John Hodgson would likely have resembled at least part of this character sketch. John was born in 1801 in Dalston, a small town four miles to the east of Carlisle in what is now Cumbria, about twenty miles form the border with Scotland. His parents were Joseph Hodgson, a cotton spinner, and Jane Irving. Joseph and Jane were married in 1796 and had at least seven children over the next fifteen years: Mary, John William, Isaac, Joseph, Jane, Sarah and James.
Apart from having a “large manufactory of grey cottons and fustian goods”, Dalston was known for its forge on the banks of the river Caldew. Dalston forge was famed for its bar iron, spades, shovels, and farm implements.
It’s likely that it was at this forge that John learnt his trade. As an apprentice he would have first learnt to make nails from the ¼ inch rods supplied by the mill. The rods would arrive in bundles tied with wire. John would have kept several rods in the fire until they turned orange-red. Taking one at a time he would then forge it to a long square taper, cut almost through it whilst still hot, and place it in the nail-header. He would then twist the nail off, and with a good blow or two from his hammer form the head. The nail would then be quenched in water and the point tapped on the anvil to free it from the header. John would finally either tip the finished nail on the floor to be collected later, or put it into a bucket next to the anvil.
As John’s skills increased he would likely have progressed to making implements such as axes and adzes. These were made of pure iron with a carbon steel blade welded on. Axe heads were made by welding the head around a steel bar. An adze, on the other hand, had its hole punched out.
The shovels for which Dalston forge was best known were not easy to make. John would not have been able to progress to making these until towards the end of his apprenticeship. Shovels were made of two sheets of 1/8-inch thick iron. A large area had to be heated and it was extremely difficult to fit the two heated sheets together precisely, sprinkle them with flux, and weld them before they cooled.
As the century progressed, the advent of mass production meant that the village smith’s work was becoming more repetitive and dull, with ingenuity now only being required for the repair of old equipment.
However, the blacksmith’s skills were in great demand in the new industries that sprang up in the cities, building and maintaining the steam engines to run the factories and railways, and working in railway repair shops - straightening axles, making tools or repairing the ironwork on carriages. Their role was changing and increasing in importance. Blacksmiths created and invented the tools and processes that were an integral part of the industrial revolution. Many of the inventors of the industrial age were former blacksmiths or millwrights from the north of England or Scotland.
This is no doubt what brought John to leave his native Cumberland for the city of Manchester.
The railway north had yet to be built, so it’s likely that John would have paid his 21 pounds to make the gruelling 120 mile journey south by the Daily Mail coach. He would have left Carlisle at 3.30am and not arrived in Deansgate in central Manchester until 11.30pm.
Most likely John moved south shortly after completing his apprenticeship. Typically he would have been apprenticed at the age of 14 for seven years. At any rate, sometime in his early twenties he had married Betsey Furnish. Betsey was one year younger than John, the eldest daughter of George and Sarah Furnish. John and Betsey had at least ten children. The first known is their son George who was baptised in Manchester Cathedral on New Years Day 1826. Although Manchester Cathedral may seem rather grand for a blacksmith’s son, it was a popular place for baptisms and christenings. One reason being that only one fee was charged, whereas for services in all other churches in the parish of Manchester, the Cathedral charged a fee on top of the fee paid to the church in which the service took place. It was, therefore, ironically cheaper to have a service in the Cathedral. It was also not uncommon for people to be married and have their children baptised on Public Holidays, for they were among the very few days that most people did not have to work. Indeed, John and Betsey’s next child, Joseph, was baptised on Christmas Day 1828.
There followed two daughters both named Sarah Ann. The second Sarah Ann was named to replace the first Sarah Ann who died as an infant, as was common practise. Next came John and then my Great-great-grandmother Jane in 1836 (see Why are you crying Grandma?).
Sometime between William Henry’s birth in the Summer of 1838, and Spring 1841, the family had moved from 9 Stonehewer Street Manchester to what was to be their home for more than twenty years to come in Furness Street in nearby Chorlton-upon-Medlock.
A new baby, Edmund Irving, arrived in 1840, followed by two more sons: Walter in 1844 and Alfred in 1848.
By 1850 John had made use of his blacksmithing skills in the expanding industrialisation of the era to become an engine driver. It’s possible that this was on one of the newly opened railway lines, but more likely that it would have been a stationary engine in a factory, for in future years he is described first as an engineer, and then as a mechanic.
After John was widowed in 1863 he lived in Gorton, some three miles to the East, with his married daughter Sarah Ann. John died at the age of 72, having fathered ten children. Five of his seven sons, like their father before them, contributed to the booming industrial economy of the area by becoming either mechanics or engineers.
link to John Hodgson's family tree:
Jane Hodgson - John's daughter
Smith family tree