Ellen Hesketh (1885-1938)

Ellen Hesketh married Thomas Ruddock on 16th April 1906 at St. Mary's Church, Kirkdale, Lancashire. They had one son, my grandfather, who was also called Thomas Ruddock in 1906.

Ellen's younger brother Ralph Hesketh (pronounced Rafe) was brought up with my grandfather as if they were brothers and they went to school together.

Ellen died on 22nd May 1938 and is buried in Newburgh Church Cemetery, in the grave of Martha Stopforth, who I thought may have been her aunt, but turned out to be her grandmother!

William Hesketh

According to Ellen and Thomas' Marriage certificate, Ellen's father was William Hesketh - Boatman. One of the witnesses is Edward Hesketh, who may hve been another of Ellen's brothers.

My research into the Hesketh branch of my family has been rather slow and difficult because we had so little information about her. She was born after the 1881 census, which made it difficult to trace her family. Beliving that she had an older brother called Henry or Harry, one possible candidate family was:

Dwelling: Newburgh
Census Place: Lathom, Lancashire, England
Source: FHL Film 1341899 PRO Ref RG11 Piece 3756 Folio 61 Page 11
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
Ellen HESKETH M 21 F Newburgh, Lancashire, England
Rel: Head
Occ: Boatmans Wife
Jane HESKETH 3 F Newburgh, Lancashire, England
Rel: Daur
John Henry HESKETH 6 m M Newburgh, Lancashire, England
Rel: Son

This seemed likely becasue my great grandmother could have been named after her mother, the 21 year old Ellen above is a Boatman's wife and had a small son called John Henry (Ellen's brother harry?).

The next step was to find a boatman called William Hesketh and again this proved more difficult than it at first seemed. The most likely candidate was:

Dwelling: William Robinson
Census Place: Aspull, Lancashire, England
Source: FHL Film 1341900 PRO Ref RG11 Piece 3761 Folio 101 Page 14
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
John HESKETH M 25 M Burscough, Lancashire, England
Rel: Head
Occ: Master Boatman
Richard HILTON M 42 M Tarleton, Lancashire, England
Occ: Mate
John GREGSON U 20 M Newburg, Lancashire, England
Occ: Mate
William HESKETH U 22 M Newburg, Lancashire, England
Occ: Mate

The name, age, occupation and place of birth all seemed right but the census stated that he was unmarried. In fact, there are no married William Heskeths who fit the other requirements on the 1881 census. This left me with two possibilities:

On a chance meeting of my parents with Ralph Hesketh's son, he was able to tell them that his grandmother's name was in fact Margery, which ruled out the family I had in Newburgh but meant that the unmarried William Hesketh could have married Margery Stopforth who appears on the 1881 census in Newburgh with a borther called Ralph. It's logical that she would name a son after her brother. This would mean that the relationship between Martha Stopforth and my great grandmother is that she was my great grandmother's step-grandmother.