John Morley (bef. 1749 - abt. 1828)

Born before 24 Jan 1749 in Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Martha (Ashworth) Morley — married 17 Apr 1781 in Halifax, Yorkshire, England

Descendants

Died about Apr 1828 after about age 79 in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

John Morley was born in Yorkshire, England.

West Riding of Yorkshire in the second half of the 18th Century

Yorkshire had... built up a considerable trade with North America, and hence the war with the colonies brought about a temporary slump in the sale of woollens. The years 1771-3 had been gloomy, with bad harvests, dear food, and depression in trade. Then came the American War, which closed a valuable market against the clothiers and merchants. The extent of the consequent depression is seen in an interesting letter written by John Wesley, dated August 23, 1775 :

'I aver that in every part of England where I have been (and I have been east, west, north, and south within these two years) trade in general is exceedingly decayed, and thousands of people are quite unemployed. Some I know to have perished for want of bread; others I have seen walking up and down like shadows. I have seen three or four manufacturing towns which have suffered less than others. Even where I was last, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, a tenant of Lord Dartmouth was telling me "Sir, our tradesmen are breaking all around me, so that I know not what the end will be." Even in Leeds I had appointed to dine at a merchant's, but before I came the bailiffs were in possession of the house. Upon my saying "I thought Mr......had been in good circumstances", I was answered, "He was so, but the American War has ruined him." ^[1]

...the West Riding had reached a position of pre-eminence even before the great inventions came into operation. The supply of wool, the possibilities of water power, the possession of a population which could not produce by tillage of the bleak slopes all that was necessary for sustenance, and which, by the inherited skill of generations, was especially suited for industrial work, these were the chief forces which carried the county along the highway of progress, and prepared the road for the gigantic developments which lay before her when the wits of men revealed new sources of power, and discovered untold mineral wealth at her very door.^[1]

...there were clothiers of every gradation, from the smallest independent master, employing only his own family, to the wealthy clothier, employing a large number of people in his house and loom-shop, as well as others who worked for him in their own homes. The big man went to the wool markets, or into the wool-producing counties, to purchase his supplies of raw material. These he brought home, and then set his apprentices and journeymen, his own family, and the children of his employees to work converting the raw wool into yarn, and then into cloth. He often took a hand at the loom (especially if he was engaged in training an apprentice), he generally dyed the wool or the piece himself, and when the cloth was finished he took it to the merchant's warehouse or to the cloth-market.^[1]

Birth and Parentage

John, or Jonathan Morley was born some time before 24 January 1749, the day of his christening, in Sowerby Bridge, St Peter's, Yorkshire (West Riding). He was the son of weaver Moses Morley and his wife Martha née Normanton.^[2][3]

Life

Mytholm Royd to Piece Hall, Halifax[4]

Like his father, he became a weaver and cotton spinner, later a woollen or worsted manufacturer, and settled in Mytholmroyd, (Mytholm-Royd) in the parish of Halifax in the wapentake of Morley, nearly seven miles west of Halifax.^[5][6]

It was his daily habit from 10:30 am to 12:00, to attend the wool market in Halifax at the Piece Hall, which had opened on 1 January 1779. This weekly market

was ideally suited to the needs of small scale woollen clothiers with limited capital. They had the opportunity to sell direct to merchants or factors for prompt payment as "cash on the nail" or at short credit with settlement in 14 days. Clothiers had a quick return on their investment in wool and labour, regular sales helped keep overheads low and encouraged continued production.

The Piece Hall gave merchants regular and easy access to the output of collective domestic mass production, volume sales of cloth at the market stimulated the rapid circulation of capital and contributed to the economic vitality of the area.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

Marriage and Family

John married Martha Ashworth on 17 Apr 1781 in Halifax, St John the Baptist, Yorkshire,^[12] and they had the following children:

• Hannah - bap. 10 Apr 1785 ^[13]
• Abraham, bap. 13 Nov 1788, ^[14]bur. 14 Apr 1802. ^[15]
• Moses - bap. 1 Jan 1792. ^[16][17][18]They were living in Cour (sic) (probably) Crow Hill at this point.^[19]
• Frances (Fanny) - b. 1794 ^[20][21] In Fanny's birth record, Jonathan is recorded as being a comber. ^[22]
• Samuel - bapt. 6 Dec 1801. ^[23][24][18]
• Ann - b. 1782 ^[25]

