Is he really a "Turner"?

[youngtug]

[quote author=Timbottawa link=topic=326101.msg4036155#msg4036155 date=13137387

And thanks, youngtug, for support on the "Turner" interpretation.  My gt-gt-grandfather's indenture papers for his apprenticeship state that the purpose is for him "to be taught, learned, and instructed in the art, mystery, or occupation of a mechanic", which I think sounds rather lovely!

All the best
Tim
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[/quote] Much better than " this is to certify that **** ***** has served an apprenticeship" that is on my indentures.

[millybobs]

'Regards your James - have you discounted emigration to America?  Charles, you say, went over there for a while before returning - could he have been thinking of joining his family, before concluding that he was happier back home?'

Yes, I had thought of that as a possibility, but no luck with available passenger lists or US Federal censuses.  But of course he could have gone there and died between ten-yearly censuses. 

Howard

[Timbottawa]

Hi Howard,

Back home now.  The article I mentioned is in "Publications of the THoresby Society", Vol. 61, Part 1, pages 1-26 (1978), and is entitled :"Fair Befall the Flax Field": Aspects of the Histroy of the Boyle Family and their Flax Business" by M.B. Boyle.

A brief precis ... Boyle Carr & Co. operated 1836-40 in Jack Lane Mill and Hunslet Lane (Gill was another of the partners).  It then became Boyle Gill & Co., 1840-1853, based at Trafalgar Mill, Meadow Lane.  The mill employed around 200 people by 1850, with salaries ranging from 4s. 3d. for doffers for a 60-hour week up to 20 - 30s. for supervisors.

Boyle Gill & Co. went bankrupt in 1853 - at the same time as numerous other mills, it seems, during a lengthy recession in the flax trade, but Boyle & Son was established the same year, based at Trafalgar Row, then later Mill Hill, and finally (up to 1964) at West Park Ring Road.

This company prospered, buying other properties, including, in 1878, Fell Beck Mill in Pateley Bridge, where my gt-gt-grandfather, William Noble was manager.

Even if there are no links to your family, the article provides some interesting social information about the flax industry in Leeds in the mid-19th century.

All the best
Tim

[millybobs]

Thanks Tim for the reference.  It sounds like an interesting article.  I'll see if my local library can get hold of a copy.
Regards
Howard

[ermin]

My own Great Great Grandfather lived in Hunslet and was an Iron Turner making valves for the railway industry.  He would have used a lathe to make the parts.  On some of the censuses he was described as a "Mechanic Iron Turner" and some just as an "Iron Turner".

So it's sounds to me as if your ancestor would have been making parts either for the railway or for machines to be used in the local mills.