Any information on this Cheshire/Lancashire Bennett family? Thanks.
Christopher Allen married Amelia Bennett on January 16, 1826, at Manchester, St. Johns, Lancashire, a Church of England chapel that no longer stands but is marked by a monument. On the parish marriage certificate, Christopher Allen is listed as a brass founder. The certificate is witnessed by Richard Fosbrook Allen and Peter Bennett, Jr. Richard was Christopher’s younger brother; Peter is no doubt related to Amelia, but we do not know in what way. In 1844, Christopher and Amelia emigrated to America and settled in Cleveland, Ohio.
Parish records show that Amelia Bennett, daughter of Samuel and Betty Bennett, was baptized on June 29, 1806 at Manchester Cathedral in Lancashire.
Thomas (brother of Amelia) and Anne Bennett, lived in Manchester, England. In 1835 or 1836 they sailed for America and bought a farm at North Eaton, Ohio.
Thomas's father Samuel Bennett came to America about 1838, went to Dubuque, Iowa, and bought two sections of land. On the return trip by boat, he became very ill, died and was buried in the Mississippi River before the family were aware of his death.
Thomas Bennett died in an accident and was buried on January 8, 1874, at the age of 69 and is buried at Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland. Buried next to Thomas are his wife Anne, buried at age 71 on August 10 , 1891; Martha Clark Jackson, Ann’s mother, buried September 12, 1875 at the age of 77; and Thomas C. Bennett, a grandson by Hamlet Bennett who owned the cemetery plots, age 12, buried March 15, 1891. When Thomas and Anne came to America from England about 1836, she would have been only 16 years old (she was 16 years younger than Thomas). Other children of Hamlet and Belle were Nellie (Heina), Ruth (Pate), Frances (Maurer), Bess, and Charles (wife Rita). Hamlet died at age 86 in 1931. Hamlet’s sister Rachel was born about 1843, married George Dart in 1861, and was the mother of George B., Annie (Bates), Ellen (Kaster), Janice, Flora (Steves), Martha (McDowell), and Grace (Mayette). Rachel died in 1924 at the age of 81, with services at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cleveland.
Amelia Bennett Allen’s brother Joseph remained in England. In 1841, Joseph was at Hope Street in Heaton Norris (between Manchester and Stockport), age 40, a waste dealer, married to Hannah age 40. Their children were Ann 15; Samuel, a brassfinisher, age 15; James, age 10. Also in the household was Sophia Holden, 15, a cotton weaver. Everyone in the household had been born in Lancashire (Heaton Norris is in Lancashire). The ages are not exact because ages were rounded to the nearest 5 in this census.
Samuel, the son of Joseph living with his father in 1841, was Christopher Allen’s apprentice. We believe Samuel was baptized at Hatherlow Congregational Church in Stockport, Cheshire, on June 14, 1823, the son of Joseph and Mary Bennett. If so, Mary must have died; in 1841 Joseph’s wife is Hannah. This would make Samuel 18 years old at the time of the 1841 census, a year before his uncle Christopher departed for America. In the 1851 census, Samuel Bennett is in Hulme at 15 Melbourne Street, at age 28 (born Stockport, Cheshire) with wife Mary (28 and born in Manchester), son Thomas (age 4, born in Chorlton, Lancashire), and daughter Mary Jane (age 1, born Hulme, Lancashire). Samuel is a master brassfounder at this time. The Slater’s directory of the same year lists Samuel Bennett as a partner in Bennett and Storey, brass founders.
also requested on the Lancashire boardhttp://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,218037.msg1136088.html#msg1136088