Rachel Rushby 1824 - 1864

Thanks to Ancestry publishing the West Yorkshire Parish records I’ve been able to delve further back into the family, Rushby-Almond.

I’ve written previously about Rachel Almond (great-great grandmother), the mother of my great-grandmother, Laura Ann Ashman.

Rachel’s mother, Rachel Rushby, (great-great-great- grandmother) died in childbirth the day Rachel Almond was born, on 10^thMay 1864.

Rachel Rushby was baptised the 10^th October 1824 at Batley, All Saints. This was the parish church for Morley at the time.

I think her father, George Rushby, married Mary Hardisty on 19^th April 1824. Her second sister, Martha, was born in 1827. Their mother appears to have died and I now wonder if she also died in childbirth with Martha. I can’t find a record of her death.

Rachel’s father then married Mary Megson from Ossett, Yorkshire on 2 January 1831. They went on to have more children. James, 1833; Betty Megson, 1835; George, 1838; Sarah, 1839; John, 1841; Mary, 1845; Jonathan, 1848 (?).

In 1841 Rachel was living with her grandparents, James and Mary Rushby, in Banks Hill, Morley. Her father and his wife, Mary, are living further down the road in Banks Hill with 6 children; Martha, James, Betty, George, Sarah and John.

1844; Rachel married Thomas Almond on November 4^th 1844 at St. Peter’s church, Morley. Her grandmother, Mary, died on 8^th August 1849

1851 they are living at 48, Bottoms, Morley. Thomas is a cloth dresser (employing 2 men). They have Mary Elizabeth, 5 and Eunice Ann, 2.

Her father, George, is living at 85 Banks Hill, Morley with his wife, Mary. George is a woollen cloth dresser, Mary is a wool boiler. Living with them are Betty Megson, 16 and George, 13, both working as woollen cloth weavers. John is 10 and and they have another child ,Mary, who is 6.  

Her grandfather, James Rushby, is living at 27 Bottoms with his grandson, James, a woollen cloth weaver.

Leeds Library and Information Service, Leeds City Council.

Chapel Hill from Bottoms

Grandfather James is listed as a retired cloth dresser; he died on 16^th March 1854.

Thomas Almond’s father, William, is living close by on Chapel Hill with his wife Elizabeth (born Hirst) William is a woollen factory overlooker, their daughter Emma, 20, is living with them working as a woollen cloth weaver. William Almond died in 1853. His grave is in St Peter’s churchyard to this day.

Gravestone Photographic Resource (GPR)

 

1861 Rachel and Thomas are living at 15 Howarth Place, Valley Street, Leeds. Thomas is a cloth dresser and they have Mary E. 15, an errand girl. Eunice Ann, 12, scholar and William, 9, Sarah Emma, 8, Hannah, 5, and Annetta, 2, who died in 1863 aged 4. Rachel’s father, George, is still in Morley, at 123 Banks Hill listed as a shopkeeper. Her half-sister, Betty Megson is living at Bottoms, Morley with her husband, William Lightowler.

Leeds Library and Information Service, Leeds City Council.

Bank Street Grocers

1864 Rachel aged 40, died 10^th May at 11 Valley Street. She had had 4 more children since 1861. George Walter, 1861; Elliot, 1862; Walter, 1863 and Rachel 1864.  Her daughter, Rachel, was born at 10, Valley Street, she died at 11, Valley Street, Leeds  of Parturition Syncope.

Rachel was buried in Morley on May 12^th. She is listed as resident of Hunslett, Leeds.

Thomas Almond married again in 1869. He married Ann Heslop from Hunslett, Leeds. She had married William Hawkshead in 1849 and was now a widow.

In 1871 they are living in Leeds at 2 Delaware Street with most of the children. Sarah Emma is working as a domestic servant in Morley. George Rushby is still at Banks Hill, Morley. George died in 1874.

In 1879 Thomas Almond died in Wakefield lunatic asylum and was buried at Morley on March 12^th 1879.

In 1880 Ann married again to William Lightowler who was the widower of Rachel’s half sister Betty Megson. 

In 1881, Rachel Almond, the youngest daughter is living in Morley with William Lightowler and his wife Ann. She is listed as niece to William Lightowler but she is, in fact, living with the woman who had been her mother since the age of 5 or 6. William Lightowler had been married to Betty Megson, her mother’s sister. Betty died in 1877.

This is the Rachel who married James Richard Ashman and went to Salford at the turn of the century.