Sarah Jennings

       Sarah Jennings, wife of James Bramley senior, and grandmother of Elizabeth Bramley, was born Settle, North Yorkshire on 1 March 1761 and baptized in Settle, North Yorkshire, 19 April 1761 [1] . She was the youngest daughter of Timothy Jennings, woolcomber, and Sarah Wilkinson of Ingleton [2] . 

       Baby Sarah, was probably named after her mother, and joined her elder sisters Mary, aged ten, Rebecca aged six, and Elizabeth, aged two, and her brother Timothy, aged eight [3] . She would have played with her sister Elizabeth and they would have been very close. They were soon joined two years later by the youngest sibling John Jennings in 1763 [4] .

       Sarah’s father was a woolcomber and would have taken in raw wool to be combed and carded as part of the early domestic system. He moved between Ingleton, Settle and Skipton during the early years of his children’s lives, perhaps following the demand for woolcombers. By the time Sarah’s youngest brother John was born the family had moved from Settle to Skipton where they settled.

       However, life for the young Sarah and her siblings was not easy. After having given birth to six children and moved her young family numerous times Sarah’s mother Sarah took ill and was buried in Skipton in October 1765, aged only thirty-seven [5] . Sarah was only four years old, and with her two-year-old brother John, six-year-old sister Elizabeth and their older sisters and brother they would have watched their mother’s coffin being lowered into a burial plot in Skipton parish church. Sarah’s eldest sisters Mary, aged fourteen and Rebecca aged ten, would have taken on most of the care of the younger children, and their twelve year old brother Timothy would have helped their father earn the family’s living. Most of the children would have assisted Timothy Jennings in Woolcombing in the home from as early as three years of age and it is possible that all the children were involved in the woolcombing business in some aspect.

       Their father Timothy may have taken some time to grieve for his young wife as he only married again three years later. In 1768 Timothy married Martha Hudson who became a stepmother to seven-year-old Sarah and her siblings [6] .

       Sarah’s oldest sister Mary was the first to leave home and she married William Holme and left the Skipton area [7] . Rebecca was the next to leave home and she married Moses Topham in Kildwick in 1775 [8] . The fourteen-year-old Sarah would have attended the marriage and would probably have been a bridesmaid with her sister Elizabeth. Rebecca Topham nee Jennings appears to have moved to Bradford with her husband and had a family of six sons [9] . Sarah’s sister Elizabeth appears not to have married.

       Sarah’s brother Timothy followed his father in the woolcombing business and must have found that business was booming. He certainly felt that he had a sufficient income to marry and start a family and married Elizabeth Blackbrough in 1777 [10] .  Sarah would have attended the wedding aged seventeen and may even have been a bridesmaid. Timothy and Elizabeth soon started a family with a son and a daughter in quick succession [11] . Sarah may have enjoyed being an aunty for the first time and may have helped to care for the children.

       Sarah’s stepmother may have been kind to her and her siblings. Martha Jennings died and was buried in 1781 [12] . Sarah’s father Timothy had also died by 1781 before he was fifty-four, as Martha was described as a widow. Sarah found herself on her own at the age of twenty. However, she may have found someone handsome to support her through her grief.

       Sarah may have been a beautiful young woman as she attracted the attentions of a soldier Joshua Wood. Whether Joshua offered to marry her or not, they had a relationship, and a child, Thomas who was born in 1782. Joshua may have died, or his regiment may have moved, as there was no shotgun wedding. Thomas was not christened, but was buried less than a year old on 7 October 1782 [13] . Only twenty-one years old this must have been very difficult for Sarah.

       Sarah’s younger brother John Jennings started his own family in 1786 when he married Martha Carty [14] .  They had a daughter Elizabeth in 1786 [15] . John may not have found it easy to support his family as he was a blind fiddler. He may have made some money by playing at fairs and perhaps local dances, but this may not have been a steady living.

