“(1) John Mather  I have a copy of the grave records dated 1873 which are in the family.  The grave was bought originally for £2 by Elizabeth in 1865 and is in Tonge and Haulgh cemetery (at the back of where Fred Dibnah used to live)  Ref - 2:F:29NC  There are 3 inmates buried as follows:
       25/3/1865            John Mather                49 years
       15/11/1902          Ruth Inman                 48 years
       9/11/1908            Hannah Richardson     65 years
There is no tombstone but  I think it is next to the grave bought by John's brother George also in 1865 when his first wife died.  I copied the epitaph from the tombstone  as matriarch Alice Mather, Samuel’s widow, is buried here as well as George and family.

(2) Elizabeth Kay was probably a reeler in the cotton industry in 1841 -  I've come across this job title before.  Her death certificate says she died "by the visitation of God from natural causes".  No wonder there was an inquest!

(3) Ruth Mather was born on 2 August 1854 at 58 Chorley St.  Her father John was then a time keeper according to the birth certificate.  She was aged 16 on the 1871 census but a line is across the employment column so I don't know whether she worked prior to her marriage.  She married James Inman on 9th  April 1879 at the former Claremont Baptist Church, Bolton - where I was also married just over 90 years later.  Amos Inman and Sarah Alice Mather were witnesses.

James Inman was born in Richmond, Yorkshire on 22th  July  1852, son of Dorothy and David a stonemason who died young.  James was a stationer in 1871 and sometime before 1879,  for reasons unknown, moved from the rather imposing Frenchgate in Richmond to be a boarder at Clarence St Bolton.  He was a bookseller's assistant at Winterburns bookshop on Deansgate.  My aunt tells me he lost his job when the son of the owner was old enough to work in the shop.  Presumably he then decided to follow Joseph to Birkenhead where he had a similar job as a stationer’s assistant.  Here began a grim life for the family.  Birth, death and census records show at least 6 different addresses for the family although I understand it was not unusual for famillies living in towns in Victorian times to move frequently.  As you know 2 of the 5 children died:
Elizabeth Dora Inman died 19 January 1894 from T.B. ) I have their death certs
William Inman died 7 March 1894 from meningitis      )
Maybe it was all too much for James.  Rumour suggested that although he was registered as deceased on Sarah Ellen's 1908 marriage certificate and Ruth Mather’s 1902 death certificate he had in fact gone off to Australia.  The new emigration website finds him aged 47 on a passenger list for Sydney in 1900 but I don't know if he went alone.  It would be interesting to find out what then happened to him.

By 1901 Ruth and her daughters were living in Bolton with sister Hannah and husband at the Royal Tiger pub at 2/4 Noble Street.  Ruth died the following year aged 48 at 16 Osborne Street from pneumonia and and heart failure.

Inman daughters

 

Sarah Ellen married my grandfather Alfred Hunt, a plumber, in 1908.  They emigrated to Toronto, Canada where they had a good life for a few years until they were probably persuaded by my greatgrandfather James Hunt to return in 1913.  A terrible mistake.  Another grim time followed marked by extreme poverty.  Of their 5 children Ruth, Jim and Nell were born in Canada and the younger 2 Alfred and Lilian (still alive and has provided some of the above information) in Bolton.  Sarah Ellen died in Bolton in 1951.

Lilian and Margaret also emigrated to Canada.  Lilian married (I have the wedding photo) and moved to Vancouver taking Margaret with her.  I met these 2 ladies when they came over for my aunt Lilian's wedding c.1947.  Lilian senior was a large domineering woman and Margaret a small, thin, frail spinster.  They died in Vancouver.

(4)  Hannah Richardson nee Mather  and Robert Buchan Richardson
I wonder if this couple had a baby late in life- Hannah would have been 49 or whether the following refers to a grandchild
Robert Buchan Richardson   BIRTH  BOLTON 1894 MAR 8c 457
  "                                         DEATH BOLTON 1894 SEPT 8c 191 aged 0

I found these workhouse records quite harrowing.  Could nobody in the family have helped?  John B lived quite a while after this
24/12/1907    Admitted from Bolton - John Mather labourer born 1852 aged 55   Destitution and fractured ribs
26/12/1907    Admitted from Bolton - Hannah Richardson born 1842 (actually 1844) aged 65 (incorrect)   Jack Frame Tenter  Destitution, Filthy and Cellulitis of the neck
6/1/1908        Richardson Hannah 65 Dead Interred by friends  Cause of death cellulitis of neck/toxaemia  Spinster from the workhouse (wrong again).
”