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Following your query on the Fishwick GenForum I looked in my various databases and found your gt-gt-grandfather, Rowland Fishwick, living at 315 Whitworth Street, Openshaw, Manchester, at the time of the 1881 census.
He is listed as an "ironworker" (there were many engineering plants in that area until recent years), aged 36 and born in Liverpool. He and his wife Hannah (aged 33) had six children at home ranging in age from 3 months to 13 years.
I'm interested in the fact that Rowland was born in Liverpool. There was a cluster of Fishwicks in Liverpool at least from the late 17th century and recently I've commenced an attempt to see how they relate to the main body of Fishwicks in central Lancashire where the name originated (in the district of Fishwick by the River Ribble at Preston).
You say that you are unfamiliar with English counties. Lancashire and Yorkshire (very rarely these days referred to as the counties of Lancaster and York, which were historically the main cities) span the width of the north of England: Lancashire on the west, and Yorkshire on the east, with the Pennine hills in between. Thanks to a 1974 local government reorganisation Lancashire is now nothing like as large as it was, but historically included the cities and surrounding areas of Manchester and Liverpool as well as the Central and East Lancashire industrial towns. Both Lancashire and Yorkshire, although also including some beautiful scenic countryside, are heavily industrialised counties; 18th century Lancashire was the cradle of what eventually became the worldwide Industrial Revolution. The current populations of the areas covered by the historic counties (which are relevant to 19th century research, not the late-20th century administrative units) are, approximately: Yorkshire 4.1 million; Lancashire 5.5 million.
Although there are clusters of Fishwicks in several parts of the country, at the 1881 census there were 1015 in Lancashire, out of a national total of 1504; and 189 in Yorkshire. Only one other county (Durham, with 82) had more than 40.
I hope all of that is helpful.
- David Murray -
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