Elizabeth Irene Wiggans ← James Wiggans ← John Wiggans ← Dinah Baker ← Lydia Stoppord ← Margaret Stoperd ← Elizabeth Stoperd ← Daniel Baker & Ann Gregson

On November 11th, 1744, Elizabeth Stoperd, my 6th great-grandmother, then living at Wrightington, brought her daughter Margaret Stoperd to Douglas Chapel in Parbold to be baptized.

The chapel itself was built sometime before 1292, on the north side of the Douglas River. It was likely a chapel of ease for Eccleston, replaced in 1875 by Christ Church, and demolished 3 years later. But in 1744, it was very much the center of worship for those who could not reach the main parish church.

Elizabeth did not name a father for Margaret and that was unusual for the time. Less than 2% of births were illegitimate in this period, and unwed mothers were legally required to name a father so that the parish could force a marriage to legitimize the child. If a father were already married, the church would attempt to compel him to acknowledge and financially support the child.

While it was not illegal to have an illegitimate child, it was illegal for a mother to resort to public assistance for the support of one. She could be jailed for up to a year of penal servitude. If she tried to sneak off to have the child out of town, her own Parish would still be held responsible for that child, and she would be publicly whipped.

More importantly, the child itself would be legally and socially stigmatized. So Margaret’s station in life was limited from the moment of her birth and it’s perhaps not surprising that we find she never married and had 2 illegitimate children of her own. Margaret, like her mother, declined to name a father in either case. Her daughter Elizabeth died as a child and was buried on the 21st of March, 1775 at St. Mary the Virgin in Eccleston. Her surviving child, Lydia, was baptized there on the 23rd of April, 1769.

Lydia Stophford

Lydia married Henry Baker, the son of Daniel Baker and Ann Gregson. He, like his father, was a ‘husbandman’ – an archaic term for a farmer – and his family had a long history in Leyland, and a particular connection to Ulnes Walton where he died and where some of his children were born.

Henry’s parents were married at St. Andrew’s Church in Leyland on October 26, 1766. They baptized Henry there on 2nd of August, 1767, and they were later buried there in 1814 and 1815. So naturally it was at St. Andrew’s that Henry married Lydia on the 10th of November, 1792. We know that Henry was literate, or could at least sign his name. We know that Lydia was not – she signed with an X – her mark.

Henry lived to be about 65 years old and like his parents was buried at St. Andrew’s on October 9, 1832. But Lydia outlived him by more than 20 years and died herself at the age of 86. Even at the age of 70, she was working as a housekeeper and she finished her days on Hough Lane in Leyland, with her daughter Dinah Baker just a few doors down the road. She was buried with her husband at St. Andrew’s on March 17th, 1855.

Dinah Baker

Dinah was born to Lydia Stophford and Henry Baker in Ulnes Walton and baptized in the Parish of Leyland on the 7th of July, 1811. She married John Wiggans, a farm labourer from Eccleston. The banns were read in September and October and then on the 4th of October, 1831 they married at St Mary the Virgin, Eccleston.

We know from the birthplaces of their children that they spent the first few years in Ulnes Walton, then a year or 2 in Harrington, 4 or 5 years in Eccleston and then they finally and permanently landed in Leyland. By 1851, they were living on Hough Lane with their 10 children.

• Lydia (1832) and Alice (1833) were both born in Ulnes Walton. Nancy (1838) was born in Eccleston – and all 3 sister became power loom weavers.
• Henry (1835) was born in Harrington. Jane (1841), Margaret (1842), and James (1844) were born in Eccleston. John (1848) was born in Leyland – and all of these siblings were employed in the bleach works.
• Catherine (1847) and Thomas (1851), both born in Leyland, managed to stay out of the textile industry and became a dressmaker and a gardener, respectively.

The family later moved to Main Street where, by 1861, nine of the children – some well into adulthood – continued to live with their parents. In 1870, Dinah was widowed, moved to Towngate and took up work as a cotton bleacher. Five of her children lived with her there, and her son John had brought home his Scottish wife, Sarah McIntyre.

Dinah died on June 7, 1879 and was buried in Leyland.