Poor little James has the dubious honour of being the second burial in the Holy Ascension graveyard after it opened in January 1839. His burial followed that of Christopher Edmundson, a wealthy solicitor. James was baptised on 28th February and was then buried on 2nd March right by the wall, EX30, the first in the area for infant burials.
James’ mum was Judith Clemmy from Garsdale. Judith was born in 1819 and her father, Arthur, died when she was just five. Her widowed mother, Mary, had several illegitimate children after that but had also disappeared from records by the 1841 census. In this census, Judith, (who was actually aged 22) lived with four younger sisters, a brother and a 3 year old infant in Otley, working in a cotton mill — there weren’t many options for orphaned children. It’s likely that Judith and her siblings came to Settle to try and find work in the mills when she had little James.
Fortunately Judith’s luck turned around. In 1846 she married Tim Metcalfe, a farmer and they had two sons, Arthur (named after her father) and William. They lived near Harrogate. Despite the problems in her early years, Judith lived to the age of 63. How many times did she think about little James?