Lancashire Lantern

David Whitehead - His marriage

 

 

David Whitehead met his future wife Betty, of West Bradford near Clitheroe, when he was travelling in the Ribble Valley seeking cotton waste to spin in the mill at Balladen Brook.

His brother Thomas was living at Feaserhouse, near Clitheroe and David asked him if he knew of a suitable bride for him. Thomas replied that "I cannot tell, but there is a farmer, Jonathan Wood, who has a daughter who is a very decent and religious woman; but whether she will suit thee or not I cannot tell"

David appeared to think that she would suit him and in his letters to his brother asked "how that young woman of mine is coming along".

Peter Whitehead first made Miss Wood's acquaintance and teased his brother that he would marry her himself. Betty's friends teased her, saying that she should marry Peter.

"Nay, she said, I'll not have Peter. There is another, called David. I'll have him when he comes".

After meeting with Betty Wood, David was even more convinced that she was the wife he sought.

"For I thought, from the first sight of her, she was just the person for me - if I should suit her"

David obviously did suit Betty and his marriage proposal was eventually accepted, although Betty at first considered that she was too young.

The couple were married in St. Helen's Church at Waddington on the 7th July 1818.

Copy of the marriage entry for David Whitehead and Betty Wood, at Waddington Parish Church, near Clitheroe.