STRASMA | LOWTHER | DRINAN | RUDDELL

The Cliftons and Hargreaves of Lancashire

In 1841 the Clifton family was living on Wilkinson Street in Haslingden, Lancashire, England, about 19 miles north of the major industrial city of Manchester. Philip Clifton, the father, was 48, and a fishmonger. His wife, Mary, was 35, and they had three children, Margaret, 13, Betty, 3, and Mary Jane, 1. (1841 England census)

Philip and Mary were married 25 JAN 1826, residing in New Club Houses, Haslingden. The record is illegible - Mary's last name may be Rossley/Graffsley/Crofsley.

Philip died and was buried 6 FEB 1848, according to the burial registry for Haslingden. His age is listed as 53, which is somewhat inconsistent with the earlier census age.

In the 1851 census the Clifton residence is listed as Back Wilkinson Street in Haslingden. Mary Clifton, a widow, is 44. Children listed are Betsy, 12, Mary Jane, 10, Philip, 7, and Worsley, 5 months. (There is no explanation of Worsley's parentage, given that Mary's husband, Phillip, apparently died three years earlier.)

Mary is shown to be a lodging house keeper, while 12 year old Betsey is a cotton mule creeler. And 10 year old Mary Jane is a cotton carding piecer. They have at least four lodgers. A cotton mule was a spinning machine to produce yarns. A creeler’s job was to change bobbins as the bobbins were filled with yarn, and the piecer rejoined the yarn if it broke.

Baptismal records for the children show the following (in some instances the birth date is noted):

Margaret, born 25 FEB 1828 and baptized 20 APR 1838
Jane, baptized 11 APR 1830
Betty, born 4 MAR 1837 and baptized 3 APR 1837
Mary Jane, born 4 FEB 1840 and baptized 19 MAR1840
Martha, baptized 15 AUG 1847
Worsley, born 10 NOV 1850 and baptized 1 DEC 1850 (the record shows no father's name and mother Mary is listed as a widow)
I did not find a baptismal record for Philip.

The Clifton's will be linked by marriage to another Lancashire family, the Hargreaves, which is a very common family name in Lancashire. Margaret and Worsley Clifton both married Hargreaves siblings. A third Lancashire family, the Bensons, also married with Hargreaves siblings. These family relationships continued after emigration to the US.

The Cliftons and Hargreaves lived in nearby villages -- the Hargreaves in Cloughfold lived just a few miles east of the Cliftons in Haslingden. (The two villages are about 18 miles north of the major industrial town of Manchester.)

George and Ann Hargreaves are listed in the 1841 census for Cloughfold with their 10 children. George, 40, is a woolen carder and Ann, 40, is a housewife. The Hargreaves children, from 8-year-old George to 20-year-old James all worked in the woolen mills.

The census lists the children as:

James, 20, woolen carder
Henry, 19, clogger
Elizabeth, 17, woolen spinner
William, 15, woolen spinner
Mary, 12, woolen spinner
George, 8, woolen piecer
John, 6
Alice Ann, 3
Edward, 1
Richard, infant?

George Hargreaves had married Ann Rothwell 19 JUL 1819. (George was born in 1801 and Ann was born in 1801 in Lancashire). Ann (Rothwell) Hargreaves died in 17 JAN 1848 in Lancashire.

I have not located an 1851 census record for the Hargreaves.

George subsequently married Mary Bradshaw on 19 July 1853 in Haslingden, Lancashire. Mary Bradshaw was born in 1809 in Lancashire.

The 1861 census shows George and Mary Hargreaves living at Underwood in Bury Parish. George is listed as a farmer. The only child remaining with them is Alice Ann, 23, who is a cotton power loom weaver.

Underwood Farm exists today, and the Place family has lived there for more than 125 years.

George died in Haslingden at the age of 63 on 2 FEB 1863. I have found no further record of Mary Hargreaves and no 1871 census record of Alice Ann Hargreaves. She did not emigrate to the United States until 1873 and, at that time, her occupation is listed as milliner.

(John Hargreaves later marries Margaret Clifton; Alice Ann Hargreaves marries Worsley Clifton; and Edward Hargreaves emigrates to the U.S. and serves in the civil war. Edward marries Bridget Benson, and her brother, Heap, marries Mary Ann Hargreaves.)

