Contradictory Information Can Mess with the Story

Not all research is correct.

I was very excited when I located this family research which is kept in the Bolton Public Library.

I have no idea who wrote this and where they found the information that had them believe that Adam and Mary Longworth owned the Black Dog, Wright’s Arms and the Factory Arms.

The research confirmed names and dates of birth, and even poor Mary’s death.

Mary Longworth may well have been the Belle of Belmont due to her looks, but other than that, no references to her or Adam being “pillars” of the community can be found.

Her and Adam, in my opinion, had a role as innkeepers for their cousin Benjamin Helme. It is Benjamin that owned the Black Dog and the Wright’s Arms, and most likely the Factory Arms as well.

Adam and Mary did have several children, 7 in all.

• Jane 1841-1919 (became Jane Tootell)
• Israel 1843 - (dies by his 1st birthday)
• Joseph - 1846 - 188 (always ill and dies in a workhouse by age 34)
• William James - 1849 - most likely died a birth
• Daniel - 1851 - 1885 - also dies by the age of 34
• Nanny 1853 - 1929 (who would become Nanny Almond, living in Horden Cottage in 1922 when Esther Alice pays a visit
• Esther Alice 1861 - 1850 (my great grandmother)
  

It’s incredibly sad that the two boys, Israel and William James died as infants. Then two more sons died at the age of 34. Add in Joseph being disabled, listed on the 1871 census as “an idiot since birth”. Shocking by today’s standards.

This would be The Factory Arms

What is also part of this story is that in 1871, 2 years before Adam dies by drinking himself to death and being found on the floor of the Factory Arms, is that Esther Alice and Nanny are not living at home. I have found that Esther Alice, aged 10, is living with her aunt Esther and uncle George Briggs. Esther Briggs is her mother’s sister.

I can’t find where Nanny is living in 1871. She would have been 18 years old in 1871. She marries in 1877 to George Almond. Who is 15 years old in 1871 and lives next door to Adam and Mary with his mother, also an Esther who was widowed in 1862.

Was life at home too much? Was Esther Alice sent to her aunts because of her brother’s disability and her father’s inability?

Makes for an interesting story.