The three wives of Henry Lee (III)
Ann Farnworth (1853-1877)
Henry's first wife was Anne Farnworth, whom he married in 1872. They had two children, James H Lee and Jane Ellen Lee. James and Jane stayed with their father and his new wife until at least 1881 but by 1891 they were both living with their late mother's family at 136 Manchester Road, Bolton. James then disappears but Jane can be found in 1901, now living with her uncle, Moses Farnworth and earning a living as a shop assistant.
Hannah Roberts (1851-1898) *
Henry married Hannah on 2nd April 1879 at Rusholme parish church. Hannah was born in Rusholme to a Welsh father and English mother. She may have been a matron at Manchester Royal Infirmary and was certainly a nurse there. She went to live with Henry in Bolton where they had eight children. In 1881 they were living in the business premises at 134 Bradshawgate but by 1891 they had moved out of to 117 Turton Road, Turton with the business still being run from Bradshawgate. Hannah died on 15th April 1898 in the premises of the family business at 13 Lomax Buildings. Her husband, Henry, is buried with her at Heaton cemetery.
Mary Alice Wood (1857 - )
After Hannah's death, the family home in Turton is given up and Henry moves his family to 4 Devon Street and then to 74 Moncrieffe Street. Henry marries Mary Wood on 27th November 1901 at the Rose Hill Independent Chapel, Lever Street, Bolton and dies, intestate, on 26th April 1902. There is no net value to the estate and one wonders how Henry's business and personal life may have deteriorated since Hannah's death.
Mary Wood provides one of the few tales which have passed down the family. Some time after after Henry's death, his widow locked out all the children from his previous marriage, including our grandfather, Arthur Johnson Lee. He went to live with his eldest brother, Harold, at Chester Road in Stretford and Harold got Arthur work at British Westinghouse in Trafford Park. Mary Wood was living as a boarder at 9 Melville Street, Bolton a few months before her wedding, still a spinster at the age of forty four and with nothing to her name.