|
a.
|
Note: George Austwick was born in Snaith near Goole in East Yorkshire in December 1841. His parents were Thomas Austwick and Hannah Aucock. No other siblings have yet been located.
George was married to Mary Richardson in St Edward the Confessor`s Church, Brotherton on the 19th of March 1865. They were settled in John`s Yard, Brotherton by the time of the 1871 census and already had two children. G.A. was then working as a labourer - probably in the local quarries as this seems to have been associated with his wife`s family. However, the birth certificate of G.W.A. puts his place of birth in 1867 as Railway Gatehouse, Womersley.
The family were somewhat mobile as in the 1881 Census 36 year old George `Austick` was described as a railway labourer and was living at Railway Cottage in Featherstone. At the time he was accompanied by his wife, Mary aged 40, and their four children - George William (14), Arthur(12), Mary Ann(9) and Thomas(2).
In the census, the two younger children were said to have been born in Brotherton - which tallies - but Arthur was supposedly born in Featherstone. The latter does not fit unless G.A. was even more mobile than is obvious.
At some stage G.A. and his family returned to the High Street, Brotherton. The exact timing is not yet known but it must have been pre- 1891 as they show up on the census of that year. G.A. was then employed as a lime burner whilst G.W.A. and Arthur were both miners.
Gladys Pickett (the grand daughter of (GA) recalls that `Old George` lived in a little house on High Street during the mid and late 1920`s. However, by the time he reached his 90`s he was a garrulous old man who was unable to look after himself. At times he tended to wander around in the night and his daughter-in-law, Mary Ellen Austwick, would put a clothes peg on the bedroom door `sneck` in order to keep him in. However, it was not long before it became clear he could not be looked after other than in an institution. Knowing he would object most strenuously to attempts to place him in the `work house` he was taken by subterfuge. He was picked up one day at the top of Austerberry yard to be `taken for a ride` in a car. He was, in fact, taken to Paradise Gardens (workhouse) in Pontefract. Coincidentally, he would then have been the responsibility of Thomas and Florence Pickett who would eventually become the parents-in-law of his grand-daughter.
George died in Paradise Gardens and was buried in Brotherton on April 28th 1931 at the grand age of 92.
|
