The surname Walshaw comes from either Walshaw in Lancashire or Walshaw near Wadsworth Moor in West Yorkshire.

From 1635 the family lived and worked around Hoylandswaine or Silkstone, Yorkshire. The men married local girls in Silkstone Church or in Penistone Church.

Thomas Walshaw was a yeoman who lived at Carr Head near Hoylandswaine. His son, John Walshaw married Mary Johnson in Penistone Church on 5th December 1667 and their children were christened in Silkstone, Yorkshire. For many centuries the villagers of Hoylandswaine and Silkstone lived simple lives in their rural community, undisturbed by the outside world. There was coal for heating, wool for weaving and land to work for food. Most villagers found employment in one of these areas.

The following four generations of the family remained around Silkstone until Benjamin Walshaw and his wife Ann Shaw moved with their family to Upper Cumberworth, Yorkshire. There, in 1841, Benjamin was a farmer, his son John Walshaw was an agricultural labourer and another son, Moses Walshaw, was a fancy weaver.

By 1851 Moses and his family had moved the short distance to Ingbirchworth where most men were hand loom weavers or farm labourers. It is in this village that the family stayed until the middle of the 20th century. After the demise of the hand loom weaving trade Moses, his son, Edward Walshaw and his grandson, John Edward Walshaw, became general labourers and often times were hard.