William Irving (1811-1872)
Draper and colliery owner, Workington, Cumberland.
Born 1811 in Cummertrees, Annan. Married Janet Johnston 25 Feb 1839 in Annan. Died 6 Dec 1872 at Workington.
One known child, John William Irving (1844-1878)
OBITUARY - Whitehaven Herald and Cumberland Advertiser - Saturday 14 December 1872
(With thanks to the British Newspaper Archive)
THE LATE MR WILLIAM IRVING, OF WORKINGTON.
Perhaps many of the readers of the Herald will accept a short epitome of the career of the above gentleman from the pen of one who enjoyed, for some years, the friendship and fellowship of so good a man.
The late Mr Irving was born at the village of Cummertrees, near Annan, in Dumfriesshire, of humble parents in the autumn of 1811. Scarcely had be attained his fourth year when his father died, and left him, with other children, to the care of his widowed mother, who, in the course of a few years. Apprenticed him to a miller of the place, a calling he never liked. After serving some time to it he left home, and settled at Blackburn in Lancashire, where be commenced business in the drapery line. Soon after his mother died, and returning to his native village to attend her obsequies and settle the little affairs belonging to her, he married.
Returning to Lancashire he commenced to mingle in the public affairs of Blackburn, of which town he, for some time, was one of the Town Councillors. After spending seventeen years there, he determined, to the regret of many sincere friends, to leave for Annan, where he had purchased, a brewery, and into which business he embarked — a speculation that ultimately turned out anything but a success. Leaving behind him a loss in pocket, but not in reputation, he again crossed the border, and came to reside in Workington some 17 or 18 years ago. once more starting in the drapery line. That business he again seen abandoned, having sold it to his nephew, Mr Wm. Carlyle, now of Whitehaven: and then he took the royalty of Ashby [sic – actually Asby] from the late Earl of Lonsdale. He sank the present Ashby pit, and soon after, at the death of the late Mr Penrice, colliery steward at the Workington pits, he took from E. Curwen, Esq. , the Workington colliery as well. Here he sunk the Annie pit shaft, and commenced a system of drainage which ultimately proved successful, and relieved the whole colliery of one of its greatest troubles. He also sank the William pit shaft for the purpose of exploring workings that had been closed or abandoned nearly a century ago.
After expending a large amount of time and money in these Workington pits he sold his interest therein a few years since to the present lessee, and turned his whole attention to his first speculation, Ashby pit, — determined to sink and search for other seams than those he had already obtained. After serious drawbacks and difficulties his perseverance was rewarded by coming upon one of the finest seams of coal in Cumberland ; and no sooner had he done so, than, with the same indomitable spirit of enterprise, he commenced to form a line of rail connecting Ashby pit with the railways of the neighbourhood, and thereby do away with an enormous expense of cartage over bad and difficult country roads.
When all around him now appeared successful—when the dark clouds of adversity and anxiety were just passing away, leaving the bright sunshine of prosperity and peace — the hand of death fell suddenly upon him. Rising from his bed at his usual early hour on the 6th inst., he made a slight request of her who now mourns the loss of one of the best of husbands, and then, in the calm tranquillity of sleep, he silently passed from this life to the next, leaving behind a name that will long be remembered by many friends, not only for the honesty of purpose by which all his dealings were marked, but also by the many deeds of kindness and charity which flowed from his hands. In his public life Workington has lost a firm friend, whose only object at her Council board was to support such measures as would lead to that prosperity which is for the good of all and not of the few. In his private life he was kind to a fault, and the affectionate remembrance of his name must ever dwell in the hearts of his friends as long as life shall last and time to them shall be no more.