The Lord Nelson Inn, in Holbeck Lane, photographed in 1996.
Father of Joseph Bentley (see below). Possibly living at Braithwait's Field, Demain Row, Holbeck in 1841 with wife Fanny; occupation woollen cloth weaver.
Joseph was born in Holbeck, near Leeds, on 3rd August 1801, and was christened at Leeds Parish Church (St Peter's) on 16th September of that year.
On 23rd April 1821 he married Eleanor Hartley at Leeds Parish Church. Eleanor was the daughter of Thomas and Ann Hartley of the Lord Nelson Inn, Holbeck Lane, Holbeck. The Hartleys had moved to Holbeck from East Keswick, near Wetherby.
Joseph and Eleanor had thirteen children, all born in Holbeck:
Joseph's occupation is given consistently as 'clothier' at his children's christenings until 1837. In the 1841 census, he is living at Nelson Row, Wortley, occupation woollen spinner. However, by 1845 he had taken over at the Lord Nelson Inn, possibly following the death of his father-in-law. He remained as innkeeper there until his death on 29th March 1863.
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The Lord Nelson Inn, in Holbeck Lane, photographed in 1996. |
After Joseph's death, his widow Eleanor lived at 24 Gelderd Road, Wortley, where her occupation was given as 'landlady' in the 1871 census. She died at Gelderd Road on 3rd July 1875.
Thomas was born in Holbeck on 13th June 1832, the seventh of thirteen children, and was christened at St Matthew's Church, Holbeck, on 12th August of that year. In 1841 he was living in Nelson Row, Wortley. By 1845, he would have been living at the Lord Nelson Inn, which was then number 71 Holbeck Lane. I have not yet located him in the 1851 census: he was not living with his parents then.
He married Emma Robinson, the daughter of Joseph and Sarah Robinson, at Leeds Parish Church, on 7 December 1852. Emma lived at 64 Holbeck Lane, just down the road from Thomas. At the time of his marriage, Thomas was working as a warehouseman.
Thomas and Emma had six children:
Following their marriage, Thomas and Emma lived with Emma's parents, but by 1865 had moved to Prince Street, New Wortley. He seemed to be progressing upwards in his career: in 1861 he was a bookkeeper at a woollen mill, in 1865 he was a woollen cloth manufacturer, and by 1870 he had become a manager at a woollen mill. By this time he was living at 40 Holdforth Street, New Wortley.
Following his father's death in 1863, the running of the Lord Nelson had passed to Joseph's oldest surviving son, Samuel, who became a third-generation innkeeper there. However, by 1871 Thomas had taken over at the Lord Nelson, where he remained until his death on 13th May 1884.
In his will, he left his estate, valued at £180 15s, to his widow and his son Robinson ("Robbie"), who continued the family tradition as licensee of the Fox Inn at Thorner, a village to the northeast of Leeds. His widow Emma continued at the Lord Nelson for a few years after his death (still there in 1887), but she later (by 1891) moved to live with her daughter Louisa at 76 Domestic Street, Holbeck. Emma died on 11th May 1897, at East Keswick.
Mary was born at Prince Street, New Wortley, near Leeds, on 25th March 1865. By the age of 6 she had moved with her parents to the Lord Nelson Inn, although the 1881 census records her living next door (24 Holbeck Lane) with her grandmother Sarah Robinson. Prior to her marriage in 1893 she was living at Garforth House, 76 (now 118) Domestic Street, Holbeck. This house probably belonged to her brother-in-law, Thomas Garforth Wilkinson. At the time of the 1891 census, she was a visitor at Thomas's sister's in Glinton, near Peterborough.
She married James Midgley, of East Keswick, on 13th April 1893 at St Matthew's Church, Holbeck. Mary and James settled in East Keswick, a village 8 miles northeast of Leeds, where James farmed with his mother at Field House, just to the north of the village.
James and Mary had two children, both born in East Keswick (probably at Field House):
By 1901, the family had left Field House (where James's mother and brother Osmond continued to farm), and James was then farming at Moor Farm. In 1904 he was farming at "Fairfield", according to a local directory. This is almost certainly a misprint for "Farfield". This could be Farfield Farm, which is on the main Tadcaster - Otley road about a mile northwest of the village, or more likely Far Field (or Farfield) House which is on the same road a mile to the east, and quite close to Field House. In 1912 the family were living at Langwith, Collingham.
The family then left Yorkshire, moving 50 miles northwest to Kirkby Lonsdale in the county of Westmorland. The reason for this move was explained to me by my great aunt Louie, Mary's younger daughter. James's horse and cart was involved in a collision with a steam roller on the road to Wetherby, and he sustained injuries which prevented him from farming. The family initially moved to Langwith Terrace, Collingham. Mary had a nephew, Harry Wilkinson, who was a keen motorcyclist, and regularly went to rallies in Morecambe with a friend, Frank Speke. They used to call at the Temperance (Waverley) Hotel in Kirkby Lonsdale, where the hotel owners had two daughters, Isabel and May Airey. Harry and Frank married the two daughters in 1913, so the Midgleys got to know the hotel owners. When they decided to sell, James Midgley bought the hotel.
Kelly's directory of 1914 lists their address as Temperance hotel, Market square, Kirkby Lonsdale. They were still there in 1918 when their daughter Doris married.
Mary moved to Heysham in the 1920s, but I do not know whether this was before or after James's death. She may have lived in Sefton Road, in a house named "Farfield" after their old home in East Keswick.