The book of Cockitt: Essays on the history of the Cockitt Family of Cheshire by Giles Keith

Author:Giles, Keith [Giles, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dead Souls
Published: 2014-11-18T16:00:00+00:00

Daniel Henshall (fl.1740)

Robert Gray

(d.1812)

Martha Henshall

(b. circa 1740)

Charles Cockitt

(1770-1835)

Martha Gray

(c.1777-1852)

George Cockitt

(1808-43)

Henshall Cockitt

(1813-83)

Henshall I

Henshall Cockitt

(1835-56)

Henshall II

Charles Cockitt

(1850-1927)

Henshall Cockitt

(1880-1954)

Henshall III

How Henshall Cockitt made his mark

Hard against the brick churchyard wall to the rear of the St James’s church in Gawsworth can be found a gravestone to the “memory of Henshall Cockitt .. [who] died February 15 1883 aged 70 years .. Henrietta his wife died Dec[ember] 14 1904 aged 83 years .. [and] August Fowler daughter of the above died March 2 1897 aged 47 years.” A small stone nearby commemorates Elizabeth Cockitt, Henshall and Henrietta’s daughter-in-law, who passed away on 25 March 1911. All the stones are in a poor condition, and a mark on the top of Elizabeth’s gravestone suggests at one time it may have supported a cross, probably memorialising her husband Charles Cockitt (1850-1927) who is known to have also been buried in the graveyard.

Henshall Cockitt farmed at Brookhouse Farm, the Warren, on the edge of the village for over 40 years, initially in conjunction with his father-in-law, James Rathbone, but then in his own right after James Rathbone’s death in July 1846. It was a small farm – just 32 acres according to the 1849 tithe map – a mixture of arable and pasture, leased from the Earl of Harrington. A small area of woodland, now the site of a sand quarry abutted the farm and, according to family tradition was known as “Cockitt’s Wood”. The name presumably originated with Henshall’s tenancy, although it may never have officially been recognised as I have yet to find it marked on any map as such. Even so the name was current among the family as late as the 1930s and 1940s.

At the time of his marriage to Henrietta Rathbone at Astbury in August 1840, Henshall was a wheelwright living in Marton. Census and trade directory entries suggest that after acquiring the tenancy of Brookhouse Farm he continued to practise his trade in conjunction with farming, and the last reference to him as both a farmer and wheelwright appeared in Morris’s 1864 Directory of Cheshire . After his death in 1883, his youngest son Charles continued to farm in the area.

Of course there is another excellent reason for visiting Gawsworth, other than to view graves, and a trip to the Harrington Arms at Gawsworth is a good excuse to combine family history with a pint of beer or two. We called in at early one evening, mainly for a drink, but I suppose I also really wanted to see if anyone remembered the Cockitt family. The landlady was fairly elderly, not that she would have personally remembered the family, but she didn’t recollect any mention of the name. It was sad, but it didn’t surprise me: the Cockitts had moved on a long time ago and the only physical remains were the gravestones.

But even if Henshall is not remembered in his adopted village (he was born in Lower Withington), every 10 years from 1851 to 1881 his presence was recorded in

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