EXTON FAMILY

    Mary Jane Exton was born in Leadenham, Lincolnshire, in 1852. At the age of 18 she gave birth to a daughter, Sarah Emma Exton, in Sleaford Workhouse. Soon after this Mary Jane is found on the 1871 census working as a servant in Dale Abbey, over 50 miles from her home. It is tempting to think that she was sent so far away as a result of the illegitimate birth. Whether or not that was the case, she met her future husband Henry Bloor in Dale, and they married there in 1872. Their three eldest children were born at Dale Abbey, then the family moved to Stanley and had four other children (the youngest, though, died in infancy). Sarah Emma had joined her mother in Stanley by 1881.

   In 1893 Henry Bloor was killed in a railway accident, and Mary Jane subsequently married Nahum Hollingworth of West Hallam, living thereafter at the Cinder House on Station Road, WH. She had one more son, Sidney, by her second husband before being widowed again. She died in 1940.

   Sarah Emma Exton lived in Stanley until her death in 1949. She had two daughters out of wedlock, Annie and Rose, both born in Shardlow Union Workhouse. Annie was adopted by the Huggins family of Stanley, whilst Rose eventually made her way to London where she married Arthur Williams in 1914. Sarah Emma later married twice - first to Joseph Whitby then to William Henry Marson, and had children by both men.

  The photographs below were supplied by Angela Rice and Steve Williams, who are grandchildren of Rose Exton.

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