Shorrocks Family in 1881 (photos Islington Mill & Islington Road, Salford)

1881 Census:

THE SHORROCKS FAMILY

Salford, Lancashire, England - extract: 1881 British Census


KEITH’S GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER

Dwelling: 23 Islington St

Walter SHORROCKS

Marr Age Sex Birthplace
M 57 Male Salford
Rel: Head Occupation: Brush Manufacturer

Ann SHORROCKS
M 57 Female Salford
Rel: Wife

William W. SHORROCKS
U 22 Male Salford
Rel: Son Occupation: Brush Maker

Louisa SHORROCKS
U 19 Female Salford
Rel: Daughter

Florence SHORROCKS
U 14 Female Salford
Rel: Daughter

KEITH’S GREAT GRANDFATHER

Dwelling: 309 Eccles New Rd
Census Place: Pendlebury, Lancashire, England
Household:

Robert. E. SHORROCKS
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
M 27 Male Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Head Occupation: Warehouseman

Fanny E. SHORROCKS
M 25 Female Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Wife

Harry SHORROCKS
2 Male Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Son

Louisa SHORROCKS
5 m Female Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Daughter

My. Ann BORROWDALE
U 16 Female Newcastle On Tyne, Northumberland, England
Rel: Servant Occupation: General Domestic Servant


BACKGROUD

1881 - As Recalled by Eric Midwinter

Just a few months before the start of the year, Captain Boycott was 'isolated from his kind as if he were a leper of old'. This was the Irish land agent, Captain Boycott and, in January 1881, Charles Parnell (his is the 'leper' quote) was acquitted of conspiracy, in respect of the 'boycott' - of those taking over the land of an evicted tenant - campaign in Ireland.

The Irish Coercion Act of 1881 followed and there were many outrages and correspondingly harsh responses. On the mainland a Fenian bomb in Salford injured three, whilst another bomb was found in London's Mansion House. In October, Parnell, the Irish political leader, was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail, something he welcomed, for, allegedly, he wished to be out of circulation whilst his mistress, Kitty O'Shea (disclosure of their togetherness was to lead to his political disgrace in 1890), had his child.

Sleaze in parliament and troubles in Ireland: yes, it really is 1881 and not today. Just to underline the point that it was ye oldyne dayes, Lancashire won the non-official county championship. 'Monkey' Hornby's side, which included the likes of Richard Barlow, A.G.Steel, Richard Pilling, Johnny Briggs and Alec Watson, won ten and drew three of its thirteen games. This was one of the first teams to concentrate on strong, collective fielding. Other cricket news: C.J.Logan became the first bowler to take a hundred wickets in Canada and cricket was played for the first time in what is now Lesotho.

Football now: in the FA Cup Final the Old Carthusians beat the Old Etonians 3-0, the last time two southern amateur clubs were in the final - Blackburn Rovers were to be beaten by Old Etonians in 1882, and then Blackburn Olympic won the cup in 1883. Captain E.G.Wynyard led the winners' forwards. Indian born, he was the forcing Hampshire bat who played three times for England. The final was played at the Oval before a crowd of 4,000. There were 7,000 at Old Trafford for the opening day of the Lancashire/Middlesex match.

Gladstone - the People's William' - was Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer and his cabinet included such names as Joseph Chamberlain and John Bright. Abroad there were problems with the Boers in South Africa, where British troops were worsted at the battle of Majuba Hill, which led, at the Pretoria Convention, to some recognition of the rights of the Transvaal. In the Sudan the Mahdi led his revolt against Egyptian rule, the prelude to the incidents leading to the death of General Gordon in Khartoum in 1885.

But what was life like at home? Here are some statistics for the statisticians. In 1881 the British population was 35m, of whom 22m lived in towns and 13m in the country, and of whom only 3m had the vote. During 1881 884,000 were born; 492,000 died; 256,000 emigrated, the great majority - 172,000 - to the United States; and about this time the term (if more rarely the methods of) 'contraception' began timidly to be used.

The number of the labour force working in agriculture and allied crafts was down to 12%, while those in the manufacturing and mining industries was up to 44%, with 21% in transport and trading and 7% in public and professional careers. The remaining 16%, including 1.3m women, were in domestic service. In 1881, according to Mrs Beeton's revised 'Book of Household Management', a man on £1,000 a year could afford five servants. Mind you, it was possible to hire a cook for as little as £15 and a maid for as little as £9 a year. The 'General Report' of the 1881 Census commented on 'the increasing difficulty of finding suitable servants'. You can't get the staff, you know.

Agricultural labourers, in 1881, earned on average 13s 9d a week, while there were 180,000 'indoor' (i.e. in the workhouse) and 627,000 'outdoor' (i.e. in receipt of cash relief) paupers, which rather nails the myth that all impoverished people ended up in the workhouse. It is of interest to glance at the median family's weekly budget in 1881. It was 26s 6d (£1 32.5p for the younger brethren), of which 16s went on food - 5s of which was for bread and 2s 4d for meat - 3s 6d for rent and the same for fuel and clothing.

In 1881 the glittering Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, 'Patience', which laughed at aesthetes in particular and affected posers in general, and which smirked sideways at Oscar Wilde ('As I walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in my medieval hand...') opened to all-round approbation. Thomas Hardy wrote his little known novel 'A Laodicean' and Anthony Trollope wrote his little known novel 'Ayala's Angel'. The 'Daily Telegraph' was only a penny, but, at least, it was a Liberal newspaper. 'The Times' was threepence. Among the 884,000 new arrivals were P.G.Wodehouse and Ernie Bevin.

What about Test cricket, did you ask? Compared with the wall-to-wall Test cricket of 2002, there was exactly ONE DAY of Test cricket in 1881, and that only just made it. 31 December 1881 marked the first day of the First Test against Australia in Melbourne. It was drawn, with our old friend, Tom Horan, making the only century of the match. W.E.Midwinter, having played the first two Tests ever in Australian colours, made his English debut. It's a wonder they didn't boycott him.

AND IN THE OLD WEST:

April 28 – Billy the Kid escapes from his 2 jailers at the Lincoln County Jail in Mesilla, New Mexico, killing James Bell and Robert Ollinger before stealing a horse and riding out of town

July 14 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner

July 20 – Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana

October 26 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurs in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA

December 28 – Virgil Earp is ambushed in Tombstone and loses the use of his left arm.

AND

Butch Cassidy (April 13, 1866 – November 7, 1908) was 15 years old in 1881. He was born Robert LeRoy Parker and became a notorious American train robber, bank robber and leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang.

‘Butch’ was born in Beaver, Utah in Beaver County, to Maximillian Parker and Ann Campbell Gillies. His parents were English and Scottish Mormon immigrants, respectively, who came to the Utah Territory in the late 1850s. They had formerly been residents of Victoria Road, Preston, Lancashire.

AND

Five years before 1881 (in 1876), the Oglala Sioux had overwhelmed General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Later they were defeated - and subsequently recruited into circus depictions of their battles. In the winter of 1887-88 hundreds of these Oglala Sioux Indians (depicted in the 1990 film 'Dances with Wolves') settled in Salford for six months, in their teepees on the cold and damp banks of the River Irwell!

They were all members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Circus, within which they recreated classic gun-slinging scenes from the Old West with their ‘cowboy' counterparts. The show was so popular in Salford that it took a break from its world tour to stay longer in the city (or reputedly was grounded there when bankrupted).

One small Sioux girl was baptised at St Clement's Church before slipping out of the history books - and descendants of the Salford Sioux still live in Greater Manchester.