Death

He passed away on or shortly before 23 April 1828, the day of his burial.^[26]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Heaton, Herbert, (1920)., Yorkshire woollen and worsted industries, from the earliest times up to the industrial revolution. Oxford Clarendon Press. Retrieved from the Internet Archive (pp.117, 281, 295;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
2. ↑ John Morley in 1749 in Yorkshire Baptisms. Sowerby, St Peter, Yorkshire (West Riding), England Retrieved from Find My Past (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
3. ↑ John Morley, 1749 in England, Yorkshire, Bishop's Transcripts, 1547-1957. FamilySearch Online database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
4. ↑ 'Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland' Greenwood, C. (Christopher), 1786-1855, Teesdale, Henry., Bingley, J. To the nobility, gentry & clergy of Yorkshire, this map of the county constructed from a survey commenced in ... 1817, & corrected in the years 1827 & 1828, is ... dedicated by the proprietors. London : H. Teesdale & Co., & C. Stocking, 1828 Retrieved from National Library of Scotland Maps (Here;) Accessed 18 June 2022.
5. ↑ Baines' History, Directory & Gazetteer of Yorkshire, Vol. I: West Riding, (1822). Retrieved from University of Leicester: Special Collections Online (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
6. ↑ The Mytholmroyd Net . Notes for family historians by Roy Stockdill. Retrieved from The Mytholmroyd Net (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
7. ↑ From Weaver to Web. Online Visual Archive of Calderdale History. Calderdale history timeline 1700 - 1800AD : Section 3. The Piece Hall. Retrieved from From Weaver to Web (Here;) Accessed 18 June 2022.
8. ↑ Transcription of the Halifax Directory of Trades and Professions (1829) Retrieved from Genuki (Here;) Accessed 18 June 2022.
9. ↑ Pigot, James and Co., (1828). Pigot and co.'s national commercial directory for 1828-9, comprising a directory of the merchants, bankers, professional gentleman [&c.] in the counties of Cheshire, Cumberland [&c.]. Retrieved from Google e-Books (Here;) Accessed 18 June 2022.
10. ↑ Midgley, S., Bentley, W. (1789). The history of the town and parish of Halifax: containing a description of the town, the nature of the soil, &c. &c. &c.; an account of the gentry and other eminent persons born in the said town, and the liberties thereof, also, its antient customs, and modern improvements; also, the unparelled tragedies committed by Sir John Eland of Eland, and his grand antagonists; with a full account of the lives and deaths of Wilkin Lockwood, and Adam Beaumont, Esquires; also, a catalogue of the several vicars of Halifax Church, with the time of their institution and death. Halifax: J. Milner.... Retrieved from Babel Hathitrust (Here;) Accessed 18 June 2022.
11. ↑ Postlethwayt, Malachy, (1774). The universal dictionary of trade and commerce. (Vol 2)., ...with large additions and improvements, adapting the same to the present state of British affairs in America, since the last treaty of peace made in the year 1763. With great variety of new remarks and illustrations incorporated throughout the whole: together with everything essential that is contained in Savary's Dictionary; also, all the material laws of trade and navigation relating to these kingdoms, and the customs and usages to which all traders are subject. London: Printed for W. Strahan, J. and F. Rivington. Retrieved from the Internet Archive (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
12. ↑ John Morley in 1781 in Yorkshire Marriages, Great Britain. Retrieved from Find My Past (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
13. ↑ John Morley in entry for Hannah Morley, 1785 in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 database, FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
14. ↑ Abraham Morley, 1788 in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch Online Database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 10 Dec 2023.
15. ↑ Entry for Abraham Morley and John, 14 Apr 1802 in England, Yorkshire, Bishop's Transcripts, 1547-1957.FamilySearch Online Database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 10 Dec 2023.
16. ↑ Moses Morley, 1792 in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch Online Database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 16 June 2022.
17. ↑ John Morley in entry for Moses Morley, 1792 in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch Online Database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1} Retrieved from Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
19. ↑ Moses Morley in 1792., Yorkshire Baptisms., Sowerby, St Peter, Yorkshire (West Riding), England. Retrieved from fmp (Here;) Accessed 18 Jul 2023.
20. ↑ Frances Morley, 1794 in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch Online Database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 16 June 2022.
21. ↑ John Morley in entry for Frances Morley, 1794 in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch Online Database, Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
22. ↑ Fanny da. of Jn'n. Abode: Blackwood. Comber'. Burials Sowerby St Peter's: Retrieved from cfrsweb (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
23. ↑ Samuel Morley, 1801 in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch Online Database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 16 June 2022.
24. ↑ John in entry for Samuel Morley, 1801 in England, Yorkshire, Bishop's Transcripts, 1547-1957. FamilySearch Online Database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.
25. ↑ Ann Morley, 1782 in England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. FamilySearch Online Database. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 16 June 2022.
26. ↑ West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1985 for Jonathan Morley, Sowerby, St Peter and Others, 1828. Retrieved from Ancestry Sharing (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.

• The Morley Families of Halifax. Retrieved from (Here;) Accessed 17 June 2022.

• Midgley, S., Bentley, W. (1789). The history of the town and parish of Halifax: containing a description of the town, the nature of the soil, &c. &c. &c.; an account of the gentry and other eminent persons born in the said town, and the liberties thereof, also, its antient customs, and modern improvements; also, the unparelled tragedies committed by Sir John Eland of Eland, and his grand antagonists; with a full account of the lives and deaths of Wilkin Lockwood, and Adam Beaumont, Esquires; also, a catalogue of the several vicars of Halifax Church, with the time of their institution and death. Halifax: J. Milner. Retrieved from Babel HathiTrust (Here;) Accessed 18 June 2022.

• Stuart, John., The Halifax Piece Hall. The 2017 refurbishment and History. Retrieved from The Yorkshire Journal

(Here;) Accessed 18 June 2022.