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to view a picture of the person1. James HEPPLESTONE was born about 1777 in Hoylandswaine,
Yorkshire. James was probably the son of Ann Hepplestone. He had
a sister Ann who was christened on 1 January 1783 in Silkstone Church.The Hepplestone
family name was written in census information and on birth certificates with
several variations including Heppenstall, Hepplestone, Hepenstall, Heppleston.
In the mid nineteenth century many people could neither read nor write. When
a baptism, marriage or birth took place the vicar entered the name in the register
as it seemed to him that it should be written, but the dialect of the informant
might mislead him. The same applied to the census enumerators. A schedule was
delivered to each household and the head of each family had to fill it in - if
he could write. If not the enumerator would do it for him and so different variants
of the name were recorded for the same individual at different times. Indeed
when some of the family moved to Lancashire the name was spelled Edwardson and
Hepplerton!! He was christened on 14 Aug 1780 in Silkstone Church, Silkstone,
Yorkshire. Between 1800 and 1849 he was a Master Nailmaker.
He was a nailmaker in a village that was the centre of a flourishing nailmaking
craft. There can be no doubt that a large number of people who would have been
landless poor in other areas were able to keep above the poverty line by working
long hours crouched over their anvils in the smithies, hammering metal into the
shape of a nail or, further south near Sheffield, the shape of a knife. In the
eighteenth century, however, many nailers and cutlers were more prosperous than
the small farmers and could occasionally rank with yeoman. Indeed the yeomen
thought it no disgrace to apprentice their younger sons as cutlers or nailers
for seven years. Nailmakers were typical craftsmen of the domestic system and
from a young age children helped to fetch and carry or to work the bellows. It
was no surprise that James' four boys became nailmakers like their enterprising
father who, many years before, had risen to the status of a Master Nailmaker.
Every Saturday the nailmaker fetched bundles of iron rods from his nailmaster.
To avoid a fine, by the end of the week the nailer had to have made 45lbs of
nails from each bundle of rods weighing 56lbs. In 1832 voting rights had been
given to the property owning middle classes and James was recorded in the Barnsley
Poll Book of 1835 and was one of the only five men in the village with sufficient
money and status to have a vote. But times were changing fast. Young nailmakers
set up on their own after a couple of years training as there was plenty of opportunity
to flourish on their own and little capital was needed to set up. The master
nailmakers were concerned with the flooding of the market for this was “very
inconvenient and unprofitable to us”. If that was not bad enough, larger
syndicates took over the supply of iron and controlled the price at which the
nails were bought back. Wages slumped and to survive men, women and children
had to toil for twelve hours a day in small workshops. In summer the heat was
unbearable. Forge-work was unhealthy and exhausting and offered poor returns
to those making the nails in backyards and fat profits for the Spencer Syndicate
which mined, smelted and slit the iron at the Wortley Forge and supervised the
distribution of rods and the collection of the completed nails. The French expression
“travailler pour des clous” (to work for nails) gives an idea of the
reward as it means “to work for next to nothing”. Newspapers reported
the general economic depression. There were riots in Stockport and Manchester
at the wage cuts. The Chartist movement, which aimed to gain political rights
and influence for the working classes, began to emerge in 1836 and support for
it peaked as unemployment and hunger spread in the large towns. By 1839 James,
his four sons and his fifteen grandchildren lived in the village and earned a
living from nailmaking. He lived in Fell Lane, Hoylandswaine, Yorkshire in 1841.
James lived alone. He signed a will on 7 Apr 1849 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire.
"In the name of God, Amen. I James Hepponstall of Huddersfield in the County
of York, Yeoman, being in good health and of sound mind memory & understanding,
but considering the uncertainty of this transitory life, do make publish &
declare this my last Will & Testament this seventh day of April in the Year
of our Lord, one thousand & eight hundred & forty-nine, in manner following,
that is to say
And as to the Personality of which I may die possessed, I give & bequeath
the same to my beloved Son George Hepponstall of Huddersfield in the said County
of York, Nailmaker, with whom I have resided for several years, subject nevertheless
to the payment of my just debts & funeral & testamentary expenses, which
debts & expenses I order & direct my Executor hereinafter named to pay
& satisfy with all convenient speed after my decease
And as to my Freehold Estate situate at or near Fell Lane in Hoylandswaine in
the County of York aforesaid consisting of a piece or parcel of Ground containing
about one and a half Acres or thereabouts, be the same more or less, upon which
are erected two Dwellinghouses, a Nailmakers Shop & mistal, I give &
devise the same & every part thereof unto my said Son George Hepponstall
of Huddersfield aforesaid, Nailmaker, & to his Heirs & Assigns for ever.
And hereby revoking all former & other Will & Wills by me at any time
heretofore made, I hereby nominate constitute & appoint my said Son George
Hepponstall as the sole Executor of this my last Will & Testament.
In Witness whereof I have to this my last Will & Testament written on one
sheet of Paper set & made my mark & attached my Seal the day & year
first above written.
James Hepponstall his X mark
Wits: Ezra Priestley, John Hellowell, Benjn Tomson " He died of natural
decay on 29 Oct 1849 in Manchester Street, Huddersfield, Yorkshire.
James died at son George's house. George registered the death. He had his estate
probated on 29 Nov 1849 in York, Yorkshire.
James HEPPLESTONE and
Hannah HATTERSLEY were married on 3 Dec 1798 in Silkstone Church, Silkstone,
Yorkshire. Hannah HATTERSLEY was born
about 1781 in Hoylandswaine, Yorkshire. Hannah was the daughter of
Isaac Hattersley (b1759 Dodworth) and Susannah Nettleton (b 1760). They married
on 22 September 1781 in Silkstone and had at least five children;- Hannah (1781),
John (c1784), Benjamin and Joseph (both c 1785) and Ruth (c 1789). She was christened
on 22 Sep 1782 in Silkstone Church, Silkstone, Yorkshire. She died
about 1817 in Hoylandswaine, Yorkshire. James HEPPLESTONE and Hannah
HATTERSLEY had the following children:
+2 | i. | George HEPPLESTONE. |
+3 | ii. | Joseph HEPPLESTONE. |
+4 | iii. | Jonathan HEPPLESTONE. |
+5 | iv. | James HEPPLESTONE. |
6 | v. | Hannah HEPPLESTONE was born on 17 Apr 1816 in Hoylandswaine, Yorkshire. She was christened on 28 Jul 1816 in Silkstone Church, Silkstone, Yorkshire. |
