Rosalind Davies' Family History
© Rosalind Davies 2001
Permission granted to reprint research for non-profit use only

Their Children:

1. Sarah Ann ROBINSON 1853- 1914 , married William Riding - my ancestor
2. Jane ROBINSON born 30 May 1858 Ashton, Lancashire Spouse: Richard RIGBY

And his 2nd wife:
Janet (Jennet) RABY
Birth: 1831 Great Eccleston, Lancashire xv
Death: 5 Jun 1885 Glasson iii
Burial: Christ Church, Glasson iii
Occupation: Helped with her husband's brick and tile manufacturing business xii
Religion: Church of England

Father: Cuthbert RABY (1791-)
Mother: Anne (1789-)

and their children;

Ann Robinson :born 1861, in Ashton, near Preston, married John Fisher of Thurnham 10 Nov 1881 in Glasson ix
Richard Robinson:born 22 Feb 1863 in Preston, married Hannah, sons John & Paul ii
John Robinson: born 1867 at Ingol, xiii near Preston and died 28 Nov 1939 iv
Cuthbert Robinson : born 1869 in Ashton, Preston xiii and died before 1939
Paul Robinson : born 1872 in Preston x and died 16 Apr 1949 iv
Janet Robinson: born 1873 in Preston x

Map showing Lancaster in the north, Preston in the south, Thurnham SWW of Lancaster, Great Eccleston & St. Michaels-on-Wyre NW of Preston.

There has been a church or religious building on the site of the Parish Church of St. John the Divine, Preston for many centuries. The old church was rebuilt many times but most recently in 1850. The drawing on the left shows St. John's at that time.

The town of Preston was in existence in Roman times with the name being a corruption of "Priests' Town'. In the 13th century the town gained Guild status and by 1343 was the richest town in Lancashire. Many battles were fought here over time but the town was transformed with Richard Arkwright's invention of the first practicable powered spinning machine in 1768, putting Preston at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. With this came social unrest and poor conditions- a cotton depression in 1842 and The Great Lockout when one third of the town were unemployed. xviii

When his wife Margaret died in 1859, they were living in Ashton near Preston and John was working as a drain tile maker. iv A little while later John remarried. His second wife was Janet, who was the same age as he was and had been born in Great Eccleston. Several children were born to them when they lived in Preston. Xv

In 1871, the family were living at # 1 Sandy Lane, Preston, in the parish of Emmanuel. John had become a brick and tile manufacturer and employed 7 men and 3 boys and the yard occupied 6 acres. xiii

Sometime after 1874, the family moved to Glasson, near Thurnham in Lancashire, where John was again a brick and tile manufacturer and employed amongst others, four of his sons, Richard, John, Cuthbert and Paul and his daughter Annie. They lived at Brickcroft Cottage on Outside Road, beside the canal, where his youngest daughter, Janet, kept house for him after his wife, Janet died in 1885. iii

( During my visit to Glasson in 1997, I found an area called Brickcroft on the road between Glasson and Thurnham, just along from the Conder Bridge on a sharp bend. It was beside the canal, and now contained a timber yard and fairly modern two storey cottage.

His grand-daughter Maggie remembered that he always gave the family a goose for Christmas. xvi
When John died in 1899, he left an estate of £1752.2.8. with William Raby (his wife's nephew), his son John Robinson, and his daughter Ann Fisher named as executors. His estate was divided equally amongst his eight children. He was 71 years old and died of influenza which he'd had for six days and senile debility. Iv His will was written in 1885. xvii Here is a copy.

