Part Two - Matthew Blackwell's Life and Times in Manchester and his death in Southport.

Photo of a Portrait in oil of Matthew Blackwell probably  late 1840s 

Matthew Blackwell and Ann Marsden from Birth to Marriage

When I started to write this chapter on 16th October 2016, it was the 190th anniversary of the marriage of Matthew Blackwell and Ann Marsden who were married on 16th October, 1826 at Manchester. Had they not done so, none of us in the large "Blackwell" family which dates from Manchester in the 19th century whether by male or female descendants, in three continents, would be alive today.

As far as we know, Matthew Blackwell originated in Rainow, Cheshire. He was born on 8th December 1804 and was baptized on 13th January 1805. We know the date of birth from a hand-written family record. The baptism record shows that his mother was Mary Blackwell. There is no record of the name of his father. Twenty-one years later, Matthew married Ann Marsden at Manchester on 16th October, 1826.

It is not possible to be as certain about the background of his bride Ann Marsden. The records that look most convincing show that Ann was born at Downham 1st September, 1806 and she was baptized at Clitheroe Well Gate Chapel (Wesleyan).

How Matthew and Ann met, we shall probably never know.

In Part 1, I explained that my mother inherited items from Mabel Holmes, who was the daughter of one of Matthew Blackwell's daughters, Julia.  Two of these items were painted portrait miniatures. These had been passed down in the Holmes family and were reputed to be of Matthew and Ann Blackwell from early in the 19th century. Mabel's father, Edmund Holmes had been the executor of some wills, including that of Elizabeth Blackwell, Julia's sister. Ann Blackwell's will reveals that her daughter Elizabeth Blackwell had inherited all the household effects, etc, from her mother. My assumption is that these miniatures were part of those possessions.

We do not know for certain if the miniatures are representations of Matthew and Ann Blackwell, or of other forbears, possibly from Edmund Holmes's family. However, they are from the correct period stylistically for provincial portraits.

Possibly Anne Marsden, wife of Matthew Blackwell 1806 -1889

Possibly Matthew Blackwell 1804 - 1859

My cousin, Paul Blackwell, a keen and foremost researcher of the Blackwell family, finds it difficult to believe that the well dressed young man above is a stonemason, working long, hard days in the centre of Manchester in the 1820s. It is equally possible that this is a picture of a member of the Holmes family, the equivalent grandfather, John Holmes and his wife Mary Sykes.

An alternative view is that Mabel Holmes, Julia Holmes's (nee Blackwell) daughter always stated that these miniatures were of Matthew and Ann Blackwell. It is difficult to see why such a story should have arisen in the Holmes family if the miniatures were in fact of Holmes forbears.

The portrait at the beginning of this section, however, is almost certainly an authentic image of Matthew Blackwell. It is identified in the album held by Paul Blackwell with the title "Great Grandpa Blackwell". Another copy, kept by my mother is annotated by her on the reverse, "Matthew Blackwell born 1804". I believe she took this out of the Holmes photograph album. We know that Ann Blackwell left "the portraits in oil of myself and my late husband" in her revised will of 1886 to Richard Henry Blackwell her son who had emigrated to Australia. The portrait above is clearly a photograph of an oil painting, from the brush strokes which are apparent. Matthew Blackwell is painted holding a pen poised above a design for a Victorian villa - reference to his status as an architect. There is no sign of a photograph of Ann's portrait in oils, perhaps because it was not needed as it was relatively easy to have photographic portraits taken by that time. When Matthew Blackwell died in 1859, the availability of photography was very limited, so it is probable that he was never photographed.

Living descendants of Richard Henry Blackwell in Australia have no knowledge of any portraits, so they may have been lost over time.

Family Births, Weddings and Churches

Matthew and Ann's wedding was in the parish of St John's in Manchester. The church no longer exists.

