Mary Elliott grew up in the early years of the 19th century in Sheffield, which was developing rapidly.
Mary’s father was a collier at a time of transition from small-scale, shallow adit mining to industrial deep mining. These new techniques, along with the growth of the steel industry, would make Sheffield one of the powerhouses of the Industrial Revolution.
On her marriage to Joseph Johnson, Mary moved to Newbold Moor, where Joseph worked in the pottery industry. She had ten children over the next twenty-two years. Sadly two of her children, Joshua and Sarah, died in infancy and Hannah died in 1828 at the age of six.
At the time of the 1841 census they had their seven surviving children living with them. Our ancestor Joseph, aged three, was the next to the youngest. I was surprised to see that the two eldest girls, aged seventeen and fourteen, were not working. Joseph must have been earning good money as a pot hawker!
The 1851 census shows their house in Newbold Moor as “uninhabited”, but the area remained their home base. At least two of their children were married there and Mary died there at the age of 57.
Mother of Joseph Johnson Jnr and daughter of John and Sarah Elliott
Baptised on 14 February 1798 at Sheffield, Yorkshire
Married Joseph Johnson Snr on 26 January 1818
Buried 15 April 1855