Halsall Hall 1841 to 1883 - The Rigby and Pye Families

The 1841 census was the first modern census and was taken on the night of 6th June 1841 – it gave the total population of England and Wales as 18, 553,124.

 

In Halsall Hall Farm on the night in question, three separate families were recorded as living here in three separate households.

 

William and Emily Rigby occupied one of the residences with Emily’s sister Ellen Blundell, and  3 servants. The other two households in Halsall Hall were gamekeeper William Huyton and his wife Ellen:  Edward and Elizabeth Nelson were the third household.

 

In 1851 the Rigby family would be joined by their nephew’s Pye family. 

This 1920s photograph of Halsall Hall shows how the door on the left had been bricked up when it was no longer multiple households

William Rigby (1778-1863) M688-BSK was born in Altcar in 1778, the son of Henry Rigby. Emily Blundell (1795-1859) M688-B33 was born in Halsall in 1795 to Ellen and Richard Blundell, the village maltster.

They were married on 25th April 1824 at St. Cuthbert’s Church, Halsall – William’s occupation was recorded as a farmer.

By 1851 Census William had retired from farming but he and Emily were again recorded as living at Halsall Hall, which was still split into 3 properties.

Their nextdoor neighbours are gamekeeper Peter Heyes and his wife Ellen & children.

 

The following article, taken from the Ormskirk Advertiser 1870 describes an assault by Peter Heyes:

 

Heyes was in Halsall Bridge Inn (later the Saracen’s)  with friends when he accosted a fellow drinker Dalton and demanded to search him as he believed he had a hare in one of his pockets. 

 

There was a scuffle and  the landloard James Hesketh threw them out into the street. 

 

The Chairman of the Bench found that Heyes had no right to search Dalton, that he had assaulted him  and Heyes was fined 10 shillings with costs. 

 

Horse Ploughing in 1850s

In 1851 the third household was William’s nephew  – James Pye (1799-1855) KH7R-RLG  who was the son of Jane Rigby (William’s sister) and Thomas  Pye.

James and his wife Esther Brown (1799-1872) GVMD-P6Q were both born in Downholland in 1799 so they no doubt knew each other growing up. They were married on 8th July 1821 at Holy Trinity Church in Liverpool – at this time James’ occupation was recorded as ‘ cow keeper’. 

By 1841 however, James was a farmer in the centre of Halsall and the couple had had 7 children (1 son, Henry had died in 1831 and their eldest son, Thomas passed away in 1848). The rest of the family were still at home – John, Alice, Jane, Esther and Elizabeth as well as two servants. 

However, daughter Alice left home 7 years later and married John Segar, a farmer from Barton on 23rd February 1848.

In 1851, James and Esther Pye were farming 138 acres at Halsall Hall employing their son John, daughter Jane, 3 labourers and a cow boy. Esther and Elizabeth, 15 and 13 respectively were scholars at Halsall School. James’ mother, Jane Pye (nee Rigby and sister to William Rigby above) was also living there at that point. 

 

In 1853, their only son John married Alice Blundell and took on his own farm in Haskayne.

 

Unfortunately, in the space of 4 years three members of the Halsall Hall family died – firstly in 1855 James Pye who was buried at St. Cuthbert’s, Halsall on 1st August 1855 – leaving his wife Esther and their daughters to run the farm.  James’ mother Jane passed away only 6 months later in February 1856 followed by his aunt, Emily Rigby, (wife of William) who died three years later in 1859.

 

So, in 1861 Esther Pye was farming 80 acres along with her 3 grown up daughters – Jane 26, Esther 24 and Elizabeth 22. Also living with them were 2 carters, 2 house servants and 1 farm servant. The Hall was listed as one household at this point – William Rigby having moved to live at 91 Tulketh Street, Southport with his sister Ann.  

A few months later in September 1861, Maghull Chapel was the venue for a happy event – youngest daughter Elizabeth Pye’s wedding to Mr. James Kirby.  The couple would later move into Halsall Hall. 

 

In 1863, William Rigby, our original farmer at Halsall Hall and uncle to James Pye died and was buried at Halsall Church on 4th March of that year – he’d reached the grand age of 85.

 

The 1871 Census recorded the two related families at Halsall Hall,  James and Elizabeth Kirby (nee Pye) and their growing family in one half and Esther Pye, her other two daughters, and a  grand-daughter Margaret Jane Segar who attended Halsall School and 5 farm servants in the other half. Between the two households, they were now farming 156 acres.

 

Just a year or so later, Esther Pye died at the age of 73 – she was buried on 15th August 1872 at Halsall. 

 

 

After Esther’s death  there was an auction at Halsall Hall on Monday, 25th November 1872,- the contents of which included the sale of Jessie, Tidy, Brock, Duke, Jack and Rose the farm horses as well as other livestock ie cattle and also corn, hay and various implements such as mowing machines, iron drill harrows, and a turnip cutter.

 

However, despite the sale, Jane and Esther, the Pye sisters were still farming Halsall Hall in 1881 – this time as a partnership with their younger sister Elizabeth and her husband James Kirby.

 

Both Jane and Esther never married but remained at Halsall Hall until Esther Pye died at home on 3rd August 1881 – she was only 44 years old. She was buried 2 days later at Halsall Church.  Probate was granted on 17th March 1883 to her sister Alice Segar who also took in sister Jane after Esther’s death. Jane Pye passed away at Downholland in 1885 and was buried on 1st August, also at Halsall Church.

 

John Segar and wife Alice Pye

Alice Pye was buried with her husband, John Segar in 1896 having died on 2nd June of that year. Their gravestone is one of many Segar gravestones at St. Cuthbert’s church, Halsall. 

 

Elizabeth, the last of the Pye sisters,  and her husband James Kirby left Halsall Hall and moved to Derby Street, Ormskirk, James working as a brewery labourer. Elizabeth passed away in 1918. 

 

Their brother John Pye and his wife Alice had moved to Liverpool after giving up their farm in Haskayne but had returned to the area to live at 149 Wigan Road, Ormskirk.  John had died in 1905 and was buried at Halsall. 

 

The Rigbys and the Pyes, having vacated Halsall Hall, meant it was the turn of a new family to take the reins – for the next 90 years, the Cropper family was at the helm of Halsall Hall!