Hi All
I am stuck banging my head against a brick wall. This is rather convoluted (as ever in family history!) but stick with it. My 3x Great-Grandfather was John Hassall b1803 Stalybridge and baptised at St Michaels Church in the neighbouring Ashton-under-Lyne to Susannah Hassall, father unknown. Between 1803 and 1815 there were 4 other baptisms at this church to Susannah Hassall of Stalybridge, all with 'fathers unknown'! My assumption has always been that this is the same Susannah Hassall and these were all siblings.
My problem/queries would be:- since there are no records of Susannah Hassall applying to the parish for money in the 'bastardy accounts' that she is likely to have either had support from ther father(s) of these children and/or from her family?
Secondly I have recently discovered records from 1853-5 in the Register of Voters Lists for Stalybridge. They list a Thomas and a William Hassall as having wholly or partly an interest in the 'property at 5 Hully Street, Stalybridge'. This property is where my Grandmother was born and lived as a child. Her own mother, Lucy Hassall (nee Lever) lived at this house until she died in 1962. So it is a fair assumption that this Thomas and William Hassall who owned the house in the 1850s were related to us. While there is a William Hassall among the illegitimate siblings of John Hassall (b1803) to Susannah Hassall, I can find no record of a Thomas Hassall in Stalybridge at that period?! Perhaps Thomas was the sone of William Hassall (b1809)?
An additional question is presumably there must have been a business in the family for them to have made enough money to have bought the house at 5 Hulley Street?
I really hope this makes sense as a series of questions as I don't have the exact details to hand and have typed this entirely from memory :S
Many thanks in advance
Jason
