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« on: Thursday 18 August 11 08:16 BST (UK) »
Thanks for the info, Tim.
I don't think my ancestor had any connection with the Boyle company, though it is possible, as there was a Boyle, Gill & Co, flax spinners, in Meadow Lane, Holbeck, very close to where he lived in the 1840 - 50s. James Milsom was a distant cousin, born Wakefield 1794. He worked as a cropper (shearman) in the woollen trade and moved to Hunslet, Leeds around 1830. In 1841 he gave his occupation as cloth dresser, and probably worked at the Potterdale mill on Dewsbury Road. In 1851 he gave his occupation as labourer in a flax mill - this may have been the same mill, as the Potterdale switched from woollens to flax spinning around this time. He and his whole family (wife and four children) then disappear from the census entirely, with the exception of son Charles, who on the 1841/51 censuses was described as a flax dresser / flax trimmer.
Charles moved to Selby, about 20 miles from Leeds, and in 1861 was recorded as a foreman in a flax mill there. He later spent some time in America but returned to Selby and ended his days there as manager of the Portholme Flax Mill, owned by the Foster family. They were spinners, and also made twine and rope.
I had wondered if James had gone abroad to work in Europe in the flax industry there, but it is highly unlikely that any company would bring in labourers from overseas, and I have no evidence to suggest that James ever rose above that level in the industry. And he was certainly not an engineer.
It is, nevertheless, interesting to learn that companies in Norway and Belgium were drawing upon English expertise in their flax businesses. Much of the early machinery for the industry was developed in Hunslet by John Marshall and Matthew Murray.
I would be interested in the link you have to Boyles' flax mills if you could let me have it. I work on the premise that any information might turn out to be useful!.
Regards
Howard
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