1. Life

Birth and trade

John Pickersgill was born at Kippax about 1841. He gave his age as 23 when he married in September 1865, and as 30 on census night 1871; the burial register of December 1877 gives 36. Those three figures agree on a birth in 1840–42. He was a joiner at the time of his marriage. By 1871 he was a labourer at a coal pit; by 1877 he was a screenman on the surface at Locke and Co.’s Kippax Colliery.

Marriage

Banns were called at South Milford on 13, 20 and 27 August 1865 between John Pickersgill of that parish and Ann Rhodes of South Milford. The marriage was solemnized after banns at the parish church of South Milford on 23 September 1865, entry no. 24. John, 23, bachelor, joiner, of South Milford. Ann Rhodes, 25, spinster, domestic servant, of Castleford, daughter of Thomas Rhodes, post-office clerk. Witnesses Thomas Chapman and Ann Chapman. Officiant Frederic John Young.

Ann’s census age in 1871 is written 23, which does not match a woman of 25 in 1865. The enumerator’s 23 is treated as a slip; the marriage age and the two Kippax-born daughters are the better guide.

1871 household

Kippax, 1871, page 22, schedule 136, Public Record Office RG 10/4739. John Pickersgill, head, married, 30, labourer at a coal pit, born Kippax; Ann, wife, married, written 23, born Garforth; Eliza Ann, daughter, 2, born Kippax; Mary Jane, daughter, 1, born Kippax.

Schedule 138, two doors on, is James Pickersgill, 24, agricultural labourer, born Kippax, with wife Martha, 20. He is the right age to be John’s younger brother. Schedule 135 is Eliza Biscomb, widow, and her son Henry, coal miner — the same Kippax Biscomb kinship already recorded in this series.

Death and burial

He was killed on the surface on 13 November 1877. He was buried at St Mary’s, Kippax, on 4 December 1877, entry no. 288: John Pickersgill, abode Kippax, age 36, E. D. Bland, Vicar. West Yorkshire Archive Service P47/26. Three weeks between death and burial is long but possible after an inquest. DMM still prints the burial as not known.

2. The accident

On Tuesday 13 November 1877 John Pickersgill, screenman, was crushed by waggons on the surface at Kippax Colliery, Locke and Co.

Frank N. Wardell, inspector for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, entered the case as accident no. 85 in his 1877 report (Command Paper C. 2003), page 235. The Durham Mining Museum abstract taken from that report reads: J. Pickersgill; died 13 November 1877; accident 13 November 1877; colliery Kippax; company Locke and Co.; occupation screenman; notes: crushed by waggons on surface.

A screenman worked the surface screens that sized the coal as it came from the shaft. Railway waggons stood under or beside those screens to take the sorted coal away. Being crushed by waggons on the surface is a siding or screen-road accident: a moving waggon, or a pair of waggons, catching a man against a buffer, a wall or another vehicle. Wardell’s printed table does not add whether the waggons were being lowered, whether a sprag failed, or whether John was coupling. Those particulars are not in the open abstract.

The commercial index places the death at Leeds. Leeds is the nearest city. The pit and the burial are Kippax.

3. Coroner, newspaper and conclusion

No inquest transcript and no newspaper paragraph naming John Pickersgill have been found in the open indexes searched for this note. Surface deaths at Kippax were normally taken by the Pontefract coroner.

Official conclusion: accidental death, crushed by waggons on the surface, screenman, Locke and Co., Kippax, 13 November 1877.

4. Sources and citations

South Milford marriage register, 23 September 1865, no. 24: John Pickersgill, 23, bachelor, joiner, of South Milford, to Ann Rhodes, 25, spinster, domestic servant, of Castleford, daughter of Thomas Rhodes, post-office clerk.

South Milford banns, 13, 20 and 27 August 1865: John Pickersgill of this parish and Ann Rhodes of South Milford.

1871 Census of England, Kippax, RG 10/4739, p. 22, schedule 136: John Pickersgill, 30, labourer at a coal pit, with Ann, Eliza Ann (2) and Mary Jane (1).

West Yorkshire Archive Service: Kippax St Mary burial register, 1877, no. 288. John Pickersgill, Kippax, 4 December 1877, age 36; E. D. Bland. Reference P47/26.

Frank N. Wardell, 1877 Mines Inspectors Report (C. 2003), Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, p. 235, accident no. 85.

Durham Mining Museum: J. Pickersgill, died 13 November 1877, Kippax, Locke and Co., screenman, crushed by waggons on surface.

UK Coal Mining Accidents index: J. Pickersgill, 13 November 1877, Leeds, screenman, Kippax, Locke and Co., crushed by waggons on surface.

5. Corrections

Age. Burial 36 and the 1865 / 1871 ages agree on a birth about 1841. The original memorial wording Age 37 is one year out. A GRO index entry for John Pickersgill, age 40, Leeds 9b 346, October–December 1877, is a different registration district from Kippax (then Tadcaster / Pontefract) and should not be attached until the certificate is seen.

Wife’s census age. Ann 23 in 1871 cannot be the Ann who was 25 in 1865. Treat 23 as an enumerator’s error.

Occupation. Joiner in 1865, pit labourer in 1871, screenman in 1877. The surface job is the one in which he died.

Place. Leeds in the commercial index is the nearest city. The colliery and the grave are Kippax.

Burial. DMM “not known” is filled by Kippax no. 288, 4 December 1877.

A GRO certificate from the Tadcaster or Pontefract volume for November 1877 would settle the registrar’s age and the informant.