|
We do not know much about Mary’s early life, but in 1871, when she was 18 or 19 years old, she was living with her parents, Ben and Betty, at 2, Court 2, Shaw Street, Oldham, Lancashire. At the time she was working as cotton weaver.
Ten years later, in April 1881, now aged either 28 or 29, she was still living with her parents, but the family had moved to 60, Tudor Street, Oldham. She was still working as a cotton operative weaver.
Four years later, in 1885, when she was about 32 years old, Mary married Joseph Lawton somewhere in Oldham. He was about 34 years old and working as an engineer. He had been married before but been left a widower with a young son George who was about 6 when Mary married Joseph. Mary’s first child, Annie, was born a year later in 1886.
By 1891 the original Barratt family had broken up. Mary’s mother Betty had died in 1884 and Mary's brother and sister had married in 1883 and 1885 respectively. Her brother Joseph had left to work in the USA, and her father had moved in with his youngest daughter Sarah in Wellington Road, Oldham.
By April 1901 Mary, now 49 years old, was living with her family at 16 Robert Street in Failsworth, and with them now was her ageing father Ben, now almost 80 years old. It is likely that he moved in with them when his youngest daughter, Sarah Jane, moved away to Blackpool with her family the Sutcliffes sometime during the 1890s.
|