Newton in Makerfield, Its History, with some account of its people.

In 1914 in a dedication at the front of his book "Newton in Makerfield, Its History, with some account of its people" John Henry Lane wrote: PETER MAYOR CAMPBELL was born on the 28th May, 1838, "in a house on the south side of the High-street of Stevenston," a village in Ayrshire, and is the younger son of Robert Cunningham Campbell and his wife Mary, the eldest sister of Peter Mayor of Coatbridge. On the father's side there was a tradition that the family was descended from John Campbell, "the soldier," second son of Glencairn, of Loudon, who took the name "Campbell" after his maternal grandfather, John of Argyle, through his mother Margaret, in the early part of the sixteenth century, and inherited her estates in Ayrshire, as they were the only Campbells in the neighbourhood, and that there had been a soldier in the family for generations, notably in the Black Watch and Scots Greys. His father's uncle, John went through the Peninsular War in the latter regiment and was also at the Battle of Waterloo, and during the long peace broke in horses, but was killed at the very door on the morning that the subject of our sketch was born, so the continuity was broken except that Mr Campbell served seven years in the Newton Volunteers. His father was a silk weaver, but on that industry declining, joined his brother-in-law, Peter Mayor, in making tiles to drain the Duke of Portland's estates in Ayrshire. Thence they removed in 1843 to Eccleston, Lancashire, to manage a tilery for Lord Derby. In 1846 they removed to Newton to do the same work at Mr Thomas Legh's tilery near the Gas Works. From the tilery, Mr Campbell went to the Printing Works, where for twenty-six years he was engaged in Bradshaw's Continental Guide Office, whence he removed to Manchester and was guide compiler and printer's reader at the late Mr John Heywood's printing-office. Returning to Newton as agent for the Liberal Party, he devoted five years to the constituency during the great political schism, and whilst here attended to the Ince Division in which Mr Sam Woods gained the seat for the Labour Party. He did similar work in the Bassetlaw Division for the Liberal Whip. An opening for a brick salesman offering in the neighbourhood, he fulfilled that office for a short time, and then removed with his wife and family to York, near which city he now resides. Incidentally and pro bono publico, he spent a twelvemonth in York and in the British Museum writing out quotations for the Oxford English Dictionary that brought him under the notice of Sir James Murray, and the cacoethes scribendi often moved him to contribute to local newspapers.

I have reproduced six extracts from the books, where Peter Mayor Campbell has been a contributor, or which help to tell a little more of his story.

Extract 1 The Printing Works
Extract 2 The Tilery, The Glass Works, The Glass Bottle Works, and The Gas Works.
Extract 3 The Old Chapel.
Extract 4 The Dean School.
Extract 5 The Congregational Church.
Extract 6 Local Politics, with an explanation of the Poor Law.

I am still trying to piece together the life of Peter Mayor Campbell. On 31st March 1881, at the age of 42 he married Christina Syme the twenty year old daughter of one of his colleagues, Adam Syme who, "went to manage the Liverpool shop and then returned to continue his father's business in Edinburgh". The Syme family were related to the deLittle family of York, who produced wooden type for some hundred years until the middle of the twentieth century.

In 1886 Peter Mayor Campbell seems to have upped and left the Print Works after 26 years of service. As mentioned by John Lane he went to work for Mr John Heywood's in Manchester, and in the book Peter Mayor Campbell mentions that John Christie died at his house in Manchester, which according to the date of death would be in 1883. However when his son Robert Frederick Syme CAMPBELL was born in 1883, the address is still Newton-in-Makerfield!

He also mentions being promoted to the judicial bench by an advocate in Preston, and working as a representative for the Haydock Coal Company. Annoyingly for the family historian, he does mention when, or in what order, these events occurred.

The Newton-in-Makerfield extracts are taken from:

Newton in Makerfield:
Its History,
with some account of its people.
Compiled from Authentic sources
by
John Henry Lane,
with Notes and Reminiscences
by
Peter Mayor Campell.
Printed and Published by the Compiler
1914.

A reprint of this book (Volumes I and II) is available from Peter Riley

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