Ted (Edmund) Flack lives in Brisbane Australia and is searching for information about the Cockshutt family (his grandmother’s family on his father’s side), who lived in the Pendle area from the 17th Century.The family oral tradition is that the Cockshutts were influential in the establishment of the Cotton industry in NE Lancashire. There is also a family connection with the Cockshutt Tractor Company in Canada.
When Edmund Cockshutt of Ball Grove died around 1820, he is said to have been a wealthy man owning interests in the following properties:
- Ballgrove Estate;
- Emmot Lane Estate;
- Cotton Mills in Bough Gap in the Forest Trawden;
- Angram Green Estate at Worston;
- Warsaw Hill Estate, and,
- Howarth Estate.
Apparently the family properties were split up among Edmund Cockshutt’s very large family and much of it was subsequently lost in failed business ventures.
Ted has a family history blog and would be very interested to find out more about the life and times of Edmund Cockshutt b. 1729 and/or of his son Edmund Cockshutt b. 1753.
If you have any information about the Cockshutts, please leave a reply below. Ted will be most grateful for any assistance people can give.
Hello Ted, I came across your writings in search of information online regarding one of my ancestors, John Cockshutt,1609/10-1642.He was from Padiham,Lancashire, England. In 1641 he and his wife and 2 daughters immigrated to Charles County,Maryland, in the colonies. I am descended through his daughter Jane,born in England 1632,died 1699 in Maryland. I found the information about Catholicism and possible witchcraft very interesting. It does appear that some later descendants were Catholic but kept it hidden,and it only came out at their passings or in a will.
I would love to discuss all this with you! I was in Lancashire in 1981, and lived in Canterbury in Kent 1970-1983, but had no notion about my family histories! My children were born in England.
There are various facts I am trying to piece together.
John Cockshutt’s daughter was Jane, with his wife Jane Hicks . And therein followed a Jane in every generation since ,it seems.
This line is through my father’s father’s mother,Emeline Worley Atteberry and her father’s line.
They all lived in Southern Illinois. I live in Pullman Washington state,near north Idaho ,since 1983.
Please respond!?
Sincere best wishes,
Susan Atteberry
I’m trying to identify the properties where Edmund Cockshutt (b.1809) and his son Joshua (b.1840) lived and worked in Colne. It appears that the house at “Ball Grove” is no longer and the Mills at Bough Gap and Ball Grove were demolished. It appears that Ball Grove Park now partially occupies the site of the house and Mill, but what about the “Emmot Lane Estate” and “Longroad” where Edmund Cockshutt’s daughter lived? Does anyone know of where the Coal Mine was on the Ball Grove Estate? Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Thank you.
I am also descended from Edmund Cockshutt through his eldest son Edmund (whom I have as 1750 – 1825). I have a copy family tree which my uncle Hermon Cockshutt caused to be made. My mother copied it in part and annotated it. The Canada Cockshutts are descended from Edmund’s (the 1729 – 1821 Edmund)daughter Ann, who died in 1826. She married once, Blakey Tillotson in 1819. However, her son James was born in 1783. I don’t know the father’s identity (I guess not recorded, and James – illegitimate it seems – took his mother’s name). James went to Canada in 1827, the year after his mother died.
The family legend is that in the 19th century the businesses were left to the sons, and the cash to the daughters, which can’t have helped!
My great grandfather Joshua (1840 – 1916) owned a cotton mill, and the census records show his eldest son, Edmund (born about 1860) was apprenticed to him. At least two younger brothers, Nicholas and Joseph (my grandfather) became lawyers, as did my father, two of his three brothers, and now me.
While not direct ancestors, Cockshutts also owned Wortley Ironworks in Yorkshire, of particular interest because it is now a museum, and a short book has been written of its history by the last commercial owner, C Reginald Andrews. The book includes a reproduction of a Cockshutt portrait.