My name is David Eaves and I live in central Lancashire, UK, not far from the county's largest town of Preston, where I was born.

Peter has kindly offered a little web space on the Eaves website, which is to be devoted entirely to the Eaves family of Lancashire. I shall be updating the page periodically with all things of "Eaves Lancastrian".

We currently have a team of four researching the name of Eaves in Lancashire, and are looking at its origins, name, family members, stories, reminiscences, religion, ancestral property, work, lifestyle ... in fact, anything and everything to do with Eaves.

If you have a particular interest, require information or wish to share information with an Eaves Lancastrian connection, then email me on

david@eaves70.freeserve.co.uk

and the Lancashire team shall do their best to help you with your enquiry.

I would like to make it very clear at this point, that there is no hidden agenda behind this web page and its contents - it is dedicated solely to the sharing of information with a hand of friendship between one Eaves and another.

My own personal interests in the Eaves family fall into four categories:

1. Uncovering the origins of the Eaves family in Lancashire, which appears to be of two sources: (a) a people who once lived at the Fylde hamlet of Eaves, and (b) a group who are descended from the pre-Norman Conquest family of Deuyas (Devias, D'Ewyas, etc.), who settled at Samlesbury, near Preston, in the mid to late 13th Century;

2. The Eyves of Fishwick Hall, Preston - a prominent Roman Catholic recusant family who had their home and lands sequestered by the Commonwealth Government during the late 17th Century;

3. The Eaves family of the Fylde. The earliest recorded member of this family was Ralph Eaves, who may have been a descendant of the above Preston family, or possibly, had Liverpool connections;

4. My own Eaves branch, who were living at Skippool and the Hardhorn area of Poulton-le-Fylde during the 17th - 19th Century, and more recently at Fleetwood and Preston.

So, now you know my interests and what this page is all about, why not drop me a line and let's see what interesting research we can uncover together.

Looking forward to your reply,

David Eaves, 5 November 2000..

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Lancashire Eaves People

Robert Eaves, born Fleetwood 1901, died Preston 1987

A 20th Century Eaves at Fishwick!

Contributed by David Eaves, Clitheroe, Lancashire, UK

“I recall my grandfather Robert as a kind, considerate man who worked very hard for his family. Robert was born in the Lancashire fishing port of Fleetwood and was taken to Preston with his eight brothers and sisters as a young boy in 1908.

After leaving school at 14 he found employment in Preston’s flourishing cotton industry, first as a labourer before moving up through the ranks to the positiion of spinner and overlocker, with Horrockses - a company renowned throughout the world for its high quality bedding and clothing products.

Robert lived through the time of the General Strike of 1922 and the depression of the 1930s, and although too young for the First World War and then too old for the Second, he worked conscientiously for the Home Guard and as a volunteer at his local gymnasium training young boys for preparation for the armed forces.

As with his Fylde forefathers, Robert had a passion for the land, in particular the cultivation of vegetables and flowers, however, living in a terraced house without a garden proved somewhat of a problem. But like so many other Lancashire cotton mill workers, Robert solved his problem by leasing an allotment from Preston Borough Council.

Robert’s allotment was his pride and joy spending most of his spare time gowing salad crops, vegetables and flowers. And it was the produce of this allotment which kept his family fed with fresh food during the wartime years when food rationing was in force and fresh vegetables were a luxury.

His first allotment was at Frenchwood and later Fishwick, overlooking the plains of the Ribble Valley from Samlesbury in the east to Penwortham down river.

After a few hours of back breaking work Robert’s delight was to make himself a mug of tea and roll a cigarette of his favourite tobacco, before sitting on the bench which leant against his glasshouse that during high summer always contained a magnificent crop of delicious tomatoes. From his elevated position by the side of an ancient track which passed his allotment closeby he could see the everyday workings of Fishwick Hall Farm below.

