Main Page Before 1796 1796 -1799 1800 - 1819 1820s Late 19th Century Litton Mill Land Ownership Slack & Mill Connections Living Conditions Robert Blincoe Censuses 1841 - 1891

LITTONSLACK 1880s The 1881 census shows just 18 people living at Littonslack with 5 houses unoccupied. At this time all of the 10 Littonslack cottages are owned by Thomas Lomas. He had bought the properties from John Booth Gaskell and George Bagshaw in 1878. On the 11th October 1884, Thomas Lomas made his willl appointing his sons Richard and Henry as “executers, vendors and trustees”. They would have the job of selling Littonslack. However note that they do not directly inherit any part of Littonslack. The Deed reads … “… appointing his sons the Vendors Executors and Trustees thereof devised and bequeathed all of the real and personal estate and effects to which he should be entitled at his decease unto the Vendors in trust to convert the same into money by sale or otherwise and to dispose of the proceeds as therein mentioned” Ann Lomas (his wife) did not die until 1913 and so it maybe that he left other parts of his estate to her. Note that the “Married Woman’s Property Act” where the wife would automatically inherit the husband’s estate did not come into being until the 1890s. On 30th August 1885 Thomas Lomas died In 1886 the houses were sold, Note that although I do not have access to Thomas Lomas’s will, from the deeds to number 8, the proceeds from the sale of all of the houses of the Slack were to be divided equally amongst the following people – who appear to be immediate family. They are: Abel Wain Lomas (Son of Thomas Lomas) Richard Lomas (Son of Thomas Lomas) Edward Lomas (Son of Thomas Lomas) Samuel Henry Lomas (Nephew) Cassandra Maria Bone (Granddaughter of Thomas Lomas) Henry Lomas (Son of Thomas Lomas) Lydia Millward (daughter of Thomas Lomas) Eliza Hopwood Fielding  (Thomas had 2 daughters called Elizabeth – this is no doubt one of them) Sarah Booth (daughter of Thomas Lomas) The will states that the trustees must convert the estate into money. What appears to happen is that as the houses are mostly unoccupied, and presumably difficult to sell, that the beneficiaries (numbering 9) each buy a house and then the money, under the terms of the will, is divided between them. No 2 Littonslack (which was previously unoccupied) went to Eliza Hopwood Fielding and No 8 (also previously unoccupied) to Richard Lomas. Each sold for £30. Nos 9 & 10 were sold to Abel Wain Lomas for £30 (for both). No1 went to Samuel Henry Lomas, No 3 to Lydia Millward. No 7 to Cassandra Maria Bone. 4,5,6 were owned by Edward Lomas, Henry Lomas and Sarah Booth.