Born: 1855 at Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England
Parents: William Hardisty 1823-before 1881 and Hannah Moxon 1821-after 1881 (brothers James and Henry)
Older half siblings: Elizabeth Hardisty 1846-?, Joshua Hardisty 1848-?, Edwin Hardisty 1850-? and Eliza Hardisty 1853-1907
Siblings: None known
Younger half siblings: Mary Hardisty 1863-?, William Hardisty 1867-, Anna Hardisty 1868-?, Fredrick Hardisty 1870-?, Frank Hardisty 1872-?, Albert Hardisty 1873-?, Charles Hardisty 1877-?
Married: William Thomas 1846-c1905 on 25 Sept 1885 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England
Offspring: Sydney Hardisty Thomas 1886-1970
Died: 7 March 1935 at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England
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Jane Hardisty was born in Dewsbury, daughter of blacksmith and farrier William Hardisty and Hannah Moxon.
William Hardisty
On 11 May 1845 William Hardisty married Mary Chappell in Alverthorpe, near Wakefield. The 1851 census return shows that William and Mary had four children and that William and his coal miner brother Francis had been born in Stockport, south of Manchester. In early 1853 Mary died while or shortly after giving birth to Eliza.
William Hardisty and Hannah Moxon – Marriage Certificate
Eighteen months later in 1854 William married Hannah Moxon in Batley and their daughter Jane was born in Dewsbury in 1855. During the next three censuses Jane and her mother Hannah had returned to live in or near Hannah’s birth village of Eastmoor, to the south east of the centre of Wakefield.
Henry & Emma Moxon with their ‘family’. ‘Family’ could be their offspring born between 1856 and 1876. Henry was a joiner and builder
In 1861 Hannah and Jane were with Hannah’s parents in Moxon’s Yard where Hannah’s father William Moxon and brother Charles Moxon had a wheelwright business. In the 1871 census Hannah was living with her widowed mother Charlotte while Jane was a servant to a local farmer. In the 1881 census Jane was a dressmaker living with her mother and cousin Charles Moxon.
Hannah always described herself as married on the census returns, but where was William? A quick glance at the back of his photograph, above showed that he had deserted Hannah and Jane and was living in Amenia, NY, about 100 miles north of New York City in the USA. There William and his English ‘wife’ Eliza were included in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. Mary, the first of seven children was born in 1863 in the USA. A cursory glance in the emigration records does not show when William and Eliza went to the USA.
It was not only Hannah and Jane who William had deserted, what had happened to his offspring by his first marriage who would have been teenagers when he went to America? At the time of the 1861 census John (Joshua above?), 13 and Edwin, 10 were living with their widowed grandmother Elizabeth Hardisty whose income came from ‘taking in washing’. 16 year old Elizabeth was a servant and 8 year old Eliza was living in Barnsley with her grandfather Joshua Chappell, a linen dyer and her aunt Sarah.
When Jane’s granddaughter Catherine died in 2006 Carolyn was given a photograph album containing images of members of the Thomas, Hardisty and Moxon families. The best photographs are shown on these pages and include one of Jane’s half sister Eliza who married coal merchant William Land.
Eliza Land nee Hardisty
Jane married railway engine driver William Thomas in 1885 and they were together with their son Sydney until sometime between the 1901 and 1911 censuses when William died. Jane and Sydney were living in the same house in 1911 and the next time Jane is found in the available records is when she died in 1939 while living with Sydney and his wife Gretta in Melton Mowbray
Jane Thomas Probate 1939
Sources: Family papers and ancestry.co.uk