Since starting the research of my family’s history I have often wondered whether Robert had a feeling that he wasn’t the first Eaves to look over that same scene as a prominent Eaves family had lived at the Hall had surely done 350 years before.

Robert’s hold on the soil of Fishwick, although far modest than the Eyves family at Fishwick Hall, were just as relevant, and as such, although he may never have known, was carrying on a great tradition which had started over 600 years before.”

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Elizabeth Eaves, 20 November 1913

A Street Tragedy

From the Fleetwood Chronicle

Contributed by Karen Atkin, Hull, Humberside, UK

About 12.10 pm, on Friday last, Elizabeth Eaves, aged nine years, residing with her parents at 25 Addison Road, Fleetwood, met with an accident, which terminated fatally on Sunday night at the Fleetwood Cottage Hospital.

It appears that a horse attached to a laden furniture van belonging to Mr Brraithwaite Bond, of Fleetwood, was being driven along Blakiston Street West, by Matthew Williamson, when it is stated, the girl, in running after a handbill that was being blown about the street, ran between the near side wheels of the van and was knocked down. Williamson pulled up before the wheel passed over her but she was badly hurt internally.

First aid was rendered her by John Sanderson until the arrival of Dr Johnson, who ordered her removal to the hospital, where she died as stated.

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Dom Oswald Eaves, OSB, 1909-1975 writing in 1970

A Lancashire Eaves connection with Blessed John Southworth

Contributed by the family of Fr Oswald

My own interest in the Southworth-Eaves relationship began when I was a young boy of some 10 years of age, just over 50 years ago. My father’s sister Walburga Eaves (born 23 November 1860) was the oldest child of Richard Eaves and his wife Margaret, nee Southworth, both of Preston, Lancashire. The other children of the marriage were: Joseph Oswald my father, (born 1864); Thomas (born 1867) and Edward (born 1870). All this generation of children had been brought up to know that their mother Margaret Southworth claimed to be of the family of Southworth of Samlesbury and therefore were relations of the martyr-priest John, martyred at Tyburn on June 28th, 1654.

It was my aunt Walburga who impressed upon me at a young age that my grandmother had been a relation of the martyr. One can only surmise that there had been 240 years of tradition.

My aunt even gave me a blessed medal which she said had been handed down through the Southworth family for several generations. I have it to this day. It is unusual and bears the face of Christ on one side with the words “Salvator Mundi” and on the other side the face of the Virgin Mary with the words “Mater Divine Gratiae.” the medal hangs on my rosary. A detail of interest is that my own mother, two sisters and a brother have died holding it in their hands.

Southworth-Eaves families Of my grandmother’s immediate ancestry I know little. Of her family, I know that her sister was a member of the Good Shepherd Order and was called in religion Sister Charity Southworth. she was stationed at Ford Convent, Liverpool for many years. She died there and is buried in the cemetery there. She was reputed as a very holy person, as also was my grandmother. To have followed their immediate ancestry would have been an interesting study, but the latter generations of Southworths after the family had left Samlesbury Hall are difficult to follow especially since some members emigrated to the U.S.A..

There are a good many Southworths in Lancashire who claim relationship to the martyr of whom I will only mention two. One was a member of the Holy child Society. Her name was Sister Alphonsus McGiveney. She was sister to a well-known actor Owen McGiveney. He portrayed especially Dicken’s characters, playing all the parts of a Dickens story. He became known consequently as the world’s greatest “quick-change artist”. He emigrated to the U.S.A. and married there. I believe his son still carries on the tradition.

His family had a breviary which they claimed had belonged to Blessed John southworth, and this they donated to Westminster Cathedral, where it is still exhibited in the Sacristy there.

Sister Alphonsus had in some way been involved with the drawing of Blessed John’s face for a leaflet to be sold in Westminster after the martyr’s body had been found. She said it had been easy to reconstruct the features since the face was in such good preservation. this is borne out by Father A. Purdie who states in his book: “the head in particular was found to be in a good state of preservation: the skin of the face had taken on a coppery tint, and there was a slight moustache and beard ‘a la Richelieu’ of chestnut colour.”

