William Gilberthorpe (1814)

William Gilberthorpe (1814), son of William Gilberthorpe (1785) and Mary Robinson (1785), like all his siblings was born in Slade Hooton (a.k.a. Brookhouse, or Laughton or Laughton-en-le-Morthern). He was baptised there on 1st May, 1814 and later became a shoemaker. He married Jane Haywood from Chesterfield, probably around 1837, and had several children ; Elizabeth (1838), William (1841), Thomas (1845) and Richard (1850), before Jane died, soon after the 1861 census. He remarried sometime before 1871, to Elizabeth (probably Abny) and died in Laughton in 1879.

I know very little of Elizabeth (1838) at this time.

William (1841) married Catherine (1847), who appears to have been born in the Isle of Man, and the couple set up a farm in Gilberthorpe Street, Rotherham, and appear to have owned the land upon which the old Rotherham Racecourse stood. The racecourse closed around 1900 and is now known as Herringthorpe Playing Fields. They had a least nine children; William (1870), who moved to the Birmingham area and became a butcher there, Henry (1877), who also moved to the midlands with his brother William, and appears in the 1928 Smethwick telephone directory as a butcher. At this stage I know little of the other children; Louisa Jane (1868), Annie (1873), Florence (1880), Ethel K (1882), Arthur (1884), Nellie (1886) and Evelyn M (1890).There is however, one intriguing little anecdote, which I have lost the source of for the moment, where H Gilberthorpe wrote of Rotherham Racecourse stating that his father owned the land upon which it was run, and that his brothers still farmed there (around 1928), but according to my enquiries only his younger brother Arthur remained in Rotherham. I took this to suggest that William (as the eldest son) may have returned to Rotherham upon his father's death.

Richard (1848) married Ann Lister (1821) and, after a initially living in Worksop, they moved to the Eastwood area of Rotherham. They had a least 6 children; Thomas (1884) died young, and daughters Mary Ann (1875), Elizabeth (1878), Jane (1884) and Kate (1894). Their one surviving son, Alfred (1876) married and moved to Doncaster, working on the railway, and may well be the same Alfred who died in Wakefield in 1918.

Thomas (1845)  became a policeman in Sheffield, and married Sarah Southern (1842), but he died relatively young in 1876 and they appear not to have had any children.