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Pre-Census Genealogy – Robinson Family History

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*I’m working on updating this post with some newly discovered information. Please check back soon.*

For this blog post, I wanted to dive into a part of my family tree I hadn’t really explored before. So, I honed in on my Robinson ancestors from Euxton – specifically, Richard Robinson and Alice Hilton. Richard and Alice are my 5x great grandparents on my maternal side.

What I have uncovered so far is the story of a typical labouring family navigating life during a time of huge upheaval: war, rebellions, new ideas from the Enlightenment, and periods of real poverty. Even with all those challenges and the social and industrial changes happening around them on a local level, the family grew and established themselves in and around the village of Euxton.

Georgian England – The era seems to have been one of considerable energy and optimism. Combing scientific and philosophical progress with the sort of rather unruly social behaviour that we can only wistfully dream about today. We might not actually want to witness a public execution as they evidently did, but who would not secretly want to throw rotting fruit or vegetables at the sanctimonious people in public life who tell you what you should think or how you should live. If you were a Georgian, you would have thrown it had you the opportunity, forcefully. Above all the Georgians were optimistic risk takers. They had to be as there was no other way to live. They often did dangerous work in which the risk of tetanus or sepsis from wounds was ever present. The industrial revolution was underway bringing both investment and employment opportunities… and the risk of losing money. Sanitation and drinking water were dubious to say the least, especially in towns and cities and medical help was equally haphazard. Childbirth was still both inevitable and dangerous, but most importantly the empire builders were on the move. As a nation they were not faint hearted. – A visitors guide to Georgian England, by Monica Hall

Robinson Ancestors

Church Records

James, the son of Richard and Alice is my 4x great grandfather and is with whom my research into the Robinson branch had paused.

Baptism: 7 Aug 1803 St Andrew, Leyland, Lancashire
James Robinson – Son of Richd. Robinson & Alice

In total my 5x great grandparents Richard and Alice had ten confirmed children. Starting with Elizabeth born in 1786 until their last child, Alice in 1812.

Using these two dates I began to piece together a picture of the family’s life in the interim.

Parish records told me that Richard and Alice had married the same year as Elizabeth’s birth – 1786 – and that they were married at St Michaels, Croston. They were both approximately thirty years old.

Richard Robinson, Husbandman, Leyland and Alice Hilton – Spinster. This Parish Witness; Peter Rutter, James Wright.

Elizabeth’s baptism confirms that in December of 1786 the family lived at Ulnes Walton.

Elizabeth Robinson – Daughter of Richard Robinson & Alice Born: 30 Dec 1786 Abode: Ulnes Walton Occupation: Husbandman

Husbandman – A tenant farmer working on rented land.

“ULNES WALTON is a township in the parish of Croston, it consists of numerous scattered dwellings, principally farm houses, and is 2 miles from Croston.” – 1905 Kelly’s Directory of Lancashire.

William Yates, 1738-1802, Published in 1786

Euxton

By 1788 the Robinson family had moved to nearby Euxton and were making a living from loom weaving.

Looking at old newspapers and searching the Lancashire archives website, I came across a Richard Robinson renting a farmstead belonging to the estate of John Longworth Esq.

Common Surname

In addition to my Richard, a record discovered in the County Archives told me that there was another Richard Robinson living in Euxton at this time with his wife Elizabeth. This Richard was also a ‘husbandman’. Due to the similarities, I put a simple family tree together for this other family to help prevent any mix ups during my research. When looking-up a surname that is popular in a particular town or village I find this really helpful.

A time of great change in Lancashire

1170 – 1840

The Industrial Revolution

Around the year 1780 weavers and hand-wheel spinners feared that these new inventions would rob them of their work, leading to frequent riots in many Lancashire towns including nearby Chorley. These disturbances became known as the Luddite, or Swing Riots.

Arkwright’s Mill of 1777 once located at Birkacre, Chorley was destroyed in October of 1779 by people whose livelihoods were threatened by the factory. The factory was burnt to the ground, but then rebuilt two years later and became a calico printing, dyeing and bleaching works. Once the printing factory had closed the land became Yarrow Valley Park.

Luddites destroying machines in an English textile mill. Original artwork from Look and Learn no. 649 (22 June 1974). © Look and Learn

French Revolutionary Wars

Another significant event during this time period was the war between England and France in 1792. The price of bread and other necessaries rose greatly because of the war as well as an increasing population. Whilst farmers saw the price of their grain increase, the poor suffered. This period in history leads on to the time of the Corn Laws and the subsequent repeal in 1846.

A quote from ‘The Village Labourer 1760-1832’ summarises the effects that these two significant events had on the English land labourer.

The agricultural labourers whose fathers had eaten meat, bacon, cheese and vegetables were living on bread and potatoes. They had lost their gardens, they had ceased to brew their beer in their cottages. In their work they had no sense of ownership or interest. They no longer sauntered after cattle on the open common and at twilight they no longer played down the setting sun; the games had almost disappeared from the English village, their wives and children were starving before their eyes, their homes were more squalid…

By 1820 1 in 4 of the Lancashire work force was employed in the Lancashire Cotton textile industry.

