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Because we live in New Zealand, we rely largely upon the wonders of the internet to find out what we can about our English forebears. My husband’s great-great-grandfather was a man called James Shorrock, about whom we knew very little, apart from the fact that he was a cotton manufacturer who lived in Darwen in far-off Lancashire. Early on in our research we came across the wonderful Cotton Town website (1) and in it this piece from Charles Tiplady’s diary (2):
From the Diary of Charles Tiplady 1869.
April 11. This day two very old friends departed this life, viz., James Shorrock, Esq., aged 63, the excellent chairman of the Over Darwen Gas Company; and the Rev. Dr. Robinson, of Holy Trinity Church, in this town, aged only 51 years. Mr. Shorrock had attended divine service with his wife at Belgrave Chapel in the morning, and about dinner time had a fit of apoplexy which proved quickly fatal. Darwen has lost one of its brightest ornaments.
April 11 to 14. Heat oppressive. Thunder-storm on Wednesday the 14th. Afterwards very good growing weather.
April 15. Funeral of James Shorrock, Esq., Over Darwen. Public procession.
Some clues at last! We tracked him and his family through the various census returns and slowly we pieced together a picture of a man who had risen from relative obscurity as a farmer and hand loom manufacturer to become one of Darwen’s prominent citizens in the middle of the 19th century. A relation of Eccles Shorrock, through the latter’s patronage he came to manage, possibly part-own, one of Darwen’s big cotton mills. He lived at Astley Bank, where he raised a large family.
However, it was not until recently that we discovered a full obituary in the archives of the Preston Guardian (also sourced through cottontown.org), which gave us a real sense of the man himself for the first time:
Never perhaps in the history of Darwen, on a similar occasion was there so marked an expression of deep, concentrated, and unmistakable feeling of respect manifested as on the occasion of the interment of James Shorrock, Esq., JP of Astley Bank, on Thursday morning. Gentlemen and ministers of all denominations – men of different shades of politics – with a magnanimity worthy of the occasion came forward to pay their last tribute of respect to one who was universally respected and everywhere appreciated. The deceased gentleman for miles round was known as being connected with one of the most wealthy manufacturing firms in Lancashire; to the poor he was known as a great benefactor and practical philanthropist; whilst those who enjoyed his intimate acquaintance were ever ready to acknowledge his large-heartedness and were delighted with his quaintness, yet withal raciness of expression – his humour and spontaneity. He was one of a class of men who had carried for himself a name and a fame in spite of much difficulty, and often, in face of almost inseparable barriers. He rose comparatively from obscurity, and was in every sense of the word a self-made man. No one was ever freer from political bias or prejudice than he, and no one ever readier to co-operate in any good work with people of every shade. …
The Guardian article also ran a full description of his very large funeral procession:
All the firms in the town either stopped their mills or allowed all their hands who wished to leave and attend the funeral to do so. The various mills belonging to Eccles Shorrock, Bro. and Co. were stopped entirely for the day, and the blinds were drawn at every house we noticed in the public streets. At half-past ten the bells of Holy Trinity Church commenced ringing a muffled peal, which was continued until the corpse had entered the chapel. Flags were hosted half-mast at several of the mills. …
The following was the order of the procession: – First came professional gentlemen, ministers, Darwen magistrates, and doctors, followed by the gentlemen of the Local Board of Health; next the Directors of the Gas Company, followed by the directors of the Mechanics’ Institute. After these the workpeople belonging to the different mills and gentlemen of the town.
At 10.40, the procession, headed by the clergy and ministers, the Rev. D. Vandenweighe (Catholic) and all the gentlemen in the town, who number about 400, started, four abreast, from the Board-room, Church-street. We omit to give the names of the gentlemen present, the list being too large. We noticed that there was scarcely a single firm or tradesmen in the town but who had joined the procession or witnessed the funeral. …When the coffin was placed in the family vault in the chapel yard, the manifestation of feeling was very affecting, most of those present giving way to tears, forgetting for the nonce their manhood. This was especially the case with the relatives, but was not by any means confined to them, but was very prevalent amongst the crowd of onlookers.
In the years after James Shorrock’s death the Shorrock family fortunes declined, with the eventual loss of the mills. James’s son Christopher Shorrock remained in Darwen until his death in 1897, serving time as an Alderman in the town, but his other children moved away and today we believe there are no direct descendants left living in the area.
In 2006 my husband and I travelled to Darwen, expecting to find out much more about the man. It proved to be more difficult than we had imagined. We visited Astley Bank, where we were made very welcome, but where the name of James Shorrock was hardly known, and we spent hours in the library poring through newspaper cuttings and books, with little success. James Shorrock seemed to have disappeared from Darwen’s records.
It was not until our last day that we visited the old Belgrave Chapel, now an apartment building. After scrambling through the disused graveyard in front of the building, we eventually struck gold: two plaques marking the graves of James Shorrock and many other members of his family. How fortunate we were to discover them! This year we returned to Darwen and visited the graves again. They had almost completely disappeared under a tangle of vegetation and we would never have found them if we had not been there before.
(1) www.cottontown.org (2) The highly entertaining diary of Blackburn printer and Alderman Charles Tiplady (1808-1873) was almost lost itself. Retrieved from a dustbin during a house clearance by some Nottingham auctioneers, it was eventually bought by the Blackburn Local Historical Society with help from Blackburn Library, the Museum & Art Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum. It is well worth reading. http://www.blackburnlhs.org.uk/tiplady.htm
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The evening will consist of music from the Salvation Army Band to accompany a slide show and film footage that has never been seen before in Darwen. The film shows moving footage of the unveiling of Bold Venture War memorial by Mrs Chadwick in 1921, its going to be a first for the town.
