Weaste Cemetery

Biographies of people buried between 1857 & 1869

Samuel Horabin (1820 - 1860)


 Samuel Horabin was an Iron Moulder and not a lot is known about him as there are no census records. The gravestone at Weaste Cemetery would appear to have the correct spelling of his name although his marriage record spells it Horobin. After he died his widow Harriet appears in the 1881 census and his children's names were Horrabin.

 

It would appear that he was born in Willington, Derbyshire in 1820 (as Samuel Horobin) and baptised there on 3rd April of that year. This record shows parents William Horobin and Ann. In 1847 he married Harriet Lewis at Manchester Cathedral. (Lancs BMD shows Horobin, but Find My Past records Horabin). Harriet was born in 1822 at Holt, Derbyshire (according to the 1881 census).

 

Samuel and Harriet's children were Ann (born 1849 at London Road, Manchester), Sarah (born 1852 in Manchester), Thomas (born 1854 in Manchester), Fanny (born 1857 in Manchester) and Albert (born 1859 in Manchester).

On 4th December 1860 Samuel Horabin suffered an accident and died. (The entry in the Salford Burial Book records Samuel Horrobin, buried 9th December at B2 - 1172, aged 40, Occupation Moulder, Place of death Anson Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock).

 

Samuel's widow Harriet re-married nine years later in 1869 to Owen Fogey at St John's Church, Deansgate, Manchester. The 1871 census shows Harriet Fogey as Head at Heron Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, aged 47, birthplace Derbyshire. Sarah Horrabin, daughter is aged 19, Thomas Horrabin, son is aged 17 and Fanny Horrabin, daughter is aged 14. There is no record of Owen Fogey anywhere, but he does appear on the 1871 Manchester Rate Books for Heron Street. The 1872 Rate Books shows Harriet Fogey, Heron Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock. In 1877, Lancashire BMD shows the death of Owen Fogey aged 57 in St George, Manchester. Also in 1872 Samuel and Harriet's eldest son Thomas Horrabin married Elizabeth A Leigh at St Paul's Church, Hulme, Manchester.

 

In the 1881 census, Harriet Fogey was at 9 Heron Street , Chorlton-on-Medlock, aged 58 and a Beerhouse Keeper. Also present were son Thomas (aged 27, Commercial Clerk) and family: his wife Elizabeth A aged 27, son Samuel Leigh aged 7, son Harry aged 5, daughter Fanny aged 2, and son Albert aged 0. On 22nd October 1889 Harriet died, aged 67 and was buried with her first husband Samuel at Weaste Cemetery.

 

Samuel's spectacular gravestone at Weaste Cemetery was because he was a member of the Friendly Society of Iron Moulders. It was actually an early Trade Union founded in 1809 in Bolton with the aim of improving working conditions. This was illegal under the Combination Act 1799, but by 1837 it felt able to meet publicly and held its first delegate meeting in Manchester. Here they renamed it as the Friendly Society of Operative Iron Moulders of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Union re-located from Manchester to London in 1850 and decided against joining the newly formed Amalgamated Society of Engineers. There were several ups and downs, but in 1920 it became the Nation Union of Foundry Workers, located a Chorlton Road, Manchester.