Matty was the second of Nathan and Grace’s five children. The family lived in the small textile town of Baildon, with her five cousins, daughters of Timothy and Mary Overend, nearby. No doubt the whole family would be involved in spinning and weaving by hand during Matty’s childhood.
Martha married William Robinson, a cloth-maker from Calverley nearby and they settled in Baildon near the Overend family. They lived on Westgate, near to the Wesleyan Methodist chapel which was opened in 1806 and where their children were baptised.
I have been able to find records for four of Matty’s children: Mary (1802), Hannah (1803) Rebecca (1812) and Joseph (1813). Sadly Rebecca died at the age of six.
We find Martha and William in the 1841 census, which tells a sad story. Their two grandsons Joshua and Jeremiah, aged 10 and 8, are living with them as they lost their father in 1833 and their mother in 1838.
Martha’s son Joseph is still at home at the age of 28 and working as a stone mason (I believe there was a mix-up by the clerk in recording this occupation against William’s name rather than Joseph’s).
Matty died three months after William in 1844. Shortly afterwards Joseph married and started his own family. Joshua and Jeremiah went to live in Bradford with their eldest brother William Bell in Greengates, a brisk walk away from where I am sitting now!
Mother of Mary, daughter of Nathan and Grace Overend
Baptised Matty (properly Martha) Overend on 17 July 1775 in Baildon, Yorkshire
Married William Robinson IV on 18 November 1799
Buried 22 December 1844