What's in a name? The continuation of the Duckworths.

My Bali Ducks remind me of the Duckworth origins

This story follows on from the previous story “Destroying” the lineage of the Duckworth family history in the eyes of my husband. What’s in a name?

William Duckworth  born Frayker and the step son of George Duckworth had two marriages, first to Sarah Standring in 1842. The children born were Mary Duckworth, 1843, and William Duckworth, 1855. According to the baptismal records. Mary was born in Fairfield, Her father William was a potter, and it was part of the Haslingden Parish in Lancashire. Sadly, Sarah, their mother, passed away some time before Jan 1858 when William, her husband, remarried. His second marriage was to Mary Ann Hill on 1^st January1858. James Duckworth was probably born later that year. He was the ancestor in our family. Another son, John Duckworth, was born in 1860.

The 1861 census has them living in Birtle Cum Bamford. William is a labourer at the pottery, and the daughter Mary is a paper maker, age 17. Their newest additions to the family were James, aged 3 and son John was born in 1860. Despite some dubious dates James's mother, Mary Ann, or Molly as she was known has been confirmed on the General Registry Office and DNA hints., She died  at some stage before 1871. (Everyone is called Sarah or Mary Duckworth!)

1861 census

Her husband, was shown in the 1871 census as a two time widower with young William living together with the matriarch Esther, now aged 82, as their housekeeper. James may well have been an inmate at the Bury workhouse, suffering insanity!

Perhaps a quick recovery as in 1881, James and the two Williams were living together. He  is a cotton warehouse man. This is the last we see of William Fracker, a.k.a. Duckworth, who I believe passed away in 1895 at the age of 72.

The local employment is within the cotton industry. It had been expanding enormously in recent years and most weaving was done now in huge mills and factories as opposed to home hand weaving.  During the Industrial Revolution, villages and towns often grew up around factories and mills. Cotton was sent from America for processing, and over 440,000 people were supporting the industry, making a good proportion of the world's production of cotton.

James married in 1886; He married into the Thornley family. He continued as a warehouseman in the cotton factory and they are listed in the 1891 census. Clara Thornley, and he married in 1886, and three children ensued.

Clara Thornley had been shown in the 1881 census as a granddaughter of John and Betty Buttler, a dyer. Clara is a cotton reeler, age 17. Her parents have both passed away 10 years previously. James and Clara married in the Wesleyan Church, Radcliffe, in the District of Bury. 

The three children were Alice Duckworth, born 1888, Harry Duckworth, born 1891 My husband's great-grandmother, Amelia or Millie Duckworth in 1891 in Bury. It’s the last we see of their mother as she passed away  in 1898.

Ten years later, he is still working packing cloth in a cloth warehouse. Clara had passed away about three years before when the children were 10, 7, and 3. So in 1901, James was alone with Alice, 12, Harry, 10, and Millie, 6. Alice would have had to step up as “mother” when her father passed only one year later in 1902. 

1911 census with the 3 Duckworth siblings

When the census was taken in 1911 the siblings were living together at 21 Broad Oak Street Bury. Harry was a domestic gardener and the two girls were working as weavers at the local mill.

A lot happened in that decade. Alice and James Tootell married in the Congregational Church in August 1911 and a month later Harry married Clara Openshaw at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel.

Times were changing in the “Cottonopolis”  of Lancashire. More machines and production techniques took over.  The growth of the cotton industry peaked just before the First World War. The breakdown of this industrial heartland began as other countries began producing at lower cost. Significant migration in the early 1900s from Lancashire to USA and Canada began as families looked for economic opportunities and a desire for a new life.  This continued until 1980s most of the mills had closed down and would influence the Duckworths.

There were three Duckworth children alive when World War I broke out. They, and what happened next, were interconnected with our family history.

In 1914, three Bury men were quick to enlist. James Tootell had enlisted as a private in the Lancashire Fusiliers at the start of the war, and Harry enlisted as well. One of their fellow enlistees was James Edward Cassidy, a hatter at a local hat factory. Whether the men played a part in the introduction of James to Amelia or whether they were Bury friends previously is unknown. James Cassidy enlisted on  3rd September 1914 (aged 21 yrs) - Private 280583 - 1st Seventh Lancashire Fusiliers. Coincidentally Harry’s number for the 1/7 th Lancashire Fusiliers was one number after James.

The 7th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, was a volunteer unit of Britain's Territorial Army from 1908 until 1967. Raised in Salford Mabchester, it fought as infantry at Gallipoli, in Egypt and on the Western Front during the WWI. The boys were there.

Complete with injuries here are James and Harry in the Lancashire Fusiliers. 

