September 4th – The weather has taken a turn, for the 2nd and 3rd of this month have been verey wet; although a deal of rain has fallen, yet the earth is in a verey dry, parched state. September 20 – Oldham flour, 3s. 10d. to 4s. 2d., meal 3s. 3d. to 3s. 7d., potatoes 1 pound for 1d., onions 2½ d .a pond, apples 6s. a peck. September 22nd – Was entered at Oldham, Joseph Andrew, of Old Clarks, and a few days since his sister and last month his brother, died, all of a vilant fever wich now rages in their family. This month has been an extreme cold wet month, and all sorts of provisions, notwithstanding the emence crops, still continue excessive dear, to the great distress of the poor. October 2nd – These month has commenced with severe raining. October 3rd – A collier commonly cald Little York was killed in a coalpit near Cowhill, and one Whitehead, a young man, was killed a few days since at a coalpit near Werneth. October 4th – Oldham meal 3s. 4d. to 3s. 3d., flour 3s. 3d. to 4s. a peck, potatoes 14d. to 15d. a score, onions 2d. to 2½d., a pond, apples 2s. 6d. to 3s. a peck. October 11th – Manchester this day, meal 75s. a load, and flour about same, potatoes 15s. a load. October 13th – Oldham meal 3s. 3d. to 3s. 10d. a peck, flour about same, potatoes 1¼ pounds for 1d. It is an absolute fact that Robert Smith, of Beartrees, sells is meal at 3s. 11d. a peck. The wheather still continues excessively wet. A few days since Adam Ogden, innkeeper, of Heygh Chapel, having a quarrel with a man, he received a blow on his belly wich burst his bladder and put an end to his existence. This accident occurred at the Three Crowns Inn, near Scouthead, then a much frequented public-house on account of the Yorkshire coaches calling there to bait. Adam Ogden then kept the Queen Anne pubic-house at Hey, now the private residence of his grandson, Austin Ogden, Esq. This Adam was progenitor of many families of cotton spinners. He had five sons, and several daughters. 1st. Joseph, of Hey-lane Mill, who had four sons, John, Adam, Robert and Samuel, all (along with the father, cotton spinners, and one daughter; 2nd, John, of Holebottom and Hey, who had three sons, Samuel, Austin, and John, all cotton spinners, with several daughters; 3rd, Samuel, of Horsedge Mill, who with his sons, Ambrose, Samuel, and John, were cotton spinners, and several daughters; 4th, Adam, a soldier; 5th, Robert, of Bank Top Mill, Lees, who, with his three sons, John, Thomas, and Edward, were all cotton spinners, and several daughters. Of these, the name of one gentleman at least will long live in our local annals on account of his kindly interest taken in promoting education in his native village by building, at his own cost, the magnificent Sunday and day schools in connection with S. John’s Church, Hey, and, also, in helping with his purse other kindred institutions.
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Adam Ogden, above-named was descended from the Ogdens, of Swineclough, which estate was held for some time from the Lords of Chadderton, and eventually bought by Adam Ogden, the elder from Edmund Assheton, Esq., one of the old lords of Chadderton. The deed of purchase bearing date, according to the elder Butterworth, January 26th, 1670. The traditions of Swineclough would afford material for a romance. Swineclough was once, say in the thirteenth century, part of a larger estate called “Long Lee”, and Hamo de Oldum gave Swineclough with other lands to one of the Chaddertons, who was perhaps a church dignitary, as it was given for the health of Hamo’s soul, and of the souls of all his predecessors and successors. Hamo gives lands to this John, son of Geoffrey de Chadderton, with acquitance of pannage for his swine to come over that land and the swine of his tenants, hence the name Swineclough. This old deed is still preserved in the vestry safe at Prestwich. Many are the traditions of Swineclough. The ancient owners it seems were fond of a hand at cards and it is said clubs were trumps at Swineclough for a whole winter together. Have we not all heard of the death of “Old Adam at Swineclough”? How that his relatives were invited o his funeral, and that one portion followed the corpse to the church while another lay in ambush and took possession in the absence of their mourning relatives, and ever afterwards kept possession, and thus possession became ten points of the law? How that the estate is even now held by a defective title and that it only requires the rightful heir to assert his claim and thus dispossess the people of Oldham of one of the prettiest parks in the country? So that in common with other old estates, which have generally a tradition of wither a ghost, or a witch, or a dragon associated with them, this estate has an avenging Nemesis. Who is the rightful heir to the estate can only be settled by a process of law which may cost the pursuers as much as the estate is worth. The original spelling of Ogden was “Okeden”, and the family appears to have taken this name from the place where it then resided in Butterworth, now known as Ogden Edge, Ogden Chapel, &c. The Ogdens or Okedens, seem to have put in an early appearance at Oldham, or