The other person who claimed relationship with the martyr was one named John Southworth whom I me at Westminster. His family came from Blackpool, Lancashire. He was also an actor, and is still living near London. He has a son named John, who is incidentally, a member of a charitable association founded by myself to help the apostolate in Sweden.

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William Eaves, 1837-1909, Ansdell, near Lytham and his daughter Elizabeth Eaves, 1862-1910

Contributed by William Rossall, of Hampshire

This is a transcript of notes written by my father Harry Rossall in 1971 regarding William Eaves who lived at a farm quite near his great uncle’s farm in Ansdell. He was writing about his own life as a young teenager and his impressions of his neighbours.

“How many times will I be starting a story with ‘when I was a boy ...?’

When I was about 12 or 13 (I was born in 1897) there was a little farm at the corner of Smithy Lane and Church Road, Ansdell (near Lytham). It was only a small farm, which was tenanted by a ‘quaint old man’ - at least he seemed old to me, called William Eaves.

Everybody spoke well of him, infact we all like him as children. I suppose because he never ‘chivvied’ us. He had an open countenance and wore a beard.

I remember him driving a horse and cart going along Commonside withsacks piled on, but there was always a barrel on the cart for Mr Eaves to sit on ... I expect he brought proven from Lytham windmill or perhaps Pleasant Street in the centre of Lytham for use on his farm.

This is only an introduction to the main part of my story which concerns one of his daughters. I remember them as very quiet ladies, at times wearing print dresses and bonnets and probably rather heavy boots as befitting farmyard requirements. They fitted into the farm and neighbourhood and in fact the family was very well thought of in and about Ansdell.

Into the quiet of the little farm and its surroundings came a gentleman from a busy East Lancashire town. How he actually met one of William’s daughters is not known, but to everyone’s surprise they were married at a very smart wedding at St Cuthbert’s Parish Church, Lytham.

The couple went to live in East Lancashire, where the husband was a cotton mill owner. Sadly, after about a year, the bride died and she was brought back to be buried at Lytham in the presence of her distressed husband and many family friends from Ansdell and East Lancashire.

It is not certain in what circumstances she died, but maybe a country lady moving from a coastal area with fresh air to a far less congenial surroundings of an East Lancashire cotton town might have been a contributing factor.

Whilst this little story is not immediately relative to our own Rossall family around Ansdell (no St Annes then) I have a long memory and I am happy to recall with plesure about the Eaves family. This story may not mean much to anybody else, but it has meant something to me throughout the years between then and now.”

A monumental inscription in St Cuthberts Church reads:

“Mary, wife of William Eaves, died January 1900, aged 63 years. Also, William, husband of Mary, died May 1909, aged 78 years. In memory of Lizzie, daughter of William Eaves and beloved wife of John Holden J.P. who died 3rd February 1910, aged 48 years. A tributeof respect from the Master and Employees of Bank Top Mill, Darwen, near Blackburn. She gave of her best.”

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An inscription from a gravestone laid in a pathway in St Chad’s churchyard, Poulton-le-Fylde: “Here lyeth the Body of Tho. son of Tho. & Elling Eaves. Who departed this Life, the 22nd of October 1786 in the 11th year of his Age. Also of the said Elling his Mother who departed this life the 26th Sept 1813 in the 65 year of her age. Also Alice their daughter died 9th May 1815 aged 22. She lived respected And died lamented. Also of the said Thos. who died 16th April 1829 aged 79. Also of Agnes their daughter who died May 17th 1850 Aged 67 years. Also of Thomas Eaves Cookson died September 30th 1866 aged 32 years. Also of John Cookson his son, died July 10th, 1866 aged 5 Years.”

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Do you have a memory or story of a Lancastrian Eaves family member for inclusion on the Lancashire page? If so, send it to

david@eaves70.freeserve.co.uk