Samuel Auty (1854-1926)

Samuel Auty was a "sculptor, general carver and letter cutter".

Biography

He was born on 2 February 1854 at Lindley, the son of coal mine engineer John Auty and his wife Ruth (née Scholes), and was baptised on 16 April 1854 at Lindley Wesleyan Chapel.

His father died in 1868 and his widowed mother moved to Morley, Leeds, where she married engineer John Westerby in June 1878.[1]

By 1871, he was living with his widowed aunt Judith Scholes at 59 Victoria Street, Bradford, and working as a stone carver.

He married Martha Jane Foster, daughter of joiner Samuel Foster of Lindley, on 8 July 1875 at the Queen Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. The couple had five children, although only two survived childhood:

  • Fred Walter Foster Auty (1876-1876)[2]
  • Mary Elizabeth Auty (1878-1946)[3]
  • John Norman Auty (1883-1883)[4]
  • Romola Ruth Auty (1885-1937)[5]
  • Florence Auty (1890-1891)[6]

The couple settled on Lidget Street, Lindley.[7]

In the early 1880s, he worked as the stone carver on the Ramsden Building for the Huddersfield Technical School and Mechanics' Institute after his tender of £260 was accepted.[8]

His fountain sculpture "The Rocky Stream" for the Huddersfield Band of Hope was formally unveiled in Greenhead Park on Saturday 25 July 1885.

Martha Jane Auty died on 8 February 1921, aged 65, and was buried at the Wesleyan Chapel at Lindley on 12 February.

Samuel Auty of 113 Lidget Street died on 1 May 1926 at the Royal Infirmary. He left an estate valued at £939 8s. 6d.

Mary Elizabeth Auty continued to live at the family home and died in October 1946.

Notes and References

  1. It is believed she later died in October 1889.
  2. Born 28 June 1876 and baptised 8 August 1876 at Lindley. Died 18 October 1876 and buried 20 October at Lindley.
  3. Born 6 February 1878 and baptised 17 March 1878 at Lindley. Worked as a draper's shop assistant (1901 & 1911 Censuses). Lived on at the family home at 113 Lidget Street and died a spinster on 21 October 1946 at St. Luke's Hospital.
  4. Born April 1883 and died aged 5 weeks on 5 May. Buried 8 May at Lindley.
  5. Born 11 August 1885 and baptised 4 October 1885 at Lindley. Married Edgar Radcliffe. Died January 1937 and buried on 21 January at Lindley.
  6. Born 5 April 1890 and baptised 21 September 1890 at Lindley. Died 16 January 1891 aged 9 months and buried 19 January at Lindley.
  7. The 1891 Census records that Martha Jane's retried parents were residing with them.
  8. "New Technical Schools" in Huddersfield Chronicle (11/Jun/1881).