Weaste Cemetery

Biographies of people buried between 1870 & 79

Mary (Maria) Greenough (1798 - 1870)


 Mary, or Maria as she liked to be called, took over and expanded her late husband's business in Manchester making smallware, cotton braids and umbrellas. From small beginnings she occupied Havelock Mill on Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester.


It is thought she was born Mary Boothman in 1798 in Waddington, Lancashire, (as 1. birth records for 2 of her 3 children shows mother as Boothman; 2. this is the only Mary Boothman birth record available for 1798; and 3. the vault next to hers in Weaste Cemetery is the Boothman family. Thomas Boothman, born 1792 in Ribchester and John William Boothman born 1804 in Manchester could be her brothers).


On 15th May 1834 Mary Boothman married Peter Greenough at St John's Church, Deansgate, Manchester. Mary would have been aged 36 and Peter aged 49. According to Pigots Directory in 1841, Peter Greenough was a smallware manufacturer with a house at Higher Ardwick. They had three children, Elizabeth (born 1836), Peter (born 1838 in Chorlton, Manchester) and Mary Teresa (born 1840 in Ardwick, Manchester).


Sadly, Peter Greenough died in 1840 aged 55, leaving Maria a widow with 3 small children. In 1841 the family lived at Higher Ardwick, Manchester. Maria was aged 43, Elizabeth was aged 5, Peter was aged 3 and Mary was 10 months old. In 1851 the family lived at Victoria Park, Ardwick, where Maria was a Smallware and Umbrella Manufacturer. On 18th February 1861, Maria's daughter Mary Teresa, died aged 20 and was buried at Weaste Cemetery. The 1861 census shows Maria and Elizabeth were visiting Alice Greenough at Southport, Lancashire. Maria is described as a Braid and Umbrella Manufacturer and Banker and Shareholder.


Maria's business was recorded in the Manchester Trade Directories. In 1850 it was described Greenough and Co, smallware and umbrella manufacturers and wholesale haberdashers, 11 Bridgewater Place, off High Street, Manchester. Works, Sharp Street, off Rochdale Road. House Victoria Park. In 1863 it was Greenough, Occleston and Co., braid, smallware and umbrella manufacturers, haberdashers, etc. Havelock Mill, 76 Great Bridgewater Street. House Denison Road, Victoria Park. (Occleston was John James Occleston who lived at Heathfield, Sale Moor, Cheshire).


Newspaper articles show quite a number of adverts for recruiting workers. Also in 1850 - the company had an injunction to stop them using a Trade Mark for knitting cotton which was too similar to that of Strutt's Mill at Belper, Derbyshire. In 1869 - a fatal accident when an Overlooker fell off a ladder. In 1871 - a prosecution of an employee who was in league with the company's waste collector. The newspapers also show that Maria Greenough was a partner/shareholder of the Yorkshire Banking Company and the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank.


On 29th December 1870, Maria Greenough died of bronchitis at home in Southport. She was 72 years old and was re-united with her daughter Mary Teresa in plot A9 RC at Weaste Cemetery.