Weaste Cemetery

Biographies of people buried between 1857 & 1869

Mary Ann Lee (1800 - 1859)


 Mary Ann Lee was a spinster and lived with her brother Daniel and his family at Springfield House, Pendlebury, Lancashire. She was a devout Roman Catholic and has a prominent memorial in the Roman Catholic portion of Weaste Cemetery.

 

She was born in 1800 in Salford and her father was a Veterinary Surgeon with a practice in Salford. Both parents were born in Ireland. There is very little information about her early life, but her later life was spent with her brother's family in Pendlebury. Springfield House was a large house with a large garden and park, on the corner of Bolton Road and Agecroft Road. (Today it is the Henry Boddington pub and the Pendleton and Hindley Railway line, part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, cut through the garden in 1888).

 

Mary Ann died of bronchitis at Springfield House, on 15th March 1859 age 59. She was buried in a vault in A9 plot of Weaste Cemetery on 21st March 1859.

 

Mary Ann's brother Daniel was a Calico Printer, the Proprietor of Daniel Lee and Co. of Manchester. He was a prominent Roman Catholic, becoming a Knight of Saint Gregory. He was born in 1798 in Salford and was educated at Sedgley Park School near Wolverhampton before entering into the calico printing business in 1819. In 1826 he became a Partner in Wright and Lee, Calico Printers in Cannon Street, Manchester and later York Street, Manchester. On the death of his partner, Mr Edward Wright in 1852, Daniel carried on the business as Daniel Lee and Co. and erected a large warehouse in Fountain Street, Manchester in 1858. The company had no works, but commissioned printed goods from other factories, based on the designs of his talented designers, and cylinder printed. By 1855 the high quality of his goods became very well established abroad in that year he exhibited at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

 

Daniel Lee was a Conservative in politics and was present at Salford Council's very first meeting in 1844. The Liberals and the Conservatives both put forward a list for the election of 8 Aldermen. The Liberals were in the majority, so Daniel was not elected. The Whellan's Directory of 1853 shows that Daniel Lee, Calico Printer lived at 22, Crescent, Salford. The 1861 census reveals that Daniel was aged 56 and now married to Frances Elizabeth (nee Foley) aged 39, who was born in Dublin. They lived at Spring Field, Pendlebury with their son Daniel William (born 1860 in Pendlebury) and six servants. Sadly Daniel William died in 1863 aged 3. In 1871 at Springfield House, Pendlebury, Daniel was aged 69, Frances was aged 45 with two additions John F (born 1865) aged 6 and Frank (born 1866) aged 5, and seven servants.

 

Daniel was a great benefactor to the Roman Catholic Church by generous donations to the construction of Salford Cathedral in 1844, and funding the Lee Chantry there, supporting Catholic Schools in Ireland and funding the construction of St Mary's Catholic Church on Swinton Hall Road in Pendlebury, close to where he lived. Daniel died from a heart condition in 1877 aged 78. After a Requiem Mass held at Salford Cathedral, he was buried at St Joseph's RC Cemetery, Moston, Manchester.