Thanks for your interest in Martha and my Midgleys in general.
I agree with the scenario that Martha's will was probably written from her Spring Lane address. After her husband's death in 1879, Martha stayed on for a time in Spring Lane, with an unmarried daughter, Emma (1881 census). In 1891 Martha is living with Emma, now married to Robinson Foulds, and their five sons (aged between 7 years and 5 months!). In 1901 Martha is living with her daughter Martha Ann and son in law John Midgley at 4 Lancaster Street.
I am pretty confident that there is no link between my John Midgley and Barrowford Betsy Midgley and family.
My Midgleys don't go back very far in Colne (in genealogical terms) and and there weren't many of them - particularly sons in the various generations to pass on the name.
John Midgley's father, Edward, came to Lancashire in the mid 1840s from Alford in Lincolnshire (where the two previous generations have also been found). Edward moved first to Habergham Eaves to work as a servant at Green Hill for Robert Artindale, a solicitor, also from Alford. He was in Accrington in 1861 and died, a coachman, in Colne in 1867. (Edward had only one full sibling, a sister, who survived to adulthood – and she moved to the East Riding of Yorkshire.)
John Midgley had three sisters and no brother.
John then had two sons (my grandfather, also Edward, and Arthur) and two daughters.
Arthur had a daughter and no sons.
My grandfather, Edward Midgley, had two sons (my father, Norman, and Fred) and one daughter, Irene.
My father had one son (Donald, with two daughters) and one daughter, me, (married but still usually using my maiden name of Midgley!). None of us now lives in Colne (though my brother and I grew up there).
So a pretty meagre bunch - but relatively easy to keep track of!
Ruth
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