The Lickfolds of Manchester and Portugal.

All the Lickfolds at present living in Manchester and Portugal, owe their existence to one man - WILLIAM LICKFOLD - born 8th April 1804 at Roundhurst, Lurgashall, Sussex-

This is the story of William. and a brief history of his background. The name derives from the village of Lickfold in Sussex, and comes from the Anglo-Saxon language, "leac fauld", which translates as garlic enclosure. Presumably an ancestor cleared a patch in the Wealden Forest, and started to grow garlic or herbs there. This would probably be the site of the present day hamlet of Lickfold. The earliest ancestor recorded is a Walter de Lykefolde with a date of 1297.

William's ancestors came from the Parish of Lurgashall about 3 miles from the village of Lickfold, and appear in the Parish Registers there from their commencement around 1530.

William's ancestors had all been farmers in the Lurgashall area from the 16th century, and William was brought up as a farmer. His father, also called William was baptised on the llth August 1766, and married Phoebe Sanders on the 13th April 1801. William was one of 10 children of the marriage, 7 boys and 3 girls (1 illegitimate) Due to adverse weather in the early 1800s, many farmers left the land and moved into the cities to obtain work. This must have happened to William, as in 1834 he was living in London, where he became an Excise Officer. (a government employee, who collected taxes on such things as whisky, candles, tobacco, etc) Excise Officers in Scotland, who were usually Englishmen, also had the job of locating illicit whisky distillers, which made the work very hazardous, and sometimes violent.

Following his training William was posted to Aberdeen, a seaport on the North East coast of Scotland, on the 29th October 1834. He stayed there until the 23rd March 1835, when he was sent to Perth, a City in the Scottish Highlands. He was living in a small village about 10 miles North of Perth called Auchtergaven, (now called Bankfoot) when he met Margaret Baxter, the daughter of James and Betty Baxter. Margaret was born at Corrielea, Auchtergaven, and was baptised at Auchtergaven on 28th March 1813.

On ?th July 1836 William was transferred to Stirling, the ancient Capital of Scotland, and about 30 miles South of Perth, but on 27th September 1837, William returned to Auchtergaven, and married Margaret Baxter.

Following their marriage, William and Margaret, returned to Stirling, and lived in a small village about 12 miles to the West, called Gartmore, this was where their first daughter, Elizabeth was born- Gartmore is in the Parish of Port of Menteith, a village on the Lake of Menteith, and Elizabeth was baptised at the local Parish church on 4th September 1839.

Shortly after the birth, William and Margaret wore on the move again this time to Ireland, for on 2nd September 1833, William was transferred to Kilkenny, a town in the South of the Country. William remained in Ireland for just 18 months, and then moved to the town of Kirkliston, about 5 miles outside Edinburgh, where his 2 eldest sons were born, William Thomas, on 28th June 1841, and George, on 30th January 1843, (George was my Great Grandfather). 2 Years later William moved into the City of Edinburgh, and lived in the suburb of Colinton. William and his family lived there for 6 years, from 7th June 1843 until 15th March 1843, and 3 of his children were born there. James, born 21st January 1845, Jane, born 18th December 1846, and Margaret, born 13th July 1849.

On 15th March 1849, William and Margaret were moved again, this time to the fishing port of Campbeltown, Argyll, on the West coast of Scotland, which was one of the leading makers of Scotch whisky at the time. It was, and still is one of the most beautiful parts of the British Isles. Another daughter, Catherine Lawson, was born there, and baptised on llth February 1851.

Due to a decline in the whisky distilling trade in Campbeltown, on 29th August 1853, William was again transferred, this time to the City of Glasgow. It was here that William's youngest daughter, and last child, Phoebe was born, on 20th July 1853. She was baptised at Gorbals Parish church on 28th September 1853.

At this time many taxes were being repealed, and many Excise Officers were being made redundant, and on the 13th April 1854, William retired from the service with a pension of £29.50p per annum, after 20 years service.

Sometime between April 1854, and March 1858, William and his family moved to Manchester, about 200 miles South of Glasgow. At the time it was the leading city in the world for spinning and weaving cotton. I do not know why he came to Manchester, but I feel that the reason was however, that there was plenty of work there due to the industrial revolution, and indeed many Scots were already coming over the border to find work in Manchester. It is possible that someone William knew from his travels in Scotland had already settled in Manchester and informed him of the possibilities that existed in the city.

The work of an Excise Officer in the l9th century, and especially in Scotland, was very hard, with all the travelling, mostly on horseback in all kinds of weather - the winters in Scotland are extremely harsh - meant that many of the Excise Officers died at an early age. This was the case with William, he died in Ardwick, Manchester, at the age of 54 from heart trouble, on gth March 1858. As for the children of William and Margaret :-

William Thomas, became an innkeeper in Manchester, and had 5 children (see family trees)

George, became a blacksmith in Manchester, and had 7 children (see family trees)

James, became a mechanic in Manchester, and had 5 children (see family trees) He eventually settled in Guimaraes, Portugal, where he opened a cotton mill, around 1830, after working in Peru and the USA on engineering projects. He died in 1933, aged 88, in Oporto, Portugal. His only son William Robert, married Mary Heaton of Argyle Villa, Derbyshire Rd, Sale, on 15 January 1901, at St Annes church, Sale. All the Lickfolds in Portugal are descendants of William Robert.

Elizabeth, Jane, Margaret, and Catherine Lawson, all married in Manchester.

There is no trace of Phoebe, but William Edward, the son of William Robert who was educated in Manchester. mentions meeting "the old auntie" in Manchester in the early 1900s. Apparently she had had an illegitimate child and had been thrown out of the house. The old auntie was a Lickfold, not a Heaton, and as all the other daughters of William are accounted for, this must have been Phoebe- 1 assume that she must have taken the name of the father of her child, but never married and when she died she must have been registered under that name.

This leaves a mystery in William's family:

What happened to Margaret, his wife. I cannot find any trace of her dying or remarrying in Britain, and Gladys confirms that she did not go to Portugal with James and his family, and it would be unlikely that she would go to America at her age. (in 1876, the last date that 1 have any trace of her, she would have been 63) I can only assume that her death must have been registered under one of the names that the Lickfolds are frequently and mistakenly called, ie Pickford, Wickfold, etc. and as a result of this I have been unable to find the relevant record of her death-

Peter Lickfold.