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I am currently in search of the parents of William Hartington, whose birth is estimated to be around 1790 in Fairfield, Lancashire (present-day Fairfield, Tameside). The earliest record of him is his marriage to Jane Edmondson on July 4th, 1819, in Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire. They then had several children: John (1819:1819), John (1820-1823), William (1820), William (Edmondson) (1823), Peter (1825-1900), Joseph (1828-1904), Robert (1830-1835), Thomas (1834).

In the 1841 census, they were found in the parish of Bolton Le Moors, with William's age listed as 50 (thus, approximately born in 1791). Later, in the 1851 census in Radcliffe, his age was documented as 62 (suggesting a birth year around 1789). Notably, this census indicates his birthplace as Fairfield, which remains the sole mention of his birth location.

William Hartington passed away sometime in August 1853 and was interred on August 23, 1853, at St. Peter's Church in Bolton Le Moors.

The problem is that I cannot locate his baptismal record. Despite thorough searches through the Lancashire Online Parish Clerks, as well as familysearch, ancestry, and other platforms, I have been unable to uncover any relevant information.

Any assistance or guidance in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help.

William Hartington and Jane Edmundson are my 4x great grandparents. Momentarily leaving aside their children (as I'm not convinced all those you listed even exist - but that's another matter), I'd love to help us find details of his birth and parentage. I spend at least a little time just about every day trying to uncover this.

Some thoughts that I hope you see soon-
I didn't realise until your mention of Fairfield in Tameside that THAT Fairfield (basically a part of Droylsden, and the location of the Moravian church) is different to Fairfield in Bury. Making for two Fairfields in what is now Greater Manchester. Generally I had preferred Fairfield in Bury over Fairfield in Liverpool as William's birthplace (as the Hartingtons lived in Bury in 1851, and at other times in nearby Bolton) and not even known Fairfield in Droylsden existed (as a location separate to Fairfield in Bury, that is).

This week I noticed a Fairfield in Buxton, Derbyshire and I share this simply because it's very close to Hartington, Derbyshire. According to my internet searches, the Hartington surname originated from Hartington, a district in Buxton (Fairfield is also a district in Buxton). Food for thought - depending on how the Census taker asked questions in 1841 and 1851, if William simply answered "Fairfield" then an assumption or two on the taker's part could lead to the Census information being
recorded as it is. Will leave this matter there until you see/reply.

The lack of people with Hartington surnames  (spelled exactly that way) in England at all in those early Censuses leads me to think it surely must be that even just one generation back from William the surname was spelled some other way. Else where are any brothers or cousins etc of his? He can't just have spawned from thin air and I don't think there's any doubt he was born in England. Surely there was more than one nuclear family in the country with this surname in the late 1700s.

My grandmother (two generations closer to this William than I am) did a DNA test shortly before she passed and unfortunately searching for Hartington in the usernames or online trees of her DNA matches has yielded nothing leading to progress on this still - by that I mean it's been very easy to establish that all matches coming up in those searches have as their most common ancestor with me either William and Jane, or their son William Edmundson Hartington (some from one wife, some from another - I am through second wife Elizabeth Marrow). So there's not so much as a lead to follow (or whose tree I can research) in looking for a DNA or paper connection to a Hartington from a generation before William.

Lastly, I have a subscription to British Newspaper Archive and searches for this surname and/or Fairfield, etc, give almost no results, and what few results there are are advertising and other references to Hartington the district of Buxton - nothing about individual people.

Are you a descendant of William?

Apologies for such late replies.  I'm new here and thought, based on experiences in other forums, that I would receive email notifications when replies are given to my post topics. Lesson learned!

Sarah Isherwood married Frederick Crowther Dec qtr 1871

However - her birthyear in 1891 is 1860 so that doesn't tie up.  2 of the children shown as Brown in 1891 are actually surname Crowther

Ellen Crowther 1884 mmn Isherwood - Haslingden
Albert Isherwood Crowther 1887

Son Henry b 1889 was registered as Brown

This is all correct except for the marriage in the top line.  Her marriage to a John Crowther details are in the post above this one.

As he was a plate layer in 1891 and crippled in 1892, I had a look for any reports of railway accidents in Lancashire in 1892. The only mention of a William Brown, plate layer, that I could see is a report in the Fleetwood Chronicle of 30-12-1892: "about seven o'clock on the morning of Christmas Day, a plate layer named William Brown, of Cleveleys, whilst proceeding up the line, made a horrifying discovery, ..." He found a body on the line.

Yes I have come across this before too; Cleveleys is close to Fleetwood and a long way from Leigh and I'm guessing this William is not my William.

Dear Nikkiwabit,

I was fascinated by the list of landlords at The George....not least because I think I might be related to Jane and Thomas Slatter. I am a Slatter and can trace my family history back to Battle with a pretty fair degree of certainty to around 1750. I'd love to correspond to compare notes on our respective branches.
Mick

Hi Mick I am a direct descendant of Thomas Slatter (possibly spelled Slaughter in previous generations) and Jane. Through their daughter Sarah baptised early 1741 in Battle, who later married an Alderton. Happy to make contact to see what we each know.