John Riley and Elizabeth Haley

In 1842 the family were moved to Union Cross Inn, which occupied a prominent position by the Town market. In the 1851 census, John was listed as the innkeeper and he and Frances lived there with six children aged between 3 and 19.  

The Inn still stands in Halifax, now known as The Union Cross Hotel, the oldest Inn in Halifax. In various newspaper clippings from local press, it was a middle-class inn that hosted meetings of the Halifax Quarterly Choral Society.  So there is a picture of a prosperous family that would have been well known in the town.

Tragedy and re-marriage

Tragedy struck for the family and John Riley in 1853 as John’s wife, Frances, and both his parents died. Frances was  42 years old at her death. Her passing was recorded in the local paper. "February 27th, aged 42 years, Frances, the beloved wife of Mr. John Riley, host of the Union Cross Inn, Old Market" 

She left behind a large family. Hannah Maria, the oldest child was 20 and Matthew Bairstow Riley, the youngest child, was just 4 years old. Even though John Riley was wealthy enough to employ a nurse for the children he was obviously of the view that he wanted to get married a second time.  He courted, and married, Frances’ half-sister, Elizabeth in 1855. 

Elizabeth was the daughter of the stone merchant Isaac Haley and his second wife, Hannah Sutcliffe.  In 1851 she was still living at home with her parents and siblings, John and Isaac, though it appears her mother may have died in 1852.  She was 12 years younger than Frances and was 32 when she married John at Heywood Chapel in Northowram on Valentine’s Day 1855.    One year later, Elizabeth gave birth to John’s seventh child, Joe.  

Changing career and a move to Hipperholme

In the years after Frances’ death and his marriage to Elizabeth, John’s profile was increasing in Halifax. He seems to have wanted to take a step getting involved in local civic leadership. In the winter of 1853, he was nominated to Board of Overseers for the relief of the Poor.  This was an unpaid but important role as responsibilities included assessing rates of the poor tax in the area and compelling paupers to enter the Workhouse. This role also meant that John Riley became one of the magistrates for the Town of Halifax and there are several reports of him operating on this role in the local newspapers. 

His participation in civic life resulted in him standing to be a local councillor for the Town of Halifax.  This was an important time in the town and a magnificent Town Hall was commissioned and opened in the time that John Riley was a councillor. The contemporary news reports suggest a grand event for the opening of the Town Hall by the Prince of Wales. John Riley was a councillor at the time, and it was highly likely that he was included in those events.  According to his obituary, John was a councillor until 1865 and was raised to become an Alderman of the town. 

As well as entering local politics, John Riley changed his career at least twice. In 1855, around the same time that he married Elizabeth he ceased to be the Landlord of the Union Cross Inn and became a Wine and Spirit Merchant.  He also seems to have moved the family home away from the centre of Halifax to the outlying village of Hipperholme, the place he would live for the rest of his life. He seems to have expanded his commercial operations and become a partner in various textile mills across Halifax. In the 1861 , 1871  and 1881  censuses he was recorded living with his wife and his children from both his marriages. In 1884, he died. 

From the obituary it reads that he was ill for some-time and had wound down his commercial operations. In the years before his death, there had been other deaths within the family. Hannah Maria Forsyth, his eldest daughter, had been widowed  and two of his sons, James (1844 – 1880)  and Matthew Bairstow Riley (1849 – 1881)  had also died. When he died, he had 26 grand-children and the family had disbursed across England and not just stayed in the Halifax district

He was buried in Lister Lane cemetery, in the same plot as his first wife Frances, and then joined by Elizabeth, 8 years later in 1892. In his will, he left an estate worth £9055 10s 4d   which, at time of writing,  equates to around £600,000 or $ 1,065,000 (CAD).  The will was straightforward and divides the estate equitably to his remaining children and grandchildren where a parent had predeceased. Rather poorly, in comparison to present times, he only gave Elizabeth, his widow, the legal right to stay in their house for 6 months after his death. This was a legal device to ensure that his estate could go to the children of his first and second wives.

Even though John Riley’s commercial and civic journey is traceable through official records and newspaper accounts, there is very little to discover about Elizabeth’s life at the same time. She took on the role of Stepmother for her sister’s children, which must have been difficult, and created a blended family for her son Joe. The only record of them all as a family was in the family carriages at the funeral of John Riley where her son Joe, and stepchildren Richard and Hannah Maria rode together. 

In 1891, Elizabeth remained in Hipperholme, in a house in Westfield Terrace. She’s described as ‘living on her own means with a servant, Elizabeth Gibson.  She was in receipt of an annuity left in her husband’s will. By this stage, her son Joe Riley was resident with his family at Southport in Lancashire. Elizabeth Riley  died at her son’s residence in Southport on 13th November 1892. ,

Elizabeth Haley – Before she married

There is a tantalising insight into Elizabeth’s life through letters she sent to  Joseph Bentley Leyland in the years before her marriage to John Riley. In 1963, Mary Leyland, a descendant of Joseph Leyland published an article in the Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society.  Some of the letters published in the article are correspondence from Elizabeth Haley to Joseph Leyland. Unfortunately the original letters are lost from public record – they appear to still be with the Leyland family – but the extracts in the journal give an insight into their relationship.

Joseph Bentley Leyland was a sculptor who lived in Halifax at the same time as John Riley and Elizabeth Haley.  He was born in Halifax in 1811, the son of a  middle-class naturist.  He studied sculpture in Halifax and Bradford but also in London when he was in his early 20s. When he was in Yorkshire,  Leyland became part of an artist circle that met at the George Hotel in Bradford and the Union Cross Hotel in Halifax.  Part of this group was Branwell Brontë, the brother of the Brontë sisters who lived at Haworth about 9 miles north east of Bradford. John Riley was the landlord of the Union Cross Hotel at the time and it was likely that he would have met Branwell Bronte.

It was maybe at the Union Cross Inn that Elizabeth Haley met Joseph Leyland. He was renting a studio in Union Cross yard. From the letters below it was clear that Elizabeth and Joseph had a close and intimate relationship, travelling to Bradford together, seeing each other at chapel and going for walks together in Shibden Vale, a beauty spot just outside of Halifax.

Leyland had a poor end to his life. By 1851 he found himself in a debtor’s prison in Halifax, and he died there in January of that year. From the Journal article that relates the letters.

Elizabeth would have mourned for Joseph Leyland. It’s not clear how much Elizabeth had to do with Joseph in his last years – it would have been a difficult social position. It’s perhaps no coincidence that Elizabeth’s only child was named Joe.

Links to other pages