I'm looking at the family of the Reverend David Black, minister of Tillicoultry Free Kirk in Clackmannanshire, Scotland.
Three of his sons, John Dykehead Black, Matthew Thomson Black and David Black, were involved in a woolcombing business in Victoria Mills, Bradford. Matthew and David must have moved to Bradford between 1881, when they were in the census in Glasgow, and 1891, when they were in Bradford. I don't yet know where John was in 1881, but he was head of the household at 11 Sherborne Road where his brothers were in 1891. Apart from John in 1881, I have basic details - births, deaths, marriages and census - for all of them, and for their parents, five sisters and the fourth brother. Matthew was the last survivor, and his death notice in the Bradford Observer in 1941 describes him as 'Chairman of Directors of W and M Thompson Black Ltd, Woolcombers, Bradford'.
Matthew seems to have gone into a formal partnership, W and M Thom(p)son Black, because the dissolution of the partnership was announced in the London and Edinburgh Gazettes in October 1899. Matthew retained the name of the firm and continued in business on his own. Presumably it must at some point have been turned into a limited company, but I have yet to find any evidence of that.
What I would most like to know is who the William Black was who was in partnership with Matthew. I've tried the newspaper archive via FindMyPast, so far without success, other than a report of a fire in Victoria Mills in 1897.
I note that there are several references to the bankrupcy of the owners of Victoria Mills, Low Moor, Bradford, in 1883. It would be beautifully neat and tidy if Victoria Mills, Rutland Street and Victoria Mills, Low Moor, were one and the same, because then it would make sense that the unknown William Black and the brothers John, Matthew and David Black took it over after the bankruptcy. Can Rutland Street be described as being in Low Moor?
Ideas, anyone?
