© 2008 Tony Kirkman
Evidence of Kirkmans in the area around Bolton and Bury goes back to 1515 when a George Kirkman was a witness in a court case.
Legal documents from 1620 relate to a yeoman farmer John Kirkman, in Ainsworth (between Bolton and Bury), to whom three people were bound over to keep the peace.
In 1678 an act was passed to stop the burying of anyone wrapped in imported linen (and thus protect local industry). A Sarah Kirkman was caught by this act in 1683, as were many others. The act quickly fell into disrepute and was finally repealed in 1814.
The Kirkmans in this area contributed to the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral, with John, William, James and Alice giving a total of 10 pence, which was considerable sum in 1706, especially when you consider that the whole of Ainsworth gave a total of 2 shillings and 6 pence.
Births, deaths and marriages are numerous in Bolton, Ainsworth (Cockey Moor) and Bury.
A present day visit to Ainsworth would soon convince the reader of the Kirkman connections in this village. The graveyards of both the Church of England and the Presbyterian chapel bear witness to lots of Kirkmans long dead. The parish church registers go back to 1727 but there are other records back to 1579. The Presbyterian chapel started regular recording in 1769, but has odd records before that. From these dates onwards, the Kirkmans in the records are too numerous to mention.
An assessment of the present day telephone directories, and the UK 1881 Census records, shows by far the majority of Kirkmans living in Lancashire, with relatively few resident elsewhere in Britain.
There is a Lancashire Wills Index at this link. Over 240,000 records have been indexed to date.
With thanks to Trevor Kirkman who has a large database of Kirkman (mainly Lancashire) events http://homepage.ntlworld.com/enid.trevor/
Key Locations
- Bolton
- Ainsworth
- Manchester
- Bury
- Radcliffe
- Little Lever
- Salford
