James Haining, born in 1807, and his wife Mary Dixon and a son William Haining arrived in Settle by 1837 from Northumberland. James worked at the gardens of Langcliffe Place, where mill owner William Clayton and his family lived. Their son, Dixon Haining, was born and died in August 1840 while they were in Langcliffe and is buried in the unmarked grave DX4, in the infants’ corner. (Langcliffe church was not built until 1851.) The decline of the mill will have affected James’ post, so they moved to the Green in Upper Settle and had another son and a daughter. James had a shocking death, run over by a cart wheel when his horse bolted. He left a substantial inheritance which will have helped to pay for the memorial stone of such excellent quality, right next to little Dixon’s grave.
James and Mary’s third son, another James Haining, was caught poaching on a couple of occasions. Rather than going to court on the last offence he decided the best course of action was to flee to Franklin County in Indiana, America. He made a good living farming with an American wife and a son. Meanwhile, James and Mary’s eldest son, William Haining, was an interesting but desperate character. In August 1855, he married Elizabeth Marsden. They were both 19 and Elizabeth was already six months pregnant with their son, Joseph Haining, but this must have been too much for William. Like his brother, William decided the best course of action was to board a ship bound for New York, describing himself as a farmer. Records for him stop — he probably changed his name. Fifteen years later ‘widow’ Elizabeth married a stonemason who worked on the railway and they had another three children. In case you were wondering, son Joseph was brought up by grandparents while his mum went to work (as a nurse in Clapham) and found work as a grocer. He landed on his feet when he married Jinnie Hartley, one of nine children of a cotton manufacturer, Henry Hartley and they had two daughters. Well done Joseph!