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James (1713 to 1780) and Mary (Buckley) Bilbrough lived in Bruntcliffe, a suburb of Morley just south and west of Leeds, England. They are the earliest know ancestors of a family that today can be found in America, Canada, Australia, South Africa as well as the UK. James and Mary's children and grandchildren spread out from Bruntcliffe, and Gildersome (especially Park House: above right) became the center of Bilbrough activity. By the third and fourth generations, the family became quite wealthy from a combination of farming, brewing and the wool trade. In the early eighteenth century, Leeds was the wool and textile capital of the world, and the Bilbrough family was engaged in all aspects of this lucrative business; from manufacturing to cotton importation to sales. Several sons of the second James became commission agents and went to Philadelphia and New York to sell woolen products, and one son owned a Ware-House in Christchurch Alley a few blocks from Independence Hall. In the 1850's a Bilbrough set up a Cotton Mill near Albany, NY and another speculated in land and sold insurance in Missouri. Back in England, Bilbroughs owned drug stores, grocery stores, textile mills, insurance agencies, and merchant ships. In the 1880's Park House was sold, and by 1900 not one Bilbrough could be found living in Gildesome and Morley. |
