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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: TinaRoyal on Tuesday 18 May 21 14:31 BST (UK)
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John Healey Taylor, born 1862 in Rochdale, married Priscilla Taylor in 1882, one of the daughter’s of my Great Grandfather William Taylor. According to the 1891 Census, John was a Cotton Weaver. On the 1901 Census he was not working, and was recorded as being an “Invalid for Life”. John died in January 1903, aged 41 and was buried in Rochdale Cemetery.
Does anyone know what caused John’s injury, in between 1891 and 1901 and the date of that accident. Which accident incapacitated him so much that he could not work ?
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It might not have been an accident. Does it say that somewhere?
His death certificate might help with cause of death.
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No mention of an accident on the 1901 entry
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Have you searched local newspapers for accident reports? Difficult with the common surname Taylor. It might have been an industrial accident or transport-related e.g. hit by a tram, fell out of a train.
How do you know it was an accident? He may have had an industrial disease. One of my great-aunts died in her early 40's, her daughter died aged 16 and my uncle, also 16. All of them worked in cotton mills and suffered respiratory illnesses. They died in 1920's & 1930's.
Another cotton worker ancestor, a few years younger than John Taylor joined a Lancashire militia unit at the start of the Boer War and was discharged "unfit" 14 months later. He didn't serve in Africa; his unit replaced a regular army garrison on an island. A high proportion of young men who volunteered for the Boer War were unfit for active service due to poor diet, living conditions and their jobs.
I agree with heywood about the death certificate.
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I had a little look through the newspapers for Rochdale and could find nothing specific for a John Taylor while searching for the term accident. The only accidents I found concerning a John Taylor were fatal, so clearly not the person you were talking about as they happened before 1901.
John Healey Taylor only came up once in relation to something to do with an election - no mention of an accident or illness.
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Where does it show him as John Healey Taylor, both his marriage and death just have John Taylor.
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There is a baptism for John Healey Taylor, 1845 child of William and Margaret at St Chad’s Rochdale.
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That is the only one I am seeing on searches. The one mentioned by OP was born c1862
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Yes I know but I just thought I would mention him ;)
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The 1862 one has father Samuel occ Stone Mason
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In 1901, the John Taylor at 3 Lewis Street says invalid for life.
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On page 254 of the Baptisms at St. John Church, Smallbridge, Rochdale, on 3rd November 1861 John Healey Taylor was baptised. His mother was Elizabeth Healey, hence his middle name. (John Healey Taylor was born in 1861, not 1862, a “slip of the pen”, sorry).
Heywood you are quite right, it might not have been an accident, that was an assumption made on my part.
I have searched the “Rochdale Observer” from 1891 to 1901, but I cannot find anything. Having said that, Taylor is such a common name that I might have missed it. The "Rochdale Observer" has no index.
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It might have been an industrial disease as already mentioned or any debilitating illness really.
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It might have been an industrial disease as already mentioned or any debilitating illness really.
TB for example.
District Medical Officers annual reports from 1890's onwards for my birth town, a few miles from Rochdale, are on a local history website. Each contains death statistics by cause and age followed by the officers comments. Rochdale Medical Officer would have written similar annual reports.
Accidents in mills and other workplaces were common. May only have been reported in a newspaper if it was a major accident with many injuries or if there was a fatality.
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On page 254 of the Baptisms at St. John Church, Smallbridge, Rochdale, on 3rd November 1861 John Healey Taylor was baptised. His mother was Elizabeth Healey, hence his middle name. (John Healey Taylor was born in 1861, not 1862, a “slip of the pen”, sorry).
His birth registration
TAYLOR, JOHN MMN HEALEY
GRO Reference: 1861 June Quarter in ROCHDALE Volume 08E Page 32
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Examples of diseases associated with cotton mills.
Byssinosis
Eye inflammation
Deafness
Tuberculosis
Cancer of the mouth
Cancer of the groin/scrotum (mule-spinner's cancer)
"A Factory Worker's Lot - Conditions in the Mill" BBC Nation on Film
www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/topics/textiles/background_conditions.shtml
See the section "Fighting for breath".
*"Kissing the shuttle" https://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Kissing_the_shuttle
Mentions byssinosis and TB. Assistant Medical Officer of Health & TB Officer for Preston reported in 1918 that weavers had a higher TB rate of any cotton operatives.
"Mule-spinners' cancer" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_spinners%27_cancer
First case of scrotal cancer in a cotton worker was identified in Manchester 1887. A high incidence of scrotal cancer was detected in former mule-spinners in 1900.
*Link not working. Search for terms kissing the shuttle or shuttle kissing.
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I have searched the papers too without finding anything. I think that the answer may lie in the death certificate, as already mentioned it was probably something he had suffered from all of his life.
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I agree with Rosie reply #16.
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At long last I have received the Death Certificate for John Healey Taylor from the GRO.
John Healey Taylor died of “Chronic Pneumonia”, “Phthisis”, which is Tuberculosis, apparently he was asthmatic and suffered from “Gangrene of the Lungs”. So you were all right, there was no accident, he succumbed to an illness of the day TB, among other things.
John Healey Taylor was registered as John Taylor at his birth in 1861. At his baptism in November 1861 he was baptised John Healey Taylor, no doubt after his mother Elizabeth Healey. His middle name never stuck, and in all the Census’s from 1871 to 1901, on his Marriage Certificate and on his Death Certificate, he is recorded as John Taylor. In the Family however, he has always been known as John Healey Taylor.
Thank you all for your help in clearing up this mystery. The answer was in the Death Certificate as was suggested.
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Thank you.
Poor John. Sadly, it was so common.
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Thank you for the update. :). Glad it answered your query.
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"Stop Kissing and Steaming!: tuberculosis and the occupational health movement in Massachsetts and Lancashire 1870-1918" Cambridge University Press 2005
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21552481/
+ list of associated articles, including several studies written by D. Fishwick & others on the topic of diseases of Lancashire cotton workers.
Robert Koch, Nobel Prize 1905, identified the bacillus which causes TB in 1882.
John Taylor probably began working in a mill when he was a child.
1874 Factories Act raised minimum working age to 9.
"Key dates in working conditions, Factory Acts Great Britain 1300-1899"
www.thepotteries.org/dates/work.htm