           Record of Matthew Blackwell's and Ann Marsden's marriage 16th October, 1826

The written record of Matthew and Ann's marriage, describes Matthew Blackwell as a stonemason and Anne Marsden a spinster. Matthew was 21 years old and Anne was 19 years old at the time of their marriage. A witness is Harriet (or Harriett) Blackwell, almost certainly a relative of Matthew's, but not yet identified.

Photo: Robert Andrew Pattreioux (1863-1938)

St John's Manchester

Interior of St John's Church, Manchester, circa 1894. An illustration by Henry Edward Tidmarsh (1854–1939)

Over the following 22 years, Matthew's marriage to Ann Marsden in 1826 produced a large family of nine children.

1828 Isaac
1830 Sarah Ellen
1833 Harriet
1836 Elizabeth Ann
1838 Richard Henry
1840 Marsden
1843 Edwin
1845 Emily
1850 Julia

Julia, the last daughter in the family, was only nine years old when her father Matthew died at the age of 55 at Southport in 1859. Marsden, Edwin and Emily were also teenagers.

By contrast with Matthew, his wife Ann, having given birth to these nine children over 22 years, lived for 30 years after Matthew's death until the age of 83.

There are dated baptism/birth records for all the children which show they were baptized at Manchester Cathedral. The Cathedral had a monopoly on any baptisms which took place in any church in its parish. This monopoly was not broken until 1847. So to have a baptism at another church in the parish would cost a fee at the local church and an additional fee for the cathedral. Consequently, most baptisms took place at the Cathedral.

Manchester Cathedral print published 1825 Smithy Door looking to Cateaton Street

Manchester Cathedral from North-East - photo by Bowman - 19th century

The Baptistery at the cathedral early 19th century - engraving after Sir Horace Jones

There are no records which tell us of Matthew and Ann's residential address until the 1841 census. Later, I rely on information from Trade Directories.

More about Manchester in the early 19th century

When Matthew and Ann were married in 1826, enormous physical and social changes in the city were under way, driven by the processes of the industrial revolution.

At the start of the 18th century, Manchester was a small, market town with a population of fewer than 10,000. By the end of the century, it had grown almost tenfold, to 89,000. In the 19th century, the population continued to grow very rapidly, doubling between 1801 and the 1820's and then doubling again between then and 1851, to 400,000. It almost doubled again by the end of the 19th century. Parts of the city changed almost entirely beyond recognition. Where once it was possible to walk into fields, there would be found a densely populated housing area. Some of the housing was of a very low quality and designed to last no more than 40 years.

You may want to follow up the following extract from an article by Emma Griffin, Professor of History at UEA

‘Hell upon Earth’

Yet the most enduring legacy came not from these English writers but from a German visitor – Friedrich Engels. Engels was sent to Manchester by his father in order to complete his training in the cotton industry. But Friedrich, already deeply involved in the German radical movement, seized upon the trip as an opportunity to conduct a firsthand study of the lives of the workers the factory employed. The result, The Condition of the Working Class in England, shone a bright light on the most unsavoury consequences of England’s industrial transformation. His account of mid-19th-century Manchester was uncompromising: a place of dirt, squalid over-crowding, and exploitation. The historic heart of Manchester he described as a place of ‘filth, ruin, and uninhabitableness’, it was, quite simply, ‘Hell upon Earth’.[2]

Middle-class commentators took a uniformly bleak view of Manchester, but it is important to note that many working-class inhabitants viewed their city in a far more positive light. In a large town it was possible to attend a night school or to worship at whatever church one chose. It was possible to join a union, or even a political society, and start to shape the society in which one lived. William Aitken described his fellow Manchester Chartists as the ‘sons of freedom’.[3] Manchester may have been dirty, noisy and over-crowded, but for many workers the combination of relatively good wages and a lively cultural scene provided ample compensation for these drawbacks.