Into the archives

Quarter Sessions

A great place to search for further details about an ancestor’s life is in the Courts Quarter Session records. The archives contain a whole host of different records that may include a relative and can give clues to parts of their life story not known. I particularly enjoy searching these records as they can stir up some interesting family history stories!

Lancashire, England, Quarter Session Records and Petitions, 1648-1908

Removal Orders

Looking through results for the name ‘Robinson’ I was both pleased and saddened to find my family in the quarter session records for poor law parish removals. From a research perspective this was great news because this new information helped to separate them from the other Robinson family in the village, but saddened because the record I came across meant that the family had fallen on hard times.

The Settlement Act 1662 allowed Overseers of the poor to remove persons from their parish back to their native parish or legal settlement if they had become chargeable on the parish.

In the event of the parish authorities discovering that a person was likely to become a financial burden and become chargeable to the parish such as illegitimacy cases, those taken ill, suspected illegal immigrants or vagrants, the parish authorities undertook a Settlement Examination. The examination took place under the auspices of the Overseer of the Poor and a Justice of the Peace and was carried out to determine whether the person had a legitimate right to residency in the parish. – Genguide.co.uk

Overseers had to get a removal order from two Justices of the peace, who would first examine the person on oath. From 1795 removal was only permitted if the person became chargeable on the parish. – Family History Companion, Mark Pearsall

Children and wives took on the same legal settlement as the father. Cases are different for illegitimate children and their mothers, as well as apprentices.


The Poor Law

Euxton to Farington

In 1815 there was much political and social unrest because of the ending of the French Wars, the industrial and agricultural depression and the increase in unemployment. – The Old Poor Law 1795-1834, Historyhome.co.uk

During the winter of 1817, the Robinson family case was considered by the justices of the peace and the outcome was that they were to be removed by the poor wardens from Euxton to Farington.

5 December 1817

The removal order refers to Richard, Alice and their children – William aged fourteen. James aged twelve. Michael aged ten. Jonathan (Joshua) aged six. and Alice then aged four.

From 1697 the poor were allowed to move to any other parish in search of work but were required to have a settlement certificate from their former parish. This was an agreement to say that the parish would take them back if they ever became in need of poor relief. The Robinson record states that the family were poor and did not have this certificate. Curiously the document says that the family had moved to Euxton “lately”, but I know from baptism records that the family had lived in Euxton for at least two decades since the birth of their second child Robert in 1788. The only explanations I can conclude from this detail is that perhaps the family moved out of Euxton after the birth of Alice in 1812 and then back again. Or maybe they didn’t understand the rules or didn’t initially foresee having to rely on the poor law when they moved to Euxton so neglected to obtain the required documentation.

The family in Farington

Farington (spelt Farrington) at this time was part of the parish of Penwortham. I started my search for the Robinson’s looking at different records available for Penwortham at this time. When records relating directly to the family are scarce or non-existent which was the case in Farington for my Robinson’s, the next best thing was to build a picture of the place that they lived and to discover more about what was going on there at that time.

When researching before the census, books can be your best friend. I reached for the History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster Vol II. I was looking specifically for details about Farington, but also Euxton to get a better idea of the differences between the two villages. The first thing that stood out was the difference in population –

Euxton (In the parish of Leyland)

Farington (In the parish of Penwortham)

Information collected about the different occupations of the two parishes reveals a clue for the influx of person’s to Euxton at this time. The numbers show that there was more opportunity for employment in Euxton than perhaps that of Farington. Euxton had two mills at this time, whilst Farington’s cotton mill, situated on Mill Street wasn’t built until 1835 and so agriculture remained the chief occupation until that time.

Euxton

Farington

Kenneth Hodkinson’s book on Euxton-Burgh goes into great detail about the corn and paper mills of Euxton present at the time that the Robinson’s lived there.

I next looked at maps and the later tithe records to get a better understanding of the two villages as they were two centuries ago, paying particular attention to the difference in the number of farming plots between the two villages, which for Euxton was nearly double that of Farington. The tithe map of Farington revealed scattered farms and no significant central village in contrast of that seen on the map of Euxton.

Farington was a rural village that had been occupied for over a thousand years. In that time the population numbers had remained about the same, approximately 300 people until the building of William Boardman’s mill in 1835.*

Farrington seen on Greenwoods map of Lancashire 1818

My research into the two areas suggest that Euxton at this time was a village with opportunity for employment in both agriculture and industry so more information was needed to explain what had led the family to need assistance from the parish.

I revisited my study into the years following the French Wars. Further digging revealed the knock-on effect of the new textile inventions and the likely cause for the family’s hardship being the poor economic conditions in England in the years surrounding 1812, which were reported to have had hit Lancashire particularly hard. In the wake of mechanical invention and the move from home working to factories, wages for weavers like Richard had declined significantly at the same time that prices for provisions had risen. Weavers in some Lancashire towns were being paid roughly 14 shillings a week, nearly half of what they had previously been able to earn.

