The earliest date in this family tree is 1744. That is when my 5x Great Grandmother, Ellen Haworth was born. She married my 5x Great Grandad, John Slater. I haven’t managed to find out when he was born. They had a son, John, born October 28, 1770. You’d better get used to that name. There are a lot of John Slaters. I'll refer to him as John1770 to avoid confusion. He was my 4x Great Grandad and he was a chairmaker in Blackburn. He was a journeyman chair maker. This means he was skilled and had completed an apprenticeship. So he was fully qualified in carpentry and joinery but he would have been working as an employee rather having his own business.

John married Betty Walton in 1791 and they had 4 children that I know of - Giles, Richard, Sarah and Elizabeth. Richard was my 3x Great Grandfather and was also a chairmaker in Blackburn.

Richard married Elizabeth (Betty) Marsden in 1830 and they had 6 children - John, Elizabeth, Ann, Lucy, Mary Ann and Thomas. Betty also had a daughter Dinah from a previous marriage.

Their eldest boy, John1830, was my great great grandfather. He was a cotton weaver. This must have been during the early days of the industrial revolution when Blackburn was becoming the centre of the cotton weaving industry. This John married Sarah Haydock in 1852. The couple had 7 children - Betty Alice, John, Mary Ann, Sarah Ellen, Thomas, Maria and Lucy. Thomas was my great grandfather.

Thomas had a number of jobs during his life including confectioner, mill worker, labourer and  window cleaner. He married Catherine Cunningham in 1880 and they had 9 children - Sarah, James, John, Maria, Thomas, Joseph, Aloysius, Alfred and Ada. Alfred was my grandfather. Thomas appears to have had a difficult life. In 1911 he was an inmate in the workhouse in Blackburn and the family was separated. He died there a year later.

Click on the links below to read stories about some Slater family members.