Henry Mottershead m. Harriet (née Gaskell)
Peter
(b Jan 18 1871)
Tabitha
(b July 3 1873)
Herbert
(b Nov 26 1876)
Walter
(b Sep 20 1879)
Harry
(b May 14 1884)
Maria
(b Nov 10 1886)
Norman
(b Nov 4 1889)

Henry and Harriet on their honeymoon

Notes:

Henry (b. 18 March 1845) was given the surname "Mottershead" by his grandparents, who raised him. He was a master dyer in one of the Macclesfield silk mills.

Henry invented a new type of black dye - very important in the Victorian era - and was invited to present it to the Russian Court. At the behest of Harriet, he declined the offer. Had he not, his children Maria and Norman may well have been born Russian!

Henry was also a member of the Ancient Order of Druids.

Harriet (b. 21st October 1848, although the 1881 census lists her birth year as 1849 - this is likely because the census was taken on April 3rd 1881, and if her age had been given as 32, which she would have been at the time of the census not having had her birthday yet that year, then the census takers may have computed her birth year as 1849) was the daughter of Peter Gaskell, a shoemaker of Lord Street, Sutton (now part of Macclesfield, Cheshire) and Maria Salt.

Henry and Harriet were married December 18th, 1869 in the Parish of Prestbury, Cheshire.

At the time of the 1881 census, Henry, Harriet and family were resident at 76 Waterloo Street, Macclesfield. Peter is listed as having been born in Stoneclough, Lancashire, England; and Tabitha (listed in the census as born 1874, probably for the same reason as the error in her mother's age) is listed as having been born in "Hague Bar..., Derby".

Norman was gassed in the trenches in World War One, and (so the family story says) as a result had no children. He married "Minnie" Wood, and lived to be a "ripe old age".

Henry and Harriet later in life with some of the family Return to main page Norman with Tabitha, Betty and Walter