See more at:

https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/manchester-in-the-19th-century#sthash.7BXIjBwo.hcylO9m9.dpuf

Matthew and Ann Blackwell would have seen a colossal transformation taking place around them. Matthew himself was bringing that about by building houses, probably as fast as he could. Here is a picture of Manchester produced for Queen Victoria in 1852 by William Wyld. It is an idealized painting of a rural environment - Kersal Moor - against the steadily expanding "Cottonopolis" of Manchester which produced more cotton than anywhere else in the world. Note the plumes of smoke from factory chimneys.

Here is a further image from within the city later in the century - 1865:

For anyone who grew up in the 1950s like me, the memory of dense fog in Manchester winters is a strong one. I can remember the taste of the fog as well as its density. Sometimes it was yellowish. It was so thick sometimes that it could actually be seen indoors. The cause of this was not just factory chimneys, but the burning of coal in domestic houses. This was the main form of domestic heating. It was not until the 1960s that smoke control orders came into force, requiring the use of smokeless fuel. In the industrial explosion of the city of Manchester in the 19th century, there were no restrictions and smoke and fog must have been a real menace to health.

When Matthew Blackwell started working in Manchester in 1820s, there was huge demand for housing as the rural labourers poured into Manchester to work in the factories. There had been pleasant countryside with large residential houses, parks and fields around the centre of the city. This environment was transformed into streets of small dwellings into which many poor workers were crowded often in dreadful and insanitary conditions. Their children worked in the factories, too.

There was a great deal of social unrest and much demand for reform at the time. The "Peterloo" massacre had taken place in 1819 in Manchester, a few years before Mathew and Ann's marriage where the cavalry had killed 19 people and seriously injured 600 when they charged the 60,000 people assembled who were calling for electoral reform. The Government had cracked down on dissent and newspaper editors and sub editors were being arrested and imprisoned for sedition.

Even so, Matthew chose to work in Manchester, where fortunes could be made. We have no idea of his or Ann's political views. But Ann's father, Richard Marsden (according to the census) was almost certainly a machine maker. At that time, this almost invariably meant a textile machine. Hand weaving was being replaced by machines, often in factories.

Matthew’s work and residence from marriage until the 1840’s

A few records exist which give a clue to Matthew's activity and the whereabouts of his family after his marriage. Some of these are family documents and some of them are documents in public records such as Trade directories and the Press. There are no doubt many more to be uncovered.

By the time of Matthew's early death in 1859 he had amassed a substantial fortune by his work as a stone mason, marble mason, builder and architect.

An entry in Baines Directory 1824 shows a Wm Blackwell “stone and marble mason” at number 41 Major Street and number 62 is given as his home. Five years later, two years after Matthew's marriage, Pigot's Directory of 1828-1829 (page 223 of 301) has an entry as follows:

"STONE AND MARBLE MASONS

Blackwell Matthew (and statuary)  62 Major Street
Blackwell Thomas 62 Major Street
Blackwell William 62 Major Street"

We cannot be certain if this is "our" Matthew Blackwell at 62 Major Street, but it is noteworthy that he is designated as also dealing with statuary and that two other Blackwells are at the same address in Major Street in the centre of Manchester who are specialists in the same trade. It is quite possible that these three Blackwells are related, but this has not been verified so far. My guess is that they are related, otherwise why would they share the same address, family name and trade? It could be possible that Matthew joined William Blackwell who was already at number 62 Major Street?

The picture of Major Street below is from the 20th century, but it is possible that this type of housing existed in the early 19th century.

When Matthew and Ann's first son, Isaac, was baptised in 1828, Matthew was described as "Labourer". By 1830, when their second child, Sarah Ellen was baptised, Matthew was described as "Stonemason". By 1850, when their last child was baptized, Matthew was described as "Architect and Mason".

Matthew was also undertaking education and training. I found a press clipping from 1834 as follows:

This shows that Matthew Blackwell won 1st prize in the Architectural Drawing Class as the Manchester Mechanics Institution and he is described as a stonemason.

Pigot's Directory shows Matthew three years later in 1837 at Store Street, London Road, Manchester. This was immediately outside the new railway station "Manchester and Birmingham and Sheffield Ashton and Manchester Railway Station".