about it. The original name of the family appears to have been “Fitz Bibbi” which is said to be of Saxon origin. At the time when people began to assume surnames this family, probably about the 12th or 13th centuries, assumed the name of “Okeden”, as will appear from the following quotation from Harland’s Mancestre. Mr. Hartland says: In a deed without date Geoffrey Chetham gives to Adam Fitz Bibbi, and the heirs of himself, and Cicilye, his wife, all the land which Henry Fitz --- sold me in Okeden, between Butterford-acre-clough and the Rosi-lee-clough, on paying 2s. 6d. at S. Martin. By another dateless deed Jordan of the Castleton quit claims to Adam Fitz Bibbi and Cicelye, his wife, and their heirs his interest in all the land which Roger De Holeden formerly held. By a third date less deed Adam de Okeden (the same Adam Fitz Bibbi, now takes a local surname), with the consent of Cicely, his wife, gives to their son Richard a moiety of his land in Okeden, paying 18d. at S. Martin – Chet. Soc. Pub. |
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At the time of the partition of Chadderton into three parts in the year 1455, I find the names of Roger Okeden and Henri Okeden on the tenant roll. According to E. Butterworth, John Okedyn held land in Oldham under the Cudworths in 1483, and one of the principal residents of Oldham in 1486 was Robert Okedeyn, of Glodlike. E. Butterworth also says that Swine Clough remained “in the (Ogden) family up to the beginning of the present century”. The Oldham Alexandra Park forms a good portion of this estate. During the 17th century, judging from the Church registers, the family was scattered in various parts of the district, Greenacres, Hollins, Cowhill, Coleshaw Green, and other places, Lower Horsedge being one of the principal tenements of a branch of this family. The redoubtable John Ogden who Judge Bradshaw (who condemned King Charles 1st) addressed his famous letter in 1646, was probably of Greenacres. He was evidently a Parliamentarian, and was in some public position in Oldham, probably a churchwarden. The old homestead at Greenacres has only just been demolished. I copied the following graven initials from a stone lintel over the porch door: “I.O 1636”. It was perhaps this John Ogden who first drew around him and his family the original Nonconformists who formed the Church at Greenacres. We have the following notice of this branch of the family:- Butterworth states that Abraham Ogden of “Grinacres”, was father to the Rev. Samuel Ogden, of Brazennose College, born about 1627. He was a zealous non-conformist, and settling at Buxton in Derbyshire, he was in 1654 presented to the living of Fairfield by the Earl of Rutland, the patron, but in 1657 he was called to the ministry at Mackworth, whence he was ejected on the memorable Bartholomew day, 1662. In 1686 he was appointed by Sir John Gell to the mastership of the free school, Worksworth, and this situation he retained till the time of his death, May 25th, 1697. He was buried at Wirksworth. He is described by the non-conformist memorial to have been possessed of great natural talents and a distinguished linguist, an excellent mathematician, a lover of music, and an admirer of Latin poetry. When the pretended Archbishop of Samos travelled through England, he visited Mr. Ogden, and conversed with him in the Greek tongue.
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E. Butterworth further says that in 1747 there was a John Ogden, yeoman, of Greenacres, and in 1748 a Captain Edmund Ogden, of Wellyhole. The Ogdens of Trub Smithy, of whom was John Ogden, Esq., barrister, are alleged to be descended from those of Greenacres. From another branch as has already seen in these annals we had several generations of machine makers about the end of the last century and the beginning of this. The civic chair of Oldham in the year 1882-3, was occupied by Samuel Ogden Esq., cotton spinner and iron founder, but from which branch of the Ogden family he descended, I am not aware. Another branch of the family settled at or near, Manchester, from which descended the famous Dr. Samuel Ogden, principal of Halifax Free Grammar School. He was the son of Mr. Thomas Ogden, a dyer, of Manchester, and was born 28th July 1716. Educated at Hugh Oldham’s school, Manchester, he became a fellow of S. John’s College, Cambridge, and Woodwardian professor of geology, in the university of Cambridge. He seems to have been a very remarkable man, an excellent classical scholar, a scientific divine, and a proficient in the Oriental languages. The following is from the pen of an unknown writer:-
He wrote a Latin epitaph in memory of his father, who died in 1766, and caused it to be fixed on a marble tablet in the Collegiate Church, Manchester. Dr. Samuel Ogden died March 25th, 1778, and was interred on the south side of the communion table in St. Sepulchre’s Church, Cambridge, which living he once held. The literary talent in the Ogden family seems to have been inherited more or less by its several branches, and in some cases has taken exalted station. Nor is this literary ability extinct. |
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