Fourth Generation

41. Joseph Arthur OLDALE was born on 8 September 1809 in Handworth, Yorkshire, England. He died on 25 December 1888 at the age of 79 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. He was buried in Heeley, Christ Church, Sheffield, England. He was christened October 29, 1809, in Cathedral St. Peter, Sheffield (IGI #6909644). Name is also spelled Ouldale.

In the 1841 Census the family is listed as living on Porter Street in South Sheffield, with sons John, 10, Henry, 7, Thomas, 5, and Joseph, 2. In the 1851 Census, he was listed as a silverplater living at 210 Fitzwilliam Road, Ecclesale Bierlow, Sheffield, with his family. Sons John, 20, and Henry, 17, were listed as living at home and were also silverplaters. Sons Thomas, 15, and Arthur, 3, were also at home, as was Harriet, 7. He doesn't appear in the 1861 Census and may have been in York Prison at that time. In the 1871 Census, the family was living at 55 Woodhead Road, Ecclesall Bierlow, Yorkshire. Arthur and his wife Alice were living with them. Both Joseph and Arthur were silversmiths. In the 1881 Census, he was listed as a silversmith living at 55 Woodhead Road, Ecclesall Bierlow, Yorkshire, England.

His will was dated 7 May 1884 and provd at Wakefield 7 January 1890 by his son, Joseph, executor. He was living at 224 Bramall Lane, Sheffield, and was a silversmith at the time he wrote out his will, leaving everything to his wife Harriet and then to his sons and daughter one-seventh part each. (Copy of handwritten will among my genealogy papers.)

Another Internet source lists his father and mother as Joseph, b. 1789, and Mary Beighton, b. abt. 1795 in Sheffield (she would have been 15 when he was born). Joseph and Mary were married March 2, 1810, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. They had children: Joseph (1810),
Alfred (1812), Hannah (1813), Eliza (1815), George Arthur (1816), and James (1818). (Source: Twigs N Branches: www.angelfire.com/ar/arrolfamily/index.html. AlsoSyer/Syers web page.) Joseph Oldale was the son of James Oldale, born abt. 1760 in Sheffield and Sarah Unknown, born 1766 in Sheffield and died December 25, 1831, in St. Paul, Sheffield, Yorkshire, according to the same sources. I rechecked the Oldale web site and believe that what I have listed is correct, rather than this information.

There is an interesting court case involving Joseph Oldale over the Millhouses estate inherited through his great grandmother (?), Hannah Housley Wigmore.

The claim was to land purchased in 1782/1793 by a Mr. Peter Wigfall who died in 1828, subsequently inherited through a Hannah Wigfall by Mr. Joseph Oldale, who recovered possession in 1857 in the Court of Exchequer of Pleas at Westminster. Costs of 118 pounds, 12 shillings, 6 pence were not paid by Mr. Oldale. He was then arrested and spent two years in York Castle and made bankrupt. In 1873 Mr. Oldale paid creditors 20 shillings in the pound and bankruptcy annulled. In 1875 William Oldale, a journeyman silver plater, son of the original claimant, went to Millhouses early in the morning accompanied by his agent and about 15 men and boys to take forcible possession of several fields on the Grange Ville Estate, land near the Robin Hood, and also a house about to be converted to a Methodist chapel. They changed locks and padlocks, but later in the day the police were called and the locks changed again. This could not have benefitted Mr. Oldale but the Magna Cara Association were to take up the case. There was a gathering of all the Sheffield "Oldale" family in 1945, when it was decided that expenses would be too great to reopen the case. Apparently it is still held in Chancery.

Joseph Oldale was apparently accused of entering a false marriage between Peter Wigfall and Hannah Housley in a church register for 28 Aug 1740 in an attempt to get his hands on the estate of Peter Wigfall, according to a report 25 March 1858.

The Fitzwilliam family gained possession of the property in question when Mr. Wigfall died, although there was supposedly a will that Hannah Housley (mother of the Hannah who married an Oldale?) was to inherit it. The Fitzwilliam family, who were supposedly wealthy, supposedly arranged to have the court costs high enough that they knew Joseph Oldale could not pay them. The Fitzwilliam family gave the property in question to Sheffield for a park, which is what it is today.

The "battle" over reclaiming the property was reported in the Sheffield press at the time. Supposedly, it involved a number of men, with a greater number of onlookers gathering at the Robin Hood pub to watch, as hay was cut, squatters evicted, gates were locked and unlocked, and other shenanigans occurred, with the police called.

Joseph Arthur OLDALE and Harriett GOODWIN were married on 4 April 1830 in Handsworth, Sheffield, England. Harriett GOODWIN, daughter of John GOODWIN and Anne , was born on 22 December 1811 in Chesterfield, Derby, England. She died on 14 January 1890 at the age of 78 in Heeley, Christchurch, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. She was christened January 19, 1812, at St. Mary and All Saints, Chesterfield, Derby. (IGI, uncertain as to source).

1851 Census: Living at 210 Fitzwilliam Street, Sheffield, England. The only Goodwin living in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was Ann Goodwin, 60, mother-in-law, living at 106 Soresby Street with Robert and Fanny Cooper, 33.

Joseph Arthur OLDALE and Harriett GOODWIN had the following children: