The boys and the black stuff
George Huntriss, born in Halifax in 1813, was the second surviving son of William Huntriss, a cotton spinner in that town.
William was made bankrupt in 1824; an entry in Pigot’s directory of 1829 shows an entry for “William Huntriss, gent” living at Hall Gate, Doncaster. Was this the same William? Had he moved from Halifax to escape the stigma of his bankrupcy?
Little is known about his early years.
The 1841 census shows him living as a boarder at a house in Lofthouse Gate, Wakefield, when he is described as a bookkeeper.
In 1847 he married Eleanor Hanks in Pontefract
Joseph Thornton (1804 – 1889) was a railway contractor in England in the mid-nineteenth century. He was in business of building railway lines for the many railway companies in Victorian Britain and was a director of a number of companies connected to his profession.
Joseph was involved in the construction of the North Midland Railway, which ran from Derby to Leeds, and which included a station at Darfield. George Stephenson surveyed the line in 1835
George also seems to have been in business with his brother William, a partnership that was dissolved in 1852.
The 1861 census shows George, Eleanor and their young family living in Halifax, where George was working as a Worsted Spinner. Their two children were both born in Pontefract. Both boys were at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School at Heath, near Halifax