Margaret Clifton, 23, is listed in the 1851 census as a servant (nurse) in the home of Jane Ashworth and her two children in Bowden. (Jane Ashworth in the 1841 census is recorded as a person of independent means in Cloughfold.)

In 1861 Philip and Worsley are listed as lodgers in the home of William and Sarah Heap in Cloughfold, Newchurch. Philip, 17, is a cotton weaver and Worsley, 10, is a cotton gaffer.

Their sister, Margaret, married John Hargreaves on 29 OCT 1863 in Waterfoot, England, a village immediately adjacent to Cloughford. John had first come to America about 1852, settled near Plattville in Kendall County, Illinois, and then returned to England to marry Margaret. Their first son, Philip Henry, was born in Waterfoot on 14 AUG 1864. New York passenger lists record that they arrived there on 11 SEP 1865 on the "City of New York." (Steerage passage cost $30 while first class commanded a $105 fare. The Hargreaves traveled in steerage.)

The ship’s manifest shows:

Traveling with John, Margaret, and year-old Philip is "Worsley Hargreaves, 7." Eula Clifton Strasma, Worsley's granddaughter recalls that he emigrated to the US with his sister and her husband. It seems likely that "Worsley Hargreaves" was actually Worsley Clifton and that his age was mistaken. Worsley would have been 15 at the time.

Ship arrival lists show Worsley's brother Philip Clifton, wife Susan, and daughter Mary arriving at New York 3 MAY 1869 on the "City of Baltimore."

Worsley in the 1870 US census is living in Ashkum with his brother Philip Clifton, Philip's wife Susan, and their two children. (Worsley's name is spelled "Warthley" in the census.). Worsley and Philip are both listed as farm laborers.

Sister Margaret, her husband John Hargreaves, and their three children are the next entry in the 1870 census in Ashkum. John is identified as a farmer. Spelling was evidently a challenge for the census-taker who recorded "Hardgraves" as the family name.

Alice Ann Hargreaves, who was born 18 SEP 1838, came to the United States in 1873, arriving April 14 at New York on the ship Calabria. Traveling with her were two nephews, Olden, 21, and James, 19, both sons of her oldest brother James. Alice is listed as a milliner.

Worsley Clifton and Alice Ann Hargreaves were married 15 DEC 1875 in Iroquois County, Illinois. Worsley was 25, and Alice was 38.

Their only son Frank Albert was born 19 DEC 1877 in Francesville IN. Two years later, the 1880 census shows the family living on a farm in Salem Township, Pulaski County, Indiana. Worsley is 31, Alice is 38, and Frank is 2. Granddaughter Eula Clifton recalls that a daughter died in infancy.

The census shows the Cliftons are living near Heap Benson and his wife, Mary. Mary is Alice Ann (Hargreaves) Clifton's sister. (A further interconnection: Edward Hargreaves is married to Heap's sister Bridget.)

By 1880 Philip and Susan Clifton are now living in Chebanse and now have five children, Mary, 15, Margaret, 10, Susan, 3, Philip, 2, and Thomas, 8 months. Philip is now shown as a farmer.

Sometime after 1880, the Worsley Cliftons moved to Ashkum. Worsley established several businesses in Ashkum, purchasing a meat market and later opening a movie theater and ice cream parlor. He also had an ice house, cutting ice in a pond and storing it for sale through the year. The Advocate newspaper in nearby Clifton repeatedly reported that Worsley had shipped a carload of hogs to Chicago.

Worsley and Alice's son Frank Clifton married Emma Norman in 1901 in Ashkum. Frank worked in his father's meat market. They moved to Kankakee in 1905. Their first child, Eula Margaret, was born in 1907. Two years later they moved into the home where they would remain for the rest of their lives at 643 S. Rosewood Avenue in Kankakee. Velma was born in 1911; Lucille was born in 1913; and Florence was born in 1917.

Alice Ann died 6 AUG 1923. Worsley stayed in Ashkum for a number of years until he moved to Kankakee to live with his son and his family. He died in 1943.