William SIDEBOTHAM (1839-1911)

William SIDEBOTHAM was the son of William SIDEBOTHAM, a ‘Cotton Spinner’ and Sarah SWANTON. William was born in 1839 in Heaton Norris, Stockport, Cheshire and grew up with his family at 133 New Bridge Lane, Stockport working as a ‘Power Loom Weaver’ in one of the Stockport mills.

William SIDEBOTHAM moved to Wigan with Samuel Pownall DEAKIN. Both worked as ‘Power Loom Weavers’ and in April 1861 were lodging with the Pollard family (Hugh Pollard, his wife Margaret and daughter Kate) at 90 Great George Street, Wigan.

It is likely that William and Samuel Deakin briefly moved to Bury to work in the mills that had built in the upper Irwell Valley but they both returned to Wigan shortly afterwards.

Whilst in Bury, on 9 June 1861, William married his cousin Elizabeth SWANTON (b. 26 May 1837, Wigan, daughter of Charles SWANTON, occupation ‘Overlooker’) at St Mary The Virgin Church. They were married by banns by Curate James P. Yeo. The witnesses to the marriage were Samuel Pownall Deakin and S. Bailey. At the time of their marriage William was working as a ‘Weaver’.

William’s wife, Elizabeth, died in Culcheth near Wigan in 1868. William secondly married Alice BENTHAM in 1872 in Wigan. 

William and Alice had the following children:

1. Josephine SIDEBOTHAM, b. c1874
2. Wilfred SIDEBOTHAM, b. c1877
3. Ezra SIDEBOTHAM, b. 1879, Wigan, m. 1904, Jane Ellen HEATON, Wigan, d. 1952, Wigan.
4. Ada SIDEBOTHAM, b. 1881, Wigan

William died before 1891 in Wigan.