There is no conclusive evidence where or when William met his first wife, Mary Ann Culf [i] but they were married on the Wednesday, 21st May 1862 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel [ii] on Saville Street, in New Malton. The officiating minister was Joseph Sykes who at the time of the 1861 Census was living …
Read More 4c. William’s wedding to Mary Ann Culf in 1862A death – Thomas Burnett (William and Elizabeth’s elder brother) Although there is no baptismal record, there is strong evidence that William’s mother, Hannah may have had another illegitimate child called Thomas, who was born around 1829-30, before she moved to Busby near Stokesley where William and Elizabeth were born. This would make him one …
Read More 4b. Two funerals or rather deaths in 1858________________________________________________________________ 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] …
Read More 4a. William’s sister’s wedding to John Campion in 1854This is the fourth posting on the timeline of William’s life and is intended to serve as an introduction to some family events that took place from when he was apprenticed to the printer William Braithwaite in Stokesley at the age of thirteen through to his arrival in Middlesbrough in around 1855 to continue his …
Read More 4. Two weddings and two funerals…an introductionMy 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. …
Read More Ethel Carnie and Ethel Mary Smyth’s ‘3 Songs’ (1913)William Hall Burnett wrote poetry throughout his life but as George Hull mentions in an anthology he edited and published in 1902 – ‘Unfortunately, Mr Burnett has not kept copies of many of his poems, and this circumstance prevents me giving an adequate or representative selection’[1]. He was also very poor at providing the dates …
Read More Poem – ‘Return of the C.I.V.’
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 …
Read More William Hall Burnett’s visit to John Ruskin at Brantwood, 1893This 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 …
Read More 3. Indomitable pluck and perseverance & the ‘winged art’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 …
Read More William Hall Burnett and the mill girl poet, Ethel CarnieThis 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 …
Read More 2. Ah’s Yorkshire… William’s immediate family