Author: Wood, Hamlet
Biography:
WOOD, Hamlet (c. 1801-78: findmypast.com)
Hamlet Wood appears to have published only one work, the abolitionist The Negro, in 1833. The key clue to his identity is the place of publication, Burslem in Staffordshire, and the most reliable information about him comes from census records from the same place in 1841-71. His name was surprisingly common in and about the Potteries at the time, with risk of confusion. Some basic records, such as his date of birth, the baptisms of his children, and the burial of his first wife, are absent. But he was certainly the son of Jesse and Ann (Warburton) Wood born at Burslem about 1801. He married Catharine Arrowsmith at Huyton, Lancahire, on 1 Jul. 1821. Of the four children who survived to be included in the census, two were born in Lancashire and two at Burslem; in 1851 the three eldest, still in their teens, were employed as “potter,” “potter edger,” and “potter warehouse girl.” By 1851 he was a widower, but on 24 Aug. 1851 he married a widow, Sarah Holdcroft, at Christ Church, Cobridge, Staffordshire. In 1861 and 1871, and in his death notice, his occupation is given as “coal dealer.” Sarah Wood died in 1873 and was buried at St. Paul’s, Burslem; her husband died on 11 Mar. 1878 and was buried at St. John’s, Burslem. It is possible but not very likely that he was the Hamlet Wood who had a shop selling Staffordshire pottery in Belfast, Ireland, in 1829 but went bankrupt in the same year: that might have been Hamlet Wood (c. 1774-1846) of Cheshire—a prosperous farmer by 1837—the death of whose wife Martha was reported in the Irish press in 1842. (findmypast.com 10 Jul. 2024; ancestry.com 10 Jul. 2024; Belfast Commercial Chronicle 25 Mar. 1829, 22 Feb. 1842; Dublin Evening Post 24 Nov. 1829; Staffordshire Sentinel 16 Mar. 1878) HJ