Mrs C. Woolnough
(1838-1917)
8 November 1861

Volume 5, page 216, sitting number 6360.

[Identified as ‘Mrs C. Woolnough’ in the Silvy daybooks, this is possibly the newly married Mrs Adelaide Woolnough, wife of the cotton spinner and manufacturer Charles Woolnough.]

Born at Skipton in Yorkshire in 1839, Adelaide Alcock was the daughter of banker Henry Alcock of Aireville near Skipton in Yorkshire.

When the census was taken in 1861 she was visiting her fiancé Charles Woolnough at the Rectory in Northenden, Cheshire. Charles’s father, Edward Woolnaugh, was then the Rector of Northenden; in 1865 he was appointed the Archdeacon of Chester. At the time of the census, Charles gave his profession as ‘Manufacturer, Master employing about 380 hands.’

Charles and Adelaide were married in the parish church at Skipton on 15 October 1861. The ceremony was performed by the groom’s father, Reverend Canon Woolnough.

In 1867 Charles Woolnough of Aireville, Skipton, ‘cotton spinner and manufacturer,’ was listed as a bankrupt (Huddersfield Chronicle, 20 April 1867).

By 1880 he and Adelaide had become farmers in rural Virginia. They appear on the US census taken that year living in the district of Samuel Miller in the County of Albemarle in the State of Virginia. Their three teenage sons, named Charles G., Charles C. and Charles R., were all recorded as ‘Farm Laborers.’ The family also included a daughter, named Adelaide after her mother. All four of the children had been born in England.

By 1901 Charles and Adelaide had returned to Great Britain; when the census was taken that year they were living at St Peter Port in Guernsey. Charles gave ‘Living on Own Means’ as his profession.

Charles Woolnough died, aged 76, in the Acland Nursing Home in Oxford on 16 September 1908, leaving  an estate valued at £285.

Adelaide Woolnough died on 9 November 1917 at Deira St Martins, Guernsey. Her estate was valued at £103.