From Witness to Witch - my Pickup's in Southport, Lancashire

Late on a Wednesday afternoon in February 1857, Peter was working at his greengrocer’s stall in the pedlars’ market when two men looking for lodgings approached him. After a few enquiries to ascertain their occupation and that they planned to be in Southport for a few weeks, Peter directed them to his own home in Upper King St. Later that night the men, who had claimed to be jewellers, burgled the Promenade lodgings of American Consul and writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Peter was called to give evidence at their trial at the Town Hall later that month.

The name Pickup is a locational surname meaning hill with a sharp peak or “Pike Cop”, the earliest documented Picup being Edward Picup 1273. Many Pickup families originate from the Rosendale area and what is now Yate-Cum-Pickup Bank.

Peter’s father, Roger Pickup, was a Heapey weaver, son of John Pickup yeoman of Leyland, and grandson of John Pickop born 1707, son of Edmund Pickup of Leyland.

As far as is known, Peter Pickup’s family were the first Pickup’s to settle in Southport. It’s not known exactly how this family of Chorley cotton spinners came to be Southport greengrocers, but in 1838 Peter’s son Reubin married Ellen Jump from Southport in St George’s Church, Chorley.

1841 finds Peter and son Reubin working at a cotton mill in Chorley. Meanwhile Reubin’s wife Ellen is in Lord St with her infant son, Peter, and her recently widowed mother, Alice Jump. During the next decade, both Peter and Reubin have set up in business as greengrocers in the Victoria Market.

Reubin’s would seem to be the only Pickup family in Southport for the following 30 years or so. Reubin and Ellen had six known children: Peter, William, Elizabeth, Robert, Edward and Alice, although Elizabeth and Robert died as children. Peter and Edward moved away from the area – Peter was a tinplate worker in Failsworth and later in Rochdale, and Edward became a Liverpool photographer. Only William, a basket maker who, if not born deaf had become so by his 30’s, and Alice, who married porter Richard Warrington, remained in Southport. (William is listed as being deaf in the 1881 census.)

However, by 1881 the Southport Pickup ranks were swelled by the arrival of another family – that of William Worthington Pickup and wife Emily Heap. Could the two families be related?

Reubin’s son William is in Upper Duke St with his wife Eleanor Ball and two young children, Wiliam Edward and Eleanor. Next door is Reubin’s married daughter Alice Warrington. Only a few doors away is the newcomer William Worthington.

William and Eleanor went on to have four more children: Mabel Hannah, Eliza, John and Winifred.

(photo: Pickup grave in Duke St Cemetery, Southport)

Their eldest son, William Edward (Peter’s great-grandson), was the first true Pickup sandgrounder, both his parents having been born and bred in Southport, and was also my great-grandfather. He married Emily “Minnie” Davidson from Clee Hill near Ludlow.

As was popular at the time, Minnie was interested in fortune telling. For crossing her palm with silver, she would read customers fortunes in her front parlour in Virginia St, Southport. As well as reading palms, she would interpret dreams, use her pack of Tarot cards, and gaze into her crystal ball on its ornate dark wooden stand.

Like her husband’s Pickup forebear Peter, Minnie Pickup also had a moment of fame in court, only not, as in Peter’s case, as a witness. For prior to the 1951 Fraudulent Mediums Act, charging money for fortune telling was illegal. Minnie would have been charged and convicted under either the 1735 Witchcraft Act or the 1824 Vagrancy Act. This would have been sometime around 1930. When asked if she had anything to say, she’s reputed to have replied: “Yes, I foresee that I’ll be found guilty!”

It’s not known what became of William Edward’s brother John b 1890, but it seems that the Pickup name in this Southport family died with William Edward and Minnie’s only son (they also had three daughters) Herbert Clarence “Bert”, who died a bachelor in 1974.