter HEANEY’s birth certificate from 1849 when his father’s occupation was described as a Tallow Chandler. Sarah, his mother couldn’t sign her name so there in an X to indicate she was present but unable to write her name.

The birth certificates of the other 9 children allow us to trace where the family lived over the decades.

Peter’s parents and my great great grandparents, John (1826-1882) HEANEY and Sarah (1828-1898) BARLOW had 10 children from 1849 to 1877. See the list below.

The first 3 children were born in different parts of Manchester while the 4th child was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire. The 5th to 10th children were born in Macclesfield in Cheshire.

Here is a summary of John and Sarah’s large family from my RootsMagic database.

While both John and Sarah said they were born in Manchester, I can’t find them or their families on a census record till 1861, I’m sure they must be of Irish origin but I have no proof despite years of searching. It’s like they just appeared in Manchester in 1848 when they were married.

I read recently that Queen Victoria visited Manchester in 1851 and was the first monarch to visit Manchester for 150 years. I wonder if my HEANEY family were there to see her pass by.

his is the first census record for the family and it’s 1861 and they are now in Macclesfield where they will remain. There are 3 children listed as they have already buried their 3rd child, Richard back in Manchester in 1856. Note that Peter at 9 years of age is already working as an Errand Boy. He is the youngest ancestor of mine to go to work as a child.

Unfortunately, John died at the young age of 56 and from then on until Sarah’s death in 1898, she and the younger children lived with other family and had some admissions to the Macclesfield Workhouse which gives you an idea of how poor the family was.

Peter married in Macclesfield but like many men of that era, Peter lost his first wife in childbirth of their 2nd child, and so married twice.  1st daughter Annie. He remarried Mary Ann STONEHOWER/STONELEY (and other many other variations) and had 4 more children including my grandmother, Lily HEANEY BAMFORD pictured below. This is the earliest picture I have of anyone in my HEANEY family, it is my grandmother, Lily HEANEY.

They must have been very poor as Mary Anne gave birth in the Macclesfield Workhouse to some of them including my grandmother, Lily (1882-1926). Peter appears to be moving around a lot and not in Macclesfield all the time but obviously there from time to time to impregnate Mary Ann and in 18.. to be the informant on his father’s death certificate.

All of Peter’s children had children, so perhaps you are one of their descendants and would be happy to share information and photos? I will be sharing my information about my Great grandfather, Peter and his descendants in a post T is for Tallow Chandler.

The surnames of the women and men who married Peter’s children were NEVILLE, BAMFORD, ROWSON, LEAH, HASSALL, WEAVER and HINKS.  I’d love to hear from anyone descended from these families. In the early years, they were in Macclesfield, around the Manchester area, in Uttoxeter in Staffordshire and my father emigrated to Australia. I wrote about his early years in Macclesfield and emigration to Australia here

N.B. any person with an * next to their name is one of my direct ancestors