Bradford – Bradford Cathedral (Children of Samuel Hailstone)

The vault in Bradford Cathedral which contains the remains of the three children of Samuel Hailstone (1768-1851) and his wife Ann Hailstone. The slightly unusual surname is likely to derive from someone in the family having once lived at a location called Hailstone, such as Hailstone Hill in Wiltshire or Hailstone Farm in Gloucestershire. It’s quite eye-catching due to how the cathedral has placed the little choir children.

The children are:

(i) Thomas Hailstone, born 1 March 1814, died 9 April 1816

(ii) William Hailstone, born 23rd September 1815, died 4 April 1816

(iii) Frances Hailstone, born 7 February 1820, died 16 February 1824.

Samuel and Ann also had four children who survived to an older age (or at least into adulthood):

(i) John Hailstone (1810-1871)

(ii) Edward Ripley Hailstone (1818-1890)

(iii) Anne Hailstone (1811-1834)

(iv) Elisabeth (1809-1832)

Which means that of Samuel’s seven children, he outlived five of them. The death of Thomas and William in the same week was noted in the local newspaper, which mentioned that the family lived at Croft House, but I can save time by linking to more information about this at https://bradfordlocalstudies.com/2016/08/30/map-of-the-week-a-century-of-bradford-hailstones/.