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4a. William’s sister’s wedding to John Campion in 1854

________________________________________________________________ William was nearly fourteen years old, apprenticed to the Stokesley Printer, William Braithwaite and still living in Stokesley when his sister, Elizabeth married John Campion, a farm hand from Castleton. The wedding took place on Tuesday, 19th September 1854 in St Hilda’s Church in Danby Dale. The service was officiated by John Christopher Atkinson[1] …

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Ethel Carnie and Ethel Mary Smyth’s ‘3 Songs’ (1913)

My post on ‘William Hall Burnett and the mill girl poet, Ethel Carnie’ elicited a comment from Helen Pankhurst, friend of my daughter Claire Burnett.  Helen is the great- granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), the grand-daughter of Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) and Christabel Pankhurst (1880-1958) was her great-aunt – all pioneers in the Woman’s Suffragette Movement. …

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William Hall Burnett’s visit to John Ruskin at Brantwood, 1893

William Hall Burnett’s visit to John Ruskin at Brantwood, 1893

In 1887 William Hall Burnett moved with his family from Middlesbrough to Blackburn to take up the post of Editor of the Blackburn Standard.  He instigated a regular feature on the back page (page 8) of The Weekly Standard and Express Newspaper which initially was entitled ‘Passing notes and Gossip’ – as it developed he …

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3. Indomitable pluck and perseverance & the ‘winged art’

This is the third posting on the timeline of William’s life. It describes further influences on his education and development during his early teenage years in Stokesley and before he moved to Middlesbrough in around 1855. _______________________________________________ Having gained some idea of William’s family and where he spent his early years, what do we know …

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William Hall Burnett and the mill girl poet, Ethel Carnie

This post describes the relationship between William and the mill-girl poet Ethel Carnie. I am grateful for the interest shown by Roger Smalley and for sending me copies of material concerning Ethel Carnie and William from the Blackburn Library (see Bibliography).  Roger has documented the political life of Ethel Carnie in ‘Breaking the Bonds of …

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2. Ah’s Yorkshire… William’s immediate family

This is the second posting on the timeline of William’s life. It describes his immediate family and his antecedents, his illegitimacy and how he came adopt the middle name of Hall. __________________________________________________________________________ After the brief introduction to William’s birthplace of Stokesley (St Peter’s Bells and my native town) I return to an exploration of his …

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