Nat Gould

Lydia Gilbert 1768-1798

Lydia Gilbert was born in 1768, the daughter of Thomas Gilbert 1748-1793 and his wife née Alice Shaw 1742-1781, and the granddaughter of John Gilbert 1724-1795, the famous canal builder and industrial entrepreneur. She was baptised on 18 September 1768 at Bowdon in Cheshire.

She was married by licence on 10 November 1794 to Nathaniel Gould 1756-1820 at St Mary's church, Eccles in Lancashire (1). He was the son of Joseph Gould 1715-1777 and his wife née Ellen Gilbert 1722-1792, and the grandson of William Gould of Pilsbury Grange.

Nathaniel Gould became a wealthy Manchester cloth merchant, and was a great philanthropist and benefactor. He and his wife lived in a large house in the Crescent in Salford. They had one child, a daughter Lydia Gould 1796-1869. She was married to her cousin the Reverend Joseph Gould 1797-1866.

Nathaniel Gould was a truly great social reformer, much celebrated in the nineteenth century but unjustly now almost forgotten (1). He expended much of his wealth in ameliorating the appalling social conditions in Manchester and Salford, and was a notable benefactor of the children of the poor in those towns, which were then rapidly growing as cotton mills and factories proliferated. His gifts to local charitable institutions (2) were very substantial both in his lifetime and through his Will.

Lydia Gould née Gilbert died aged only 30 years in 1798, greatly loved and lamented by the people of Salford and Manchester. She was buried at St. Stephen's Church in Salford on 30 November 1798.

Her widowed husband survived her for the last 22 years of his life.

(1) She was 21 years of age at the time of her marriage. The witnesses to the ceremony were John Gilbert junior (the brother of the bridegroom) and George Lee: Microfilm in Manchester Central Library.