I am writing this on behalf of my baby daughter Faye, sometime when she is old enough she will certainly read this and I hope she will find it as interesting as I do and hope that others do to. Many people trace their roots and family tree this is what we found among other very interesting things. Although these days we may think we have a difficult time I am thankful I did not live two hundred or more years ago. This is an extract from Mathew Raistrick's story reported in a newspaper of that era.

A Correspondent writes: The Liberal cause at Idle has lost one of its oldest and staunchest supporters Mathew Raistrick. Born 1819 he had attained a good old age, and had witnessed many interesting changes in religious, social, and political life. When young he enlisted under the old chartist banner, and took part in the secret meetings and drillings which proceeded the plug drawing riots. Physically he was a very powerful man, and in the encounter between the chartists and the constabulary on Halifax moor proved himself more than a match for half a dozen of the latter. To the end he maintained a warm interest in political movements. By trade he was a clothier or hand loom cloth maker, and in his early married days he found the struggle for existence a very severe one. The truck system was then in full operation, and it was the custom for clothiers to work half the week for nothing, first preparing the wool and then finishing the pieces which they and their families had woven. The usual working hours were from 6am to 9pm. On Saturdays however work was dropped at 6pm, and then Raistrick and members of his family would trudge to Bradford through dangerous and unlighted roads for the groceries which they received in lieu of money wages. By most persevering industry he at last succeeded in saving as much money as would start him in business in a small way on his own account, and for many years he was in the habit of attending the market in the old cloth hall at Leeds. In 1870 he relinquished manufacturing and tried farming, but for the last twenty years he had been engaged in the coal trade. He was a member of the Baptist denomination.

Bravo Mathew.




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