       Married Life

       Sarah may have found life difficult in a small rural town. By the age of twenty-one she had lost both her parents and a step-mother and had been deserted whilst pregnant by a soldier. She had also seen her small baby buried in the cold earth, after probably struggling to make ends meet and care for his needs. Her prospects for marriage cannot have been very high. However, by 1786 Sarah had met and married a young boatman, James Bramley, who probably worked on the Leeds Liverpool Canal, which was opened between Holmbridge near Gargrave and Leeds in 1777 ^[16] . The stretch of canal between Liverpool and Newburgh, near Parbold Lancashire, was opened in 1775 ^[17] .  It is therefore unlikely that James Bramley was working in Skipton before 1777.

       James Bramley was ten years older than his wife and Sarah may have found security after at least five years of fending for herself.  They married in Skipton Holy Trinity Parish Church on 17 May 1786 [18] . This may have been a sudden marriage as Sarah Jennings was already two months pregnant. At least this time the father of her child did the honourable thing and made an honest woman of Sarah.

       Sarah and James’ eldest son Thomas Bramley was born on 20 January 1787, and named after James’s father Thomas Bramley, smelter of Liverpool [19] .  Two years later, after Thomas was weaned, Sarah gave birth to her second son James on 8 May 1789 [20] . It seemed that Sarah and her brothers were settling into their adult lives.

       In 1790, however, Sarah received a nasty shock to the system. Her youngest brother, John, the blind fiddler, died on 1 January 1790 from Asthma and was buried two days later [21] . He was only twenty-six years old and left a four-year-old daughter and a heavily pregnant wife Martha. Sarah may have taken her sister-in-law in, who gave birth to her posthumous son John in February 1790, only a month after the death of her husband [22] . The small John Junior did not last three months and was laid to rest in April 1790 [23] . This must have been a very difficult time for Sarah and her family.

       Sarah and James’ third son John Bramley was born on 25 May 1792 [24] .  James and Thomas had a shared their christening on 25 November 1792 when James was nearly three and a half and his younger brother John was six months old [25] . With three healthy boys Sarah and James would have seemed to have been very lucky. However in 1795 the eldest eight-year son Thomas died from dropsy, and Sarah, James and their six and three year old sons would have watched the tiny coffin being lowered into Holy Trinity’s burial ground [26] . Within a year Sarah gave birth to another boy and named him Thomas [27] . After bearing four sons and loosing one, Sarah finally gave birth to her only daughter Elizabeth on 31 March 1798 [28] . 

       Sarah and James appear to have been quite comfortable as they only lost one child before adulthood. Trade along the canal and the final connection between Liverpool and Leeds would have seen trade booming. It would seem that James and Sarah took advantage of this.

       Sarah’s son James did not follow his father into the carrier trade but embarked on a career as a handloom weaver. This would have paid well during the Napoleonic wars, when cloth was needed to clothe the soldiers. Sarah would have attended James’s marriage to Mary Spencer in January 1808 [29] . She would have been a proud grandmother by March when her first granddaughter Sarah arrived on 26 March 1808 [30] . Sarah may even have helped with the births of James’ children Elizabeth, William, Martha and Isabella [31] .

       Sarah’s son John Bramley married Margaret Birtwhistle in 1814 [32] . Sarah would have been pleased to see John’s first daughter Martha was born in 1815, followed closely by James, George, Elizabeth and Sarah [33] . She would have attended the funeral of the two-year-old James in 1817, but did not live to see the death of the youngest Sarah.

       In 1819 Sarah’s only daughter Elizabeth married Joseph Spencer [34] . Elizabeth was five months pregnant as their daughter Sarah was christened on 7 September 1819 [35] . However, Elizabeth died in 1821, and Sarah must have been beside herself with grief. She did not live to see Joseph remarry [36] . In 1822 Sarah Bramley was buried on 4 July aged sixty-one. She was soon followed a year later by her husband James [37] .