Mary Spence of Skipton

Mary Spence was born on 12 February 1785 and christened on 6 March 1785, in Bolton Abbey, the daughter of John Spence of Barden and Ellen Ward [1] . 

Mary joined her five-year-old brother James and her three-year-old sister Ann [2] . They must have been very close being so near to each other in age. Mary was joined by her younger brother, John, when she was four years old and she was probably fascinated by the new arrival [3] . When she was six her youngest sister Jane arrived [4] . Mary and her sister Ann probably helped to care for their younger siblings and help their parents run their smallholding or farm in Barden. However, when Mary was only ten years old she would have seen her youngest baby brother Francis buried aged only six months old [5] . This must have been a difficult Christmas for the young family and the memory of the tiny coffin being lowered into the frosty ground must have stayed with them that year.

Mary’s sister Ann was the first to leave home and marry in 1803 when Mary would have been eighteen years old. Mary and her sister Jane were probably bridesmaids at the happy occasion [6] . Ann and her husband John Bland set up home in Addingham and started a family there [7] . Mary and Ann were probably very close and Mary may have helped with her sister’s first two children.

Marrying James Bramley

By 1807 Mary had met James Bramley of Skipton. James was a handloom weaver, which would have paid well during the Napoleonic wars. They married in January 1808 in Skipton [8] . Mary was five years older then the nineteen-year-old James Bramley and was nearly seven months pregnant on the day of their wedding. This may have been a shotgun wedding, although it is not clear who was taking advantage of whom. Mary’s sister Anne attended the wedding also six months pregnant with her third child, and they may have found it difficult to support each other through labour. Their first child Sarah arrived on 26 March of that year [9] . Ann Bland’s third child was christened on 10 April 1808 and it is possible that she was already suckling her small daughter before Mary gave birth.

1814 was a busy year for Mary Bramley nee Spence and her husband James. They had a growing family of two daughters and a son, Sarah being joined by her siblings William and Elizabeth in 1811 and 1813 [10] . On 9 May they would have attended the marriage of Mary’s brother John Spence to Mary Roper in Skipton, with their three toddlers [11] . Mary was also six months pregnant with her fourth child Martha and may have found it difficult, especially if it was a warm May [12] . Again in June that year Mary, seven months pregnant, would have attended the marriage of her brother-in-law John Bramley to Margaret Birtwhistle [13] .

Two years later, in October 1816, Mary and her four young children would have attended the marriage of her youngest sister Jane to John Holgate [14] . Mary would have found this wedding easier to attend being only three months pregnant with her next fifth child Isabella [15] . However, losing her mother Ellen in November 1816 must have been a very hard blow to bear [16] .

In 1819 Mary would have attended her sister-in-law Elizabeth’s wedding to Joseph Spencer, with her five young children [17] .  Elizabeth Bramley was five months pregnant as their daughter Sarah was christened on 7 September 1819 [18] . Elizabeth died in 1821, and her husband Joseph Spencer remarried EllenBoothman in 1824 [19] . These years were quite tough for Mary’s husband James as within two years he also lost his parents. In 1822 James lost his mother Sarah, and a year later his father James Bramley [20] .

By 1823 James and Mary had been joined by two other girls Mary and Ann [21] . In 1824, they lost their youngest daughter Ann, aged one. Their sons James and John arrived in 1826 and 1829 [22] . John may have been a sickly child as he was buried in Skipton aged only three months [23] . Mary Bramley nee Spence was now forty-five years old and had a very large family to look after.

Mary’s brother-in-law Thomas, aged 32, married Ann Oldfield, aged 20, in Skipton on 6 October 1828 [24] . Mary and her large family of seven surviving children would have attended this wedding. Ann Bramley nee Oldfield was six months pregnant, and this would have been another shotgun wedding [25] . Her daughter Sarah was born on 31 January 1829 and would have played with her cousins in Mary’s household [26] . However, life was not easy for Thomas as his wife Ann died and was buried on 29 November 1830 aged 22 [27] . Their only daughter followed a year later aged two [28] . After this double tragedy Thomas left Skipton and moved to Colne [29] . He returned after marrying and having children in Colne. In 1851, Thomas was living at Millfields, as a cotton weaver, with his wife Margaret and their children Elizabeth, Broughton and Mary [30] . By 1861, Thomas is living at Westgate Skipton, aged 63 a cotton power loom weaver [31] .

Mary’s eldest daughter Sarah married Thomas Wray on 24 November 1830, only three days before the loss of her sister in law Anne [32] .  This cannot have been a happy occasion. Sarah and Thomas set up home in Skipton and had a small family. Thomas Wray remained in Skipton, and was buried in 1862 aged 62 [33] .

December 1837 a Month of Marriages

Seven years later December was an extremely busy month for the Bramleys. On 14 December 1837, their second eldest daughter Elizabeth married George Horner in Skipton Parish Church [34] . Elizabeth’s daughter Anne was born a day later, on 15 December so it is highly likely that Elizabeth Bramley was heavily pregnant when they married [35] . Preparations for James and Mary would have been hectic as only two days later their daughter Isabella married Thomas Myers in Skipton Parish Church [36] . Thomas and Isabella Myers had a small family [37] . Within two weeks their daughter Martha married Thomas Chew that on 28 December [38] . December 1837 was a very busy month for weddings for the Bramley family and would have been an expensive time.

In 1841, Mary’s brother-in-law John Bramley was a labourer and lived at Back of the Becks in Skipton with his wife Margaret and his children George and Elizabeth [39] . Hardcastle Ingham, son of Thomas and Mary Ingham also lived with him. Hardcastle Ingham was a piecer in a cotton factory [40] . His mother Mary Ingham nee Hudson was buried in 1832 and it would appear that Hardcastle Ingham had been taken in by relatives [41] . His siblings were in the workhouse [42] . In 1846 John lost his wife Margaret, it may have been at this time that he moved in with his eldest daughter Elizabeth [43] . In 1847, on the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth John is described as an Overlooker. By 1851, John Bramley was living with his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Robert Banister in Millfields [44] . John Bramley died at Apperley Bridge in 1852 [45] .

John’s eldest son George Bramley married Mary Scott in 1845 [46] . They had two children, John and Margaret before Mary died in 1850 [47] . John Bramley was sent to live with his grandfather John Scott in 1851, and his aunt Margaret Harrison nee Scott in 1861, and continued to support him. In 1851, George Bramley lived at number 7 Back of the Becks, a widower and is 'Insit of Drawes cotton', in a Cotton factory [48] .

In 1841 Mary, aged 55, was living in Chamberlain’s Yard in Sheep Street with her husband James and their children William, James and Mary [49] . James Bramley, aged 52, was a ‘Carder in a Cotton Factory’, and his sons William, aged 25, was a cotton warper, and James, aged 15, was a Doffer in a cotton factory [50] . Mary’s daughter Mary, aged 20, was also a spinner in the cotton factory [51] . It is highly probable the whole of the family were working in Dewhurst’s Mills on Belle Vue Street in 1841. Mary did not work, but remained at home caring for her grandson John Wray, aged five [52] . John Wray and his sister Ann Wray, lived with their grandparents in 1841. Ann Wray, aged 10, was a Rover in Belle Vue Mills and her wage would have helped to increase the household earnings. This was a tough life for one so young and Anne died in 1845 [54] . In 1841 there is no trace of their daughter Sarah Wray and it is possible the children were with their grandparents because their mother had died [55] . William Bramley died in 1847 aged only thirty-four years old, but Mary did not live to see this [56] . Mary Bramley, nee Spence, of Chamberlain’s Yard was buried on 16 May 1845 aged sixty-three [57] .