Features
About William Rowe 1843 to 1886
On Wednesday the 3rd of February, 1886, my great grandfather, William Rowe, was killed in an accident at Treeton colliery - he was 42 years of age. The death certificate gives the cause of his death as :- 'Accidentally killed by a fall of stone from the roof of coal pit.' At the time of his death he was living at 2 House, No. 1 Court, Masbrough Street, Rotherham
Newspaper reports state that at the time of the accident William was working with a man named Henry Smeaton - I believe that this was his brother-in-law.
On Sunday the 9th of May, 1886, three months after the fatal accident, Sarah, William’s wife, gave birth to a baby girl - Sarah Letitia. The baby was obviously named after her mother and her grandmother.
My grandfather, John Smeaton Rowe, (pictured left aged about 61), would have been nineteen years old at the time of his father’s death and, as the eldest son, would have suddenly become ‘the man of the family’.
There were four other children in the family at this time in addition to the new-born baby.
The 1891 census shows that my great grandmother Sarah was living at Westgate, Rotherham at the time of the census and that she had taken up occupation as a dressmaker - obviously to help out the family’s budget.
The census gives my grandfather’s occupation as ‘glassblower’. He continued in this occupation for the rest of his working life.
Family background
William's parents were James Roe/Rowe and Letitia Chandler. They were married on the 27th of September, 1824 at St. Mary Magdalene's Church, Peckleton, Leicestershire.
William, and his twin brother Richard, were the fifth and sixth children of the marriage. They were born in 1843 and were christened on the 2nd of July of that year at All Saints' Church, Theddingworth, Leicestershire.
William married Sarah Smeaton on Tuesday, the 25th of December, 1866 at St. Thomas' Church, Brampton, Derbyshire. William and Sarah had six children, the eldest being my grandfather John Smeaton Rowe.
told by Sydney R. Bardsley, September, 2006
If you have any connection with this family, please contact us.( Later generations of this family were in Masbrough and Wombwell)