Very little is known about John and his life – the fact that ‘John’ is a very common name as was ‘Cockcroft’ at the time does not help us to definitively identify him or his family. However, the inscription on the headstone demonstrates he was certainly a family man who experienced his children dying at very young ages pointing to possibly poor living conditions. He died relatively young, leaving his wife to live on for a further five years until her death in 1854.
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John was born in 1816 but records indicate it may have been in May which would make him not quite 33 when he died – the headstone does state aged 33 yrs. The parents of John were John and Sarah Cockcroft – the continuation of both names is identified in John and Elizabeth’s children.
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We have a Parish record for a potential date of Elizabeth’s birth as 17 December 1809. A John Cockcroft married an Elizabeth Walsh on 6 October 1835 at St. John’s, Halifax but her birth year is recorded as 1810. However, the marriage date ties in with the birth date of John and Elizabeth’s first child, Sarah Ann.
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According to the 1841 census, John is living in Grease Field, Naylor’s Buildings, Halifax with Elizabeth and two children – Sophia aged 3 and Joseph just under one year. In the house there also lives a Mary Lambert from Warwickshire aged 25 and her daughter, also called Mary, aged 8. There is also a child of one year called Charles Martin; he is also from Warwickshire. There are no indications of what relationship there is between the families other than Mary Lambert is listed as ‘independent’. The 1841 census indicates that the community living in this area were employed within the wool trade. John is a warehouseman.
1850 OS map showing Naylor's building. Calderdale Libraries
Trade directories were consulted to give some indication as to where he may have been employed as a warehouseman. Based on the fact he lived in Naylor’s Buildings, there were two firms using the name Naylor – one was a card maker and the other was a wool stapler. The two firms were in the wool trade as were other occupants of the cottages in Grease Field as well as those within Naylor’s Buildings.
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John and Elizabeth had at least seven children between 1837 and 1849. Six of them died in infancy:
Sarah Ann – died aged 8 months
Joseph – died aged 2 years
Sophie -died aged 4 years and 11 months
Henry – died 1 year and 10 months
John died in 1847 (age unknown)
James – died aged 8 months
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They had one child, Walter, who survived infancy. He was born in 1845.
On the 1851 census Elizabeth is living with her only surviving son Walter who is 6 years, at Labour Street in Halifax. She is the head of the household and is a seamstress. She has two lodgers, Edmund Wadsworth and William Sutcliffe, who are living at Labour Street in Halifax.
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Following his mother’s death, Walter moved to Todmorden to live with the extended family. Elizabeth died in 1854.
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Researched by Patricia Stabler