John PITCHFORTH ²

  Notes:

John was a labourer in Hall Green, then became a farmer for about eight years, presumably inheriting his father's farm. He was a warehouseman in Huddersfield in the mid-1830s, then became an agricultural labourer in Crigglestone and Stanley. He married Jane Stafford (qv) in 1823. They had nine married children, and 38 grandchildren who survived infancy.

Their eldest son Joseph lived in Crigglestone, where he was a carpenter and pit sinker. He married Mary Agar in October 1850, but was responsible for killing a man in a shooting accident the following February. He emigrated to Ontario, where he had a daughter Ellen with his second wife Martha Ellerby, an American. His first wife Mary Agar remained in England, and also remarried. The next son James was a labourer at the time of his first marriage, then became a policeman and later Town Crier of Doncaster: three of his four sons were soldiers, and his two unmarried daughters were Court Dressmakers in Hampstead. John and Jane's eldest daughter Ann was a servant girl in Crigglestone at the age of 10, and married George Ellis, a coal miner, at the age of 18: she had one son who took her surname and was also a miner. The next daughter Mary was a dressmaker living at home before she married Joseph Stringer: he was a gardener, and they lived in Crigglestone and Stanley.

The next son Thomas was a policeman in Wakefield when he married his first wife Margaret Pashley, became a groom, then moved to Saltburn-on-Sea where he was a posthouse keeper and tobacconist: he and his second wife Margaret Johnson had one son who established a photographer's business in Saltburn. John and Jane's next son Robert was a joiner in Stanley and Wakefield: he had seven children with his wife Hannah Hall - one son was a soldier, the other four were tradesmen, and their two daughters emigrated to Australia. The next son John (known as Frank) lived in Stanley and Belle View in Sandal Magna, where he was an engineer on steam vessels on the Aire and Calder Navigation: his children were or married to industrial tradesmen.

The youngest daughter Jane married Geoffrey Stubbs, who was a joiner then a Steward in the Conservative Club in Leeds: one of their two daughters was a dressmaker before she married, the other was a teacher, and their son moved to London where he was an advertising designer. John and Jane's youngest son Richard (qv) was a soldier.

Additional source: Wakefield Journal 7-2-1851

John married Jane STAFFORD, daughter of James STAFFORD and Ann PARKER, on 13 Oct 1823 in St Helen, Sandal Magna, Yorkshire.¹ (Jane STAFFORD was christened on 27 Jul 1800 in St Peter and St Leonard, Horbury, Yorkshire,⁷ died on 12 Feb 1878 in Chapelthorpe, Yorkshire ⁸ and was buried on 15 Feb 1878 in St Helen, Sandal Magna, Yorkshire ⁶.)