Hey
I am searching for details on one Betty Harrop who married one of my (potential) ancestors, Richard Pemberton, at Stockport, Cheshire 1747.
There are lots of references in earlier posts in this thread to places and in one case a job that tie in with the Pemberton clan I am researching, so there must be connections somewhere. I have found that the population movements in the period I am discussing follow a general pattern of moving north in Cheshire (towards Manchester) and that, perhaps due to marriages, different families moved around together, I presume to find work in the industrialising towns. I also find a lot of to-ing and throwing as if, whilst they may marry out of area, they live or return at intervals to ancestral areas, or vica-versa.
So, what is written below is not brief and whilst primarily about the Pembertons, this is purposeful to see if others can see the connections I see and perhaps dig a bit deeper into their Harrop history to see if they can help me find this Betty.
If your Harrops in Mottram tie in with Howard’s and Ashton’s in this period, I would also be happy to hear from you!
One of my direct like ancestors James Pemberton was born at Mottram-in-Longdale in 1776, to John P and Nanny Ashton, so I am trying to see if the Richard P who married Betty Harrop is related to this John P (ie father and son?), as I can’t find a note of John’s birth. John and Nanny were married at Mottram, (also in 1776: don’t they call that a shotgun wedding!?), but he was a farmer from Hattersley, Hyde: ie not from Motttram but Hattersley is less than a mile from and just at the top of the hill from Mottram: going south-west towards Manchester.
I can’t find any Harrop’s in Stockport that match Betty and I can’t find any Ashton’s in Mottram that match Nanny: nor any Pemberton’s in Mottram before 1776 other than a birth in 1727: so this makes me feel that all these folks were “on the move” The Pemberton’s appear to have been moving North East from their origins just south-west of Alderley Edge at a place called Over Peover (which is about 10 miles west of Macclesfield), where they were Sheriffs of Cheshire for at least a century before their migration which in my line appears to start in the mid 1500’s as far as I can tell: probably as a result of the religious upheavals of the time, given that they appear to have been non-conformists in all accounts I can find: as soon as weddings are allowed in Methodists chapels, they are never seen in a CoE church again.
Someone, I think it was Harewood, mentioned "Hatters" somewhere above, and another of my Pemberton's, Mathew born 1771, son of Joseph, who lived at Glossop (but census tells us was not born in Derbyshire), I think is a cousin of the James born 1776: Joseph’s father could also be the Richard who married Betty Harrop. Glossop is about 3 miles from Mottram heading south-east. The "Hatter" connection interests me as Mathew was a “Hatter”.
There is a big bunch of Pemberton’s at a place called Dukinfield, Cheshire, in the late 1700’s though there are few there at the start of the 1700’s but all parish records for the Methodist chapel that family might have attended from 1713 to 1761 were lost in a fire in 1761, so I can’t work things forward to see if Richard. John or Joseph P came from Dukinfield. Dukinfield is about 3 miles west to north-west from Mottram and about 6 miles north-east from Stockport. But given the pattern of migration, the Dukinfield Pemberton’s could be a red herring and the move from Stockport to Mottram would then fit the general pattern from Peover to Stockport: North-East, to where, by the mid 1700’s the industrial revolution was taking shape: east and north-east of Manchester.
The mid to late 1700’s is a time of big change as the Industrial Revolution kicks in, Manchester starts to become a major trade centre and villages to the east and north-east of Manchester, like Mottram, Glossop and the Saddlewotth villages become hives of activity as the fast flowing waters flowing off the Pennine Moors provide perfect conditions for driving the water-wheels of the wool and cotton mills that kick-started the Revolution in this area. Mottram is little more than a hamlet today: it never grew like the other villages: perhaps because it has no big mill. But that it had a parish church implies that in the times I speak of it was an important centre: which is perhaps because of it’s position at a crossroad between the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire.
I live in this part of the UK, and I am sure Harrop Edge is the big hill to the North of Mottram, which I have walked or rather hiked over: it separates Mottram from Mossley, where the James I spoke of earlier was brought up, with a brief interlude when his father returned to Mottram to marry again (to Lucy Howard) after the death of Nanny Ashton. The connection with Mottram
is then lost as James marries a local girl at Saddleworth in 1799.
Other than the Betty Harrop marriage in Mottram and the birth in 1727 the trail of Pembertons in this area goes cold . If I could find where Betty Harrop originates and how she came to marry in Stockport, I might find were my Pemberton line came from and how they came to be in Mottram, so any help with Betty Harrop would be appreciated!