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_files/ENG/LAN/manbrum_p3d.htm

It also shows another Blackwell, a Charles Blackwell at 20 Major Street.

We know from existing contemporary family documents that Matthew bought parcels of land in Manchester. One was a plot of land in Hulme in 1838. It is very likely that this is where he built the houses on Stretford New Road where Matthew and family were recorded in 1841 (census) in residence at number 10 (faintly circled in orange below in the centre of the map). This block was between Newcastle Street and Wilmot Street very near to the church of All Saints.

It was not so far from St Wilfrid's R.C. Chapel as it is called on the map. An account of St Wilfrid's can be found here

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LAN/Hulme/StWilfrid

A drawing from 1843 shows the following:

In the event, the tower was never built.

The following account underlines the change in the environment and the expansion of the population.

"For some years after St. Wilfrid's had been opened in 1842, it was known as St. Wilfrid's in the Fields. There were many complaints that it was built too far into the country. The people who attended it came mostly from the Chester Road and Deansgate areas. The old Church of St. Mary, Mulberry Street, had collapsed in 1835, and was not rebuilt for several years afterwards. St. Wilfrid's, therefore, supplied a pressing need. People coming to worship there had to cross a field of wheat. The nearest houses were in Jackson's Lane -now Great Jackson Street. City Road was only a pathway, and there were a few buildings on the Chester Road side. Away to the south and south-west there was open country. The Church and Presbytery were designed by a great architect of the last century (note by me, this was 19th century), Pugin. The Church is considered a good example of the Neo-Gothic style.
Before long the position of the new church was fully justified. In 1843 there were 237 infant baptisms. In five years this figure had increased to more than 500. In 1850 there must have been more than 12,000 people in the new parish; yet all the work had to be done by two priests. It meant very long hours in the confessionals- the vestries, as they were called in those days-and most of the day was spent in visiting the sick and dying."

St Wifrid's still exists, albeit as an enterprise centre. It closed as a church in 1990. For further information, see, http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/pugin/38.html

Though there is no connection between Matthew Blackwell's family and St Wilfred's as he was apparently a follower of the Church of England, the description of the local environment shows the rate of change and the size of the population. In addition, it is likely that Matthew would have taken an interest in Pugin's architectural design of St Wilfred's as it was so near to where he lived. It is a Grade II listed building.

Marsden Blackwell, one of Matthew's sons, married Elizabeth Mercer, who was a Roman Catholic. Records show that their children were baptised at St Wilfrid's, so it is safe to assume that this was their parish church. It is from this family that most of the English Blackwells are descended.

Another nearby church, All Saints, no longer exists, having been bombed in the 2nd World War in the 20th century. Grosvenor square, where the church stood, exists today with a plaque about the old Church. Below is a photo of the old church.

Matthew bought (another) parcel of land fronting Stretford New Road in 1842. We can guess with a degree of certainty that he carried on building and developing his property holdings through this period by buying and selling leases on properties, etc. Some of the old ownership documents were retained in the box of Blackwell papers mentioned in Part 1 of this Chronicle.

Some of the houses that were built for the working classes at that time in Manchester were actually very poorly constructed and were not expected to last more than half a century. We do not know what types of houses or other buildings Matthew Blackwell's enterprise built. However, we do know that he was developing his expertise as an architect and it seems unlikely that he would throw up low grade dwellings.

In 1841 the census showed that Matthew (described as a stonemason) and Anne had a sizeable family of six children consisting of his eldest son Isaac 13, Sarah Ellen 10, Harriet 8, Elizabeth Ann 7, Richard 5 and Marsden, 1 year old. They had a further son, Edwin, in 1843 and daughters, Emily in 1845 and Julia in 1850. On one of his children’s baptism records, Matthew is described as a marble mason. This may indicate that he had begun to specialise in more decorative work?

