Brough04.htm

Brough Family History (continued)

A farmer for several years, Hodgson Brough established a grocer's business in the 1820's and went on to become Parish Clerk of Abbeytown, a position which he held for over thirty years. On 1 Dec 1821 Hodgson married Frances (Fanny) NOBLE of Blennerhasset.

As Parish Clerk, Hodgson BROUGH appeared frequently in the parish registers, his name appearing as witness at no less than eighteen marriages between 1822 and 1859. Clearly in this position of responsibility, he ensured that the baptisms of all his children were fully entered in the registers (unfortunately for those trying to trace their family history, that is not something that all the ancestors had seemingly regarded as very important!). So we are able to list them all:

Annie ( Nancy) (#1171), baptised on 13 October 1822
Ruth (#1177), baptised 11 March 1827
Bella (#1178), baptised 25 July 1829
Frances (Fanny) (#1174), baptised 4 September 1831
Jane (#1262), baptised 1 December 1833
Phoebe (#1175), baptised 16 October 1836
John (#1139) - our great-grandfather - baptised 17 February 1839

John grew up in Abbeytown - he was still there at the time of the 1851 census, aged 12 - and was apprenticed to the draper's trade. More research is required to trace his movements during the following decade but it is clear that at some point, breaking with the family tradition of remaining in the parish, he moved south, and on 15 September 1869 we find him before the altar of St. Bega's Church, Bassenthwaite, taking marriage vows with Tamar GRAVE. Tamar was one of thirteen children of local farmer Stephen GRAVE and his wife Jane, of Mirkholme, Uldale.

After their marriage, John and Tamar Brough moved to Birkenhead in Cheshire, where they lived for the first few years of their married life, and where their first two children - Joseph Hodgson BROUGH and Stephen Graves BROUGH - were born. But by 1874 they had returned to Cockermouth, Cumberland, where John ran a draper's business in Main Street for two decades. It was here that seven more children were born: Martha, Fanny, John, Thomas, Ellie and Tamar, Thomas and Ellie being twins. John died in infancy but the other eight children grew up in Cockermouth. They must have spent much of their spare time at their mother's family home - Mirkholme Farm - and after their grandfather, Stephen GRAVE, died in 1892, and six still-unmarried GRAVE brothers and sisters moved from Mirkholme to another farm at Blindcrake, this seems to have become the favoured holiday spot for the younger generation of BROUGHs. Indeed, it seems to have continued in this role for another generation because my mother had fond childhood memories of holidays at Mountain View, Blindcrake. The photo which was taken at Mountain View about 1915, shows the six Grave brothers and sisters.