They sailed from England in a 16 ship convoy, with cruiser escort. Arrived Alexandria - then Cairo - then Gallipoli on 2nd May 1915. They arrived 4th May, landed 5th May & into action on 6th May 1915

James was wounded on 4th June 1915 by explosive bullet (head, arm & near heart). His heart was  'saved' by a medal in his tunic pocket. He spent 6 weeks in a hospital in Malta before going back to Alexandria, and Gallipoli until Christmas 1915.

James once remarked that British & allied troops 'hated' Winston Churchill over the Gallipoli disaster. He spoke of the retreat from Gallipoli using water dripping into cans attached to rifle triggers, and random firing through the last night, as Turks would think the lines were still manned. They went off to Egypt and Sinai but no action was seen. The Company shipped to France in March 1917 (James and Harry were shipped back home due to injuries)

In April 1917, James and Amelia had married and only months later James was injured in Bologna , France and was shipped home and discharged because of his injuries.  

James and Amelia on their wedding day

By the 1921 census, they were living down the road from Harry and Clara at 9 Broad Oak Lane in Bury. James had had injuries to his arm, which he lived with all his life. He returned to the hatting trade and life continued with James and Amelia having two girls Winifred born in1919 and Patricia in 1922.

There were several  little cousins born post-war and playing around the streets of Bury. Winifred Cassidy, born 1919, James Tootell Jr, born 1920, and Harry Duckworth Jr born 1920. Two little Duckworths Herbert and Hilda died in infancy in 1922 and 1923. Another Cassidy cousin, little Patricia Cassidy, was born in 1922.

Winifred with Millie 1920

Life was a struggle in the post-war downturn of the cotton industry. Kids were clothed and fed with what was available. It was an outdoor life of playing in the alleys and making their own fun.. Bury was a tight-knit community. By sharing and sticking together, they got through.

In 1924, Harry and Clara decided to leave Bury.  Perhaps this was due to the deaths of two infant children. They sailed on the “Orcades” bound for Western Australia with their youngest son, Harry Jr. This is a curious decision as Clara's father and his new wife and children had settled in Canada around 1911. But perhaps there were other reasons for them to be drawn to Western Australia.

Harry settled in Western Australia. He had previously been a bricklayer and he continued in labouring jobs in WA.  He and his wife Clara had more children in Perth- Edith Duckworth b1924, James Duckworth b1926 and Norah Duckworth b1929. He lived in Victoria Park, Western Australia, until 1992 when he died aged 72.

Harry Senior re-enlisted to assist the war effort in World War II at the age of 50. He enlisted in a Motor Transport Company and worked as a driver and  cook at Northam before being discharged on 15 March 1943. 

Harry Duckworth Snr  WWII

Young Harry was a four-year-old when they left Lancashire for their country of future permanent residence.  When the Second World War commenced he signed up. He enlisted on the 24th of February 1941. Harry was in the CMF from 1941 to 1946, firstly serving in Darwin in 1943 and 1944 and later in operational service in New Britain, New Guinea in 1944 through to 1946 in the 16th Battalion. In 1947 he married Ella May Moore and had possibly 4 children.

Harry Duckworth Jnr WWII

After the departure of Harry and Clara for Australia the story takes a turn. In December that year (1924) Amelia or Millie as she was known, died of mitral valvular disease and cardiac dilation at the County Winwick County Mental Hospital. Funnily enough their address was listed was at Woodroyd, Duckfold, Bury. 

Aunty Alice's house 4 Vernon St Bury

 Winifred and Patricia were five and two, and James Edward Cassidy was devastated. At the encouragement of his friend from Bury -Phillip Nuttall he decided to look for work in the emerging hat industry in Sydney and left the girls behind with Alice and James Tootell and their son James in Vernan St Bury until he could call for the girls to join him in Australia. Eventually James remarried. The two daughters, Pat and Wynne, had travelled to Sydney unaccompanied in the charge of a stewardess on the voyage, which took 42 days, arriving in 1929.

James E. Cassidy had a successful life and marriage to May Davis in West Ryde where they brought up his two girls and four more boys.

Alice Tootell missed the little girls and the last link with her dear sister. By the taking of the 1939 census, James Tootell Senior was a caretaker at the Municipal Offices. Alice was involved in the Women's Volunteer Services in World War II. At the time young James was doing an apprenticeship in cabinet making. This photo looks like he may have enlisted.

Jim Tootell 1942

Alice remained in Bury to live a long life   until she died in 1978 two years after her husband James . Her son Jim had married Violet Brooke and had one daughter, Judith.

Sadly, time has lapsed and distance prevailed. We lost touch. There's three more generations after Winifred Cassidy, James Tootell, and Harry Duckworth.

Wouldn't it be nice to be connected after all these years, over a DNA match? Duckworth lineage or not?

Winifred nee Cassidy with some of her grandchildren and great grandchildren 2014