Life was not easy for millions of Queen Victoria's subjects. Most had to leave their small country cottages for even more chokingly cramped terraced houses. Many families earned only enough to put the daily rations of bread, meat, and potatoes on the table.
William Kidd was more fortunate. He had a farm of own in Cawthorne, Yorkshire, called "Low Mill." He did not have to travel to cities ti find work like so many others. He and his wife, Elizabeth Halll Kidd, were middle-class and did not have to come home from the mills, the black soot sticking to their skins and clothes.
William's grandfather, the first Kidd recorded in my family, is Joseph Kidd of Wakefield. Joseph married Mary Nicholson on April 20, 1772, in All Saints, Wakefield, Yorkshire. The couple had five children: Joseph Kidd, born 1784; Thomas Kidd, born 1783; William Kidd, born 1786; Mary Kidd, born 1802; and William Kidd, born 1806. All were born in All Saint, Wakefield.
Joseph Kidd, son of the first Joseph, married Sarah Dixon of Halifax. She was born in 1781 in Halifax and was the daughter of William Dixon. She had a sister, Elizabeth, who was born in 1780. The Kidds settled in the town of Mirfield, England. Joseph had his five children baptized at Mirfield PC.
These are the children of Joseph and Sarah:
i. Daniel Kidd, b. Abt. February 22, 1807
ii. Betsy Ann Kidd, b. Abt. December 26, 1808
iii. William Kidd, b. November 3, 1810, Mirfield, West Riding Yorkshire, England; d. May 15, 1859, Low Mill, Cawthorne, Yorkshire, England
iv. Joseph Kidd, b. Abt. October 1, 1813
v. Thomas Kidd, b. Abt. December 18, 1814
Joseph Kidd's occupations were farmer and maltser. Mirfield, where he lived at the time, was a center of the malting trade. Malting is the brewing of beers.
1813 - Joseph Kidd of Ravenbrook Lane
1814 - Joseph Kidd of Mirfield Lane (Maltser)
Ravenbrook Lane, where Joseph once lived, had an interesting history of its own.
"Up to the year 1261 Mirfield formed a part of the Saxon parish of Dewsbury, from which it was separated at the intercession of the Lady of Sir John Heton with the Pope who going to mass before dawn on Christmas day, to the parish church (of Dewsbury) was waylaid and robbed, and her principal attendant murdered, at a place called Ravensbrook Lane. Sir John was at Rome at the time of this outrage, and entering into the feelings of his lady, procured the Pope to sanction the creation of a chapel at Mire-field, which, in process of time, became the parish church, and this ancient edifice, which contains some interesting monuments, is dedicated to St. Mary; some few years since it received the addition of about five hundred sittings, of which nearly three hundred are free."
--Pigot and Co.'s National Commercial Directory 1834
William Kidd, Joseph's son, was born November 10, 1810, in Mirfield. He married Elizabeth
From "A History of Precision Kidd Steel" p2...
"His father was a farmer, and he became a farmer himself. On his farm he operated a grist mill, and this mill proved to be William Kidd's entry ticket to the world of industry."
"Living in the shadows of the Sheffield steel mills, William Kidd became aware of growing industry and of the need for special shapes of steel. Screws, card wire, piano wire, and crinoline wire for the fashionable hoop skirt were in great demand in the 1850s. In true entrepreneurial spirit, William Kidd equipped part of his flour mill with wire pulling machinery and began to produce drawn steel in specialty sizes and shapes. This part of his business became so sucessful that he gradually abandoned flour milling and converted the entire mill into a wire manufacturing plant."
Cawthorne, Cawthorne Mill, Yorkshire, England 1841 Census - Age 30 year- (occupation- corn miller)
Cawthorne, Yorkshire, England 30 Mar 1851 Census - Age 40 (corn miller)
Cawthorne, Yorkshire, England 1861 Census - living at Low Mill were Robert Dixon born at Morton age 26 years and wife Jane born at Auchterarder, Scotland age 24 years with children Jane 2 years and Robert 5 months. Both children were born in Killinghall. They were probably cousins through the Sarah Dixon line.