Parish records Wigan

The online records for All Saints in Wigan read like a who’s who of the ancestors with ‘Finch’ being a numerically prominent family in the town in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries.

http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Wigan/Wigan/allsaints/index.html

In this series of records we have a wider series of occupations than those based in primary or extractive industry although the general theme of industrial occupations is reinforced.

• John Finch is a goldsmith buried in 1783
• William Finch is a bookseller buried in 1798
• Robert Finch is a tailor buried in 1811
• Robert Finch is a Pewterer buried in 1812
• Alice Finch is a ‘huckster’ buried in 1810
• Thomas Finch is a pauper buried in 1830


Women are seen to die in ‘childbed’ which is to be expected in a period of poor/none existent ante-natal care and poverty is seen in the life of Alice who makes her living as a huckster …..

Huckster: “One who sells wares or provisions in the street; a peddler or hawker or One who uses aggressive, showy, and sometimes devious methods to promote or sell a product.”

We also have Thomas who was a child in the workshouse dying at the age of 3.

In Wigan we may perceive the workings of the larger town and the more complex relationships between people and the ways in which they earn a living.