The plight of the cotton workers for the regulation of wages in the wake of the war and the emerging industrial inventions is a deep topic of its own and vital to explore when looking at family history during this time. I highly recommend the book titled ‘Skilled Labourer’ by J.L Hammond and Barbara Hammond. I picked out the following excerpts from this book to summarise the problems faced by my Robinson family at this time.

The Cotton Workers: 1760-1818

The decline of the weavers

“Weaving was easily learned, and during its prosperous days it offered the attraction of high wages. In other trades, the trade societies managed to restrict the flow of incomers; the weavers, disorganised and scattered had no such power. Ireland was pouring out her population from their wretched homes into Lancashire; peasants and cottagers, dispossessed by the agricultural revolution in England, were leaving the land, and after 1815 discharged soldiers were looking for employment. Hand loom weaving became the ‘refuge of the surplus numbers from nearly all other trades’.” pg.54

“A diligent weaver in 1814, they said, could earn an average of 16s 6d a week. In spite of the prosperity there was an attempt to reduce the spinners wages one third (to 2d instead of 3d a pound), an attempt that was compromised by an agreement to work a shorter time at the old rate.

The end of the war next year, which was expected to bring the golden age, brought instead hordes of discharged soldiers and sailors to join the already overcrowded ranks of the weavers. Instead of work increasing, the demand for weavers’ labour fell off.

Not only was trade depressed but wheat rose steadily through the year 1816, till it reached the famine price of 103s in December. The iron and coal industries suffered perhaps most severely in 1816., but in the cotton districts of Lancashire too the misery was extreme. It was a year of soup and reform agitation.” Pg.67

Now that I had a better idea of the local villages at the time when my Ancestors lived there and the likely explanation for what caused the family’s struggle, I turned my attention back to church records for other members of the family to help bridge the gap in the proceeding years after Richard and Alice’s removal from Euxton. I went through each of the Robinson descendants one by one to reveal a better picture of the family as a whole.

In 1817 five of the elder Robinson’s had left the home, so I began my search here. Robert Robinson (B.1788) had a daughter in 1818 and was listed as a weaver living in Euxton. An ‘Order of filiation and maintenance’ record for another of the elder son’s – Thomas Robinson – confirms that he too was living in Euxton at this time working as a weaver.

My research told me that the Robinson family was clearly settled in the village of Euxton, so it was no surprise to find Richard, Alice and other family members living back in the parish of Euxton by the time of the 1841 census.

Summary

So, at this point in my Robinson family research, I have discovered that the family were like many other rural households in Lancashire in the 18th century, illiterate and reliant on income from farming and loom weaving in the home, or small workshops for additional wages. The family’s wardrobe was likely of a plain beige hue. Men like Richard wore stockings with below the knee britches, a shirt and waistcoat. Rural women like Alice at a time when religious modesty was of the upmost importance kept their hair under a hat, cap or bonnet and wore linen gowns with aprons and a cloak when outdoors. The rural wife’s job was to keep the man of the house fed along with any offspring. As well as home chores, women did their fair share on the land. Richard’s job as a farmer at a time before machinery or power would have been very heavy manual work. With the evolution of the textile industry a poor woman’s workload increased when she and older children left the home and entered into the workforce employed in the textile mills.

The Napoleonic Wars and the advancements in the textile industry had a major effect on the lives of ordinary English people like my Robinson ancestors. During these years of great change, the Robinson family had grown quickly thus requiring a greater income when there was less to come by.

Workers in a Lancashire cotton mill, 18th Century. Credit: © Look and Learn

In 1817 handloom weavers worked long hours for very little pay and like many of the rural poor, my Robinson family struggled to make ends meet. The family applied for poor relief and were consequently removed by the poor wardens to Farington. At this time Richard and Alice were in their late fifties. Church records show that there were several other Robinson families living in Farington at this time. The family would have continued to seek employment within agricultural work and weaving, and when this wasn’t to be found on their doorstep, they would have had to travel to neighbouring villages or towns where the work was available.

Further research made into the area of Ulnes Walton, Farington and Euxton confirmed the presence of many Robinson families meaning the possibility for expanding Richard Robinson’s family tree even further and the likelihood of accurately confirming his parents is encouraging.

I know that by the 1841 census my Robinson family were living in an area of Euxton called Buckshaw Moor. This was my next lead.

To be continued.

For sources and further reading, see page 2.

Other research finds of unconfirmed relevance

Order of filiation and maintenance

Whilst looking in the quarter session records for my Robinson family I discovered two possibilities for a ‘bastard’ child of Richard.

December 1777

Farington. Order of filiation and maintenance of Ellen, bastard child of Richard Robinson of Leyland, husbandman, and Sarah Fiddler, singlewoman.

Baptism: 9 Nov 1777 St Mary, Penwortham, Lancashire
Ellen Fidler – D of Richd. Robinson & Sarah Fidler
    Abode: Mother of Farin. Father of Leyland

June 1780

Farington. Order of filiation and maintenance of bastard son of Richard Robinson alias Parker, husbandman, and Elizabeth Nelson, single woman

Sources & Recommended Further Reading

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