LOOKING AWAY FROM WALLGATE, 1910
Michael Gorman (1853-1878) was born in Ireland, perhaps County Meath. His son, Stephen Joseph Gorman (1878-1930) and his grandson, Stephen Gorman (1900-1962) were born in Wigan, Lancashire, England. Wigan was created on July 1, 1837. It was a sub-district of Lancashire. All records are kept at the New Town Hall, Library Street , Wigan, Lancashire WN1 1NN
In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Wigan like this:
"Wigan, parliamentary and municipal borough, manufacturing town, parliamentary seat and township, SW. Lancashire, on river Douglas, 21 miles NE. of Liverpool - par., 29,033 ac., pop. 117,725; bor. and township, 2188 ac., pop. 48,194; 3 Banks, 2 newspapers. Market-days, Monday and Friday. Wigan is an ancient place, but has become of consequence only since the rise of the cotton mfr. Its position in the midst of a great and rich coalfield, and its easy means of transit by railway and canal, have given it peculiar facilities for mfrs., which consist chiefly of calicoes, checks, fustians, and other cotton fabrics. It has also linen works, iron foundries, iron forges, iron rolling mills, railway waggon works, chemical works, breweries, and a papermill. Some of its cotton mills and iron works are among the largest in the kingdom. The original parish church of All Saints dates from the 14th century. A public park of 30 acres was opened in 1878. Wigan was a borough by prescription, first chartered by Henry III. It returns 1 member to Parliament; it returned 2 members from the time of Edward VI. until 1885."
Wigan
Created 1st July 1837.
Sub-districts : Ashton in Makerfield; Aspull; Billinge; Hindley; Pemberton; Standish; Upholland; Wigan.
GRO volumes : XXI (1837-51), 8c (1852-1946).
Abram, Ashton in Makerfield, Aspull, Billinge, Billinge Chapel End, Billinge Higher End, Blackrod, Dalton, Haigh, Hindley, Ince in Makerfield, Orrell, Parbold, Pemberton, Shevington, Standish with Langtree, Upholland, Wigan, Winstanley, Worthington, Wrightington.
Registers are now divided between Wigan & Leigh, West Lancashire, Bolton and St. Helens districts.
Wigan in 1845 was at a pivotal point in its history. The once pleasant market town and spa, one of Lancashire's four ancient boroughs, has been surrounded by coal pits and textile mills and, more importantly, has been recently connected with the early railway system. The old shape of the medieval town, with its long burgess plots behind the houses of Standishgate, is still discernable, and the countryside is only a few hundred yards away from most townsfolk.
The cotton trade was aided initially by the digging of the strategic Leeds to Liverpool canal which can be seen passing closely to the south of the town. Several large chemical works have also been sited along the canal emphasising the diverse trades settling in the town. Coal mining was one of the key industries of the day with pits being sunk close to the town at Scholes and Hardybutts. Extensive tramways slice through the ancient fields linking collieries to the railway and to the canal.
Over the next fifty years Wigan will become another grimy Northern industrial town surrounded, not by fields, but by rows of terraced houses.
Most of our ancestors: Gormans, Pomfrets, Dorans, Doyles, Hiltons, Thompsons, Gores, Webbs, Bulpitts, Gaskels and all the other families related by marriage worked in the coal mines or the cotton mills of Wigan, Lancashire, England.
They were, for the most part, Catholic Famine Irish, in search of work in England. They began to arrive in the late 1830s and intermarried with other Famine Irish or Anglican English Lancasters, mainly Wiganers. Then, at the beginning of the twentieth century, some left for America and settled first in Rhode Island before going to other places mainly on the eastern seaboard of the USA. |
