...as I was also told that sarah father owned cotton Mills....
Is this the right Sarah Walsh on 1881 census?
Kenyon St., Ramsbottom
Sarah aged 1, born in Ramsbottom. She was with parents, William, 27, b. Ramsbottom & Elizabeth, 43 b. Manchester + brother, Christopher, 2 POB Nuttall (now part of Ramsbottom). William was a cotton weaver. 5 Chadwick step-children were in the household. 2 were born in Bury and the younger 3 in Doncaster. Some of the step-children were also cotton weavers. There were mills on Kenyon Street and practically everyone living on the street at the time of the census worked in a cotton mill. There is no indication on the census that William was an employer. Judging from the 1881 census, they seemed to have been an ordinary mill-worker's family. I could not see the family on a later census. The surname could be Walch and Welsh on various records.
1861 census. 6 year-old William Walsh was with his parents, Thomas & Nancy + brother, Christopher (10) in Nuttall village. This again, at the time, was a site of mills. Thomas was a calico block printer.
1871 census. William, 16, with mother, Nancy + brother, Christopher in Union St., Ramsbottom. No Thomas. All were cotton weavers. Union St. is a small back street near the railway station, a stone's throw from Kenyon St. across the river.
Christopher's and William's births were registered in 1851 & 1854 at Holcombe, mother's maiden name Spencer.
Likely marriage of their parents was at St. Mary Virgin, Bury 1st Jan 1850.
Thomas Walsh, printer of Ramsbottom to Nancy Spencer, a minor of Nuttall Lane. Both made their mark. Father of Thomas was Lot Walsh, printer. Nancy's father was Thomas Spencer, weaver. A witness had the unusual name of Ottiwell Cronkshaw. (The surname is locally common)
Likely baptism of Thomas:
1827 Emmanuel, Holcombe. Thomas Walch, son of Lot & Sally. Abode Ramsbottom. Occupation calico printer.
Lot and Sally had another 9 children baptised at Holcombe 1815-1830. The last one was baptised, aged 3 weeks on the same day her father Lot was buried, aged 47.
Marriage of Lot Walch to Sally Kay, 1815, St. Mary Virgin, Bury.
Lot's baptism may have been at St. James, Darwen 1785, parents John & Nancy. Abode Over Darwen.
A possible mill-owning connection to consider is the family of Nancy Spencer, Thomas Walsh's mother. A partnership which owned several mills in the area was Porritt & Spencer. I have no knowledge as to whether Nancy Spencer and her father, Thomas were related to that Spencer.
