Betty Slater was the youngest of her mother’s seven children. Ann Slater was a widow when she married Betty’s father and had three children already. By the time Betty arrived her half-brother Thomas Ledgard and half-sister Ann would probably have left home. Robert Ledgard, aged twelve, and the four Slater children would grow up together.
Betty’s father was a “yeoman” – a landowner in the farming country around Idle – a built-up area now but then the centre of sheep farming and wool production.
The family lived at Rockcliffe, where the Leeds/Liverpool canal would later be built. The area, close to Esholt, doesn’t appear on modern maps, but my late husband and I have walked there many a time, had we but known it! I am indebted to “arthurk” from the Roots Chat forum for this location.
Parish records refer to Betty’s parents as “Mr” and “Mrs”, an indication of their high status in the community. No doubt she had a comfortable, secure childhood.
At the age of eighteen, she married Samuel Jowett, another yeoman with land in the Calverley area. I have found records of three children: Ann (our ancestor), Thomas and James. Maybe they had more; another research opportunity for someone.
Betty died after thirty years of marriage. She lived to know her grandson John Berry, my four-times-great-grandfather, who took the family line in a very different direction!
Mother of Ann Jowett and daughter of Thomas and Ann Slater
Baptised “Betty” (not Elizabeth) on 6 April 1743 at Calverley, Yorkshire
Married Samuel Jowett on 18 February 1761
Buried 4 June 1791