Joseph Clegg (my-great-great-grandfather) was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire about 1812. He married Rachel Hepworth (also born about 1812) in Dewsbury on 14 April 1834. In 1841 Joseph Clegg was living in Soothill with his wife Rachel and three children, Josiah (age 6), Richard (age 3) and Elizabeth (age 3 months). Joseph's occupation was recorded as "clothier".
In the 1851 census, the family are living in Spinwell, Dewsbury. Joseph and Rachel are now 38 and Joseph's occupation is listed as "wool spinner". They now have 5 children; Josiah (age 16) and Richard (age 13) are power loom weavers, Elizabeth (age 10) is a bobbin winder. The two youngest children are Hannah (age 7) and my great-grandfather Joseph (age 4).
Joseph Clegg junior (born in Dewsbury on 25 January 1847 and recorded as a 4 year old in the 1851 census) married Mary Woodhouse on 8 June 1867. Their eldest son, Edmund was born in 1868. In the 1871 census Joseph Clegg (age 24) was living at the aptly named Clegg Street in Dewsbury (off Crackenedge Lane) with his wife Mary (age 28) and 3 year old son Edmund. Joseph's occupation was recorded as "seal skin (cloth) finisher".
Joseph and Mary had two more children; Albert Edward (1872) and Willie Hepworth (1880-1960). Willie Hepworth Clegg was my grandfather and was presumably named after his grandmother Rachel Hepworth.
In 1881 the Cleggs were living at Hartley Street, Dewsbury. The household now consisted of: Joseph Clegg (aged 34) a sealskin finisher (furrier), his wife Mary Clegg (aged 38) - birthplace shown as Honley, Yorkshire and their three sons, Edmund (aged 13), Albert (aged 8) and Willie Hepworth (aged 8 months). The sixth member of the Clegg household was Hannah Dransfield, a 20 year old lodger whose occupation was recorded as "Woollen Weaver".
Joseph Clegg worked in the mills in Dewsbury and had quite a highly skilled and reasonably well paid job. Around 1882 he went to work in Guben (a town now on the German-Polish border but was then entirely within Germany) taking his family with him. Joseph Clegg had invented a way to crimp plush as sealskin but the English mill owners were not interested so he moved to Germany where he remained for about 11 years, returning to Yorkshire around 1893.
In 1901 the Clegg family were living at Field House, Soothill Up, Morely, Yorkshire. Joseph was now 54, his wife Mary was 57. Joseph was still working in the textile industry. Their three adult sons (Edmund, Albert and Willie Hepworth) were all living with them together with Fanny Fisher a 36 year old live-in domestic servant.
Although Joseph was working as a "seal finisher" the three sons were all engaged in manufacturing mineral water. It seems that the eldest son Edmund owned the family mineral water business employing his two younger brothers Albert and Willie Hepworth.
Some time after 1901 Edmund moved to Folkestone, Kent to continue the mineral water manufacturing business. Albert may also have moved to Folkestone but I do not know this for certain. Edmund married Elsie Elizabeth Hulse in 1920 and he died in 1938 aged 70 and was buried at Hawkinge cemetary, Folkestone. It seems that he remained in the mineral water business throughout his life as he was recorded as a "mineral water manager" at the time of his death.
On 23 May 1903 Willie Hepworth married Ethel Littlewood at Dewsbury Register Office. Joseph is now recorded on the marriage certificate as a "mineral water manufacturer" but Willie Hepworth was now an electrical engineer. Willie Hepworth & Ethel had three children: Joseph (C 1904 - C 1974), Albert (1908-88) and Ethel (C 1909 - C 1995).
Willie and Ethel moved to London presumably to look for work. Willie's wife Ethel died at the age of 28 in East Ham, London on 21 September 1910. The cause of death was chronic nephritis (a kidney disease). The death certificate shows Willie Hepworth as still being an electrical engineer living in East Ham.
On 27 July 1916 Willie Hepworth married again. His second wife (my grandmother) was Hilda Mabel Mackness, a waitress in Lyons Tea House, who was born into a very large West Ham family on 9 March 1893 (see separate web pages for details of Mackness family). She was 23 when she married Willie Hepworth - he was 36. Willie and Hilda had two children born in 1917 and 1921.
Willie's second wife also died young. She died on 23 October 1924 of tuberculosis at the age of 31. Willie Hepworth did not marry again - he
remained in London for the rest of his life. He worked as a toolmaker foreman for James Keith & Blackman. He was also an amateur inventor who patented several of his inventions such as the eversharp pen knife. He died on 9 August 1960 just a month after his 80th birthday.
