Author: Law, Samuel
Biography:
LAW, Samuel (b 1735: ancestry.com)
Law identifies himself in his only published work as a handloom weaver, self-taught, living at Barewise near Todmorden, Lancashire. The book was published by subscription in Leeds, Yorkshire. Todmorden straddles the two counties: the river running through it is part of the county boundary. Law makes much in his preface of the inhospitability of the district—a “strange, sequestered, solitary desert” he calls it—and of his own insufficiency to the task of description. But with Thomson’s Seasons (1726-30) as a model he produced a creditable account of his time and place. He was baptised at Heptonstall, Yorkshire, on 30 Nov. 1735, son of Isobel (Wood) and Samuel Law. His education he describes as “almost inexpressibly poor”: at the age of 21 he barely knew the letters of the alphabet. On 25 Sept. 1759 he married Martha Greenwood at St. Mary’s, Todmorden. It is not clear whether they had children or not: the baptismal records are confusing but if her nickname was Mally or Malley, as it could have been, she was the mother (and he the father) of at least four infants baptised at Todmorden between 1767 and 1780. Several other baptismal records of 1762-80 for the same place have his name but Betty or Sarah or Mary as the mother’s name. There is no record of a local burial and the burial of Samuel Law at Luddenden, Yorkshire, on 17 July 1773 probably refers to a different man. (ancestry.com 6 Dec. 2023; findmypast.com 6 Dec. 2023; Goodridge)