Just a bit of additional information on three of the Jones men on the Oakes death list:

Jones, Samuel - Hurrier - age 17
Jones, Thomas - Collier - age 40
Jones, William - Hurrier - age 19

These were all from the same family. Thomas Jones, Collier, was the father, aged 40 and born in Bagillt, Flintshire.

He married Hannah Burnham from Alfreton in Derbyshire and they had nine children between them. They moved around a lot though the reason is not known. One step ahead of the bailiff? A specialist in sinking new shafts? Always looking for the next great opportunity? Whatever the reason records show the children were born in different parts of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire - (William born Ollenport, Lancashire and Samuel in Woolley, Yorkshire) and always a place where there were coalmines. It wasn't until 1859 that they settled permanently in Barnsley (1861 at Oak Row, Hoyle Mill, next to the Oaks Pit) and their last three children were born, 2 in Hoyle Mill and 1 in Darfield.

The Oakes explosion left the widowed Hannah with seven children under fourteen to support, three of them girls and not one of the three boys older than seven. The youngest child, Sophia, was just thirteen months old. The oldest girl, Elizabeth, 14 born Somercoat, Derbyshire, became a dressmaker before marrying and moving to Nottinghamshire, while Mary Jane, 11, born Basford, Nottinghamshire - my husband's great grandmother - (only eleven when her father and brothers were killed) became a staymaker,  remained in Barnsley and married twice, eventually running a sweet shop in town.

As far as I can discover the three younger boys, George, Edward and Alfred never became miners.
They were (in 1881) a labourer, a grocer's assistant and a printer.

Can't say I blame them.

Hope this is useful

Hi,

I have just found your excellent site, and would like to let you know that one of my relatives was killed in this disaster, but does not appear on your list of those killed.  He was George Marshall born about 1833 in Barnsley, son of Thomas Marshall and Sarah Smith.

George was married to Ann Beldon (Beldam) and they had four daughters, Sarah Ann, Emily, Elizabeth and Mary.

Here is George's GRO death entry - Deaths Mar 1867 Marshall George Age: 27 Barnsley  Vol 9c Page 113

Here is the Barnsley cemetery entry
Source:  Cemetaries.org.uk
Marshall, George - Age: 27 -  Barnsley Cemetery Q/-/631
Date of internment
19/11/1868 "Killed in the Oaks Colliery Explosion 1866"

As you might imagine, I was puzzled as to why the date of death did not coincide with the date of internment.  Having read the information on your site, all is revealed, in that his death was only registered in the March
quarter of the following year, and his body was probably only recovered from the mine two years later.

I notice that you do have a John Marshall - Hurrier - listed.  I am not sure whether this is the same person and the name is wrong or whether there was a John Marshall killed as well.  George did have an older brother named John, but I thought he was killed in the Mount Osborne Colliery disaster in 1857. 

This family story is a very sad one in that all three sons were killed in mining accidents, and my
g-great grandmother (their sister, Mary Marshall) who was a domestic servant, gave birth to an illegitimate son, William Henry Marshall (my g-grandfather) in the Barnsley Union Workhouse in 1857 - father not known. 

She had obviously been working for some more fortunate family when she fell pregnant (possibly to the master of the house - a not unfamiliar story), and was then shunted off to the workhouse. 

She married Joseph Hoyland Pattison in 1861 and gave birth to a daughter, Mary Pattison in 1865 - died of Puerperal fever** 9 days later.  Her illegitimate son was then taken in by Mary's parents, Thomas and Bessy Marshall - at the age of 13 he was working as a "glass bottle maker"; by the time he was in his late teens he was also down the mine. 

He was never acknowledged by his natural father (family legend has it that he was a wealthy man who felt remorse in later years and through his solicitors tried to make amends by leaving him some money).  DNA testing has revealed that the unknown father could have been someone by the name of Wood or Woods, and I have been trying for years to find out where Mary was working at the time she fell pregnant, which may give us some idea of who this man may have been. 

William Henry died at the age of 73 of "Endothelioma of the pleura" - due to his work in the mines no doubt.  We are truly a family who has been greatly affected by the mining of those "black diamonds"!

Cheers,

Carol Forsberg (nee Marshall)

There was a John Marshall who died 22nd Oct 1857 at the: Mount Osborne Colliery, owned by Twibell and Co. In Barnsley, Yorkshire.  He was killed by a Fall of coal in the mine

** Puerperal fever or childbed fever, is a bacterial infection contracted by women during childbirth or miscarriage, a serious form of septicaemia. From the 1600s through the mid to late 1800s the majority of childbed fever cases were caused by the doctors themselves.

Life was meant to be much tougher inside the workhouse than outside, and the buildings themselves were deliberately grim and intimidating - they were designed to look like prisons. They were full of illness and disease brought about by over-crowding and the starvation diet. When you were admitted to the workhouse, you were stripped, searched, washed and had your hair cropped. You were made to wear a prison-style uniform. Women were at all times kept separate from the men, including their husbands. Children were kept separately from adults - even from their own parents.