It is also worth noting that a William Blackwell, a stonemason, is listed as living at Newcastle Street, which joins Stretford (New) Road very near where Matthew lived in 1842. It is not known if he is a relative, but as noted above, there was a William Blackwell listed at the same Major Street (work?) address as Matthew Blackwell in Pigott’s directory of 1828.

Matthew and his family have not yet been found in the 1851 census. Parts of the 1851 census in Manchester are known to have been damaged beyond legibility. We do not miss very much by this missing record as there are other records.

Pigot and Slater’s 1841 Directory lists Matthew Blackwell as

“Stonemason and Builder”, Store Street. House Stretford New Road”

In 1847, Matthew Blackwell appeared as a witness in a legal case about the destruction of a weir, estimating the cost of rebuilding it in his capacity as a stonemason (see the extract below). Also appearing as a witness was Wilson an architect, probably the same one -William Wilson - who lived next door to Matthew and is discussed elsewhere in this Chronicle.

The Whellan and Company's Directory of Manchester in 1852 shows "Matt. Blackwell, stone mason and architect Stretford New Road, Hulme; ho. 120 Ormond Street Chorlton on Medlock".

This is confirmed by his daughter Sarah Ellen's marriage certificate in 1852 which gives her address as 126 Ormond Street. It also shows Matthew at 6 Stretford New Road. It looks as if Matthew moved around a little and so did members of his family. It is quite possible that these were houses which he owned and even constructed.

The Combined Slater's Directory of Northern Counties in 1855 shows Matthew Blackwell designated as an architect (Matthew Blackwell and Son) at 2 Ducie Street, Greenheys. Isaac Blackwell, his son, is also described as an architect (M Blackwell and Son) at 87 Carter Street, Greenheys. Blackwell M and Sons, architects are listed at Essex Chambers, Essex Street.

The Matthew Blackwell and Son company had included his son Isaac by 1855 with offices recorded at Essex Street which was off Stretford New Road. We know Matthew bought a plot of land in Bangor Street, Hulme in 1847. The property assets which are recorded (and were sold) long after his death (which was in 1859) and his wife Ann's death in 1889, include the following:

Some 27 separate properties on each side of Stretford Road nos 2 to 48 and 19 to 43 where tenants paid rent. 2 to 12 Stretford Road (inc 6 shops) and 42 and 44 Stretford Road are listed separately as a sale.

18 properties in Cavendish Street - approx 15 tenants at different numbered addresses 12 to 46. Cavendish Street was an extension of Stretford New Road to the junction with Oxford Street.

7 houses, being 17 to 29 Bangor Street, Hulme.

22 houses in Harpurhey - 2 to 24 Farndon Avenue off Moston Lane and 1 to 19 Anglesea Avenue.

Matthew Blackwell died at 9 Hill Street, Southport in 1859 at the age of 55. Paul Blackwell, my cousin, obtained a death certificate which states that he died of "Congestion of the brain and spinal marrow. Disease of spinal bones, 2 years." He was buried at Holy Trinity Church, Southport. No record of Matthew's tomb has been found to date. The church was rebuilt at the turn of the century. It is possible that the current property at the Hill Street address is the same one.

9 Hill Street Southport

As I mentioned previously, the pollution of the air in Manchester was often very bad from the burning of coal in factories and domestic houses. Tuberculosis was a common disease - "consumption" - and Southport would have offered a healthy climate. Southport was a fashionable resort for the middle class. Several Blackwell family marriages were conducted at Trinity Church, Southport. As mentioned above, Matthew was buried there and some thirty years later in 1889, so was his wife, though she lived in Manchester.

A photo of the remembrance notice below was sent to me by Hugh Blackwell in Australia, where it has been kept in the family for nearly 150 years. It is the only known copy and may have been taken to Australia by Richard Henry Blackwell when he emigrated in 1878.

I would be very pleased if anyone with interesting information about the Blackwell family lets me know. I can incorporate new information into these writings at any time. I can also correct any errors that might be identified. Please get in touch to let me know.

tbjolliffe@gmail.com