This is the last will and testament of John ROBINSON.

of Glasson Dock, in the county of Lancaster, Brick and tile maker . I devise all my real and personal estate whatsoever and whensoever unto the use of my trustees William Raby of Thistleton and my son John Robinson Jun. of Glasson Dock and my daughter Ann, wife of John Fisher of Glasson Dock their heirs executors and administrators respectively according to the nature and tenure thereof upon trust that the said trustees or survivors of them shall sell all my real and personal estate and carve (?) up the same into money either by public auction or private contract and with the same, pay my funeral and testamentary expenses and all my just debts after which upon trust to pay assign and transfer the same unto equally (?) and between and amongst my children that is as follows- Jane my daughter, wife of Richard Rigby, Sarah Ann, my daughter, wife of William Ryding, Ann my daughter, wife of John Fisher, Richard Robinson, my son, John my son, Cuthbert my son, Paul my son , Jennet my youngest daughter, their heirs unto whom I give it forever. I appoint the said William Raby, John Robinson and Ann Robinson executors of this my will, in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 2 day of November one thousand eight hundred and eighty five.
John Robinson

Signed published and declared by the said testator John Robinson as and for his last will and testament in the sight and presence of us who at the same time at his request in his sight and presence and in the presence of each other and this will being first read over in our presence to the said testator and he perfectly understanding the same have subscribed our names as witnesses
Thomas Speakman Walmsley
Wm Walmsley
On the - January 1900 probate of this will was ---- at Lancaster to William Raby, John Robinson and Ann Fisher (wife of John Fisher) the executors.

The value of the estate was £ 1752.2.8

John's 1st wife
Margaret PARKINSON
Margaret was born in 1829 , possibly in Pilling ,Lancashire. i Her father , William was a weaver at the mill and Margaret followed him there as a 'rover'. Vi She operated a machine in the cotton mill which prepared carded fibre into loose rolls. My research tells me that her mother was Peggy Morley xiv (christened 28 Jan 1798 in Ellel) i and that Peggy's parents were Thomas Morley ( christened 26 Feb 1764 in St. Mary's , Lancaster i) and Ann Readman ( christened 31 Jul 1768 in Cockerham i ). At the time of Margaret's marriage to John Robinson in 1852 , she was living in North Road, Preston. After the birth of her two daughters, Margaret again fell pregnant in 1859 but unfortunately she died after having miscarried and contracting a lung infection, possibly due to her job in the cotton mill. Iv

Margaret Parkinson is my earliest matrilineal ancestor that I can find at the moment. As I was interested in the latest DNA findings and their implication for family history, I asked my father's sister, Margery Brown, if she would consent to a cheek swap for Mitochondrial DNA testing. I sent this away to Oxford Ancestors in England long with my own cheek swab. The results were very interesting. There were mutations in Marge's mtDNA sequence at 16136C, 16278T and 16356C. This did not place Margaret/Margery on the European chart of seven matrilineal lines.
Professor Bryan Sykes has named Margaret's line as the Ulrike clan. Women with this DNA can today be found in the Middle East, South East Asia, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands, Japan, the Americas and Northern Europe. The implications are that at some time in the last 20 thousand years, Margaret's maternal ancestor left the area around Armenia and travelled north ( others of her clan went east), possibly to Scandinavia. There is a small pocket of Margaret's DNA in Northern Britain but how they got there from is open to speculation. My ideas are fanciful- could she have come with the Romans? No, because then the DNA would be more prevalent in southern Britain. She must have come with the Vikings who landed on the east coast of Yorkshire and from there her descendants branched over northern Britain.
I have made contact with three other people with this same DNA mutation. Two are from the United States tracing native American Indian ancestors (their ancestor went east from Armenia then across the land bridge into the Americas) and the other those ancestor came from Preston in Lancashire.

John's 2nd wife
Janet (Jennet) Raby
Jennet was the daughter of Cuthbert Raby who was a master brickmaker, born in Great Eccleston and christened at St. Michaels-on-Wyre on 7 Aug 1791, a child of John & Elizabeth Raby. Xv& 1 Janet had known John Robinson as a child and in 1841, John was working at her cousin, Benjamin's farm. XI She married John after his first wife had died and helped raise his two daughters along with her own five. John's finances improved after his marriage to Jennet (or Janet) as he expanded the family business at Glasson.
Janet died of uterine cancer at the age of 55. Iv