Mary Ann was born on the 13th of January 1854 at the family home of 3 Jubilee Street in the town centre of Blackburn, Lancashire. She was the youngest of nine children born to William Alston, an Engine Tenter, and his wife Ellen (nee Rostron). Although most of her siblings were baptised at the nearby church of St Mary the Virgin (now Blackburn Cathedral), no baptism record has been found for Mary Ann.

When the April 1861 census was taken,the family were still lving in Jubilee Street but had moved to number 8. Mary Ann, aged 7 years, was described as a Scholar.

In April 1866, Mary Ann's mother Ellen died. Then, just a few years later, possibly in December 1869, her father William also died. So, by April 1871, at the age of 17 years and working as a Cotton Slubber¹, Mary Ann is living in nearby Moor Street with her sister Hannah, who had married the year before.

By January 1873, Mary Ann was 'courting' a young man called John Jackson.  Sometime before Easter that year, Mary Ann would have told John that she was pregnant. After banns had been read they were married on the 16th of June at St Paul's Church in Blackburn. Despite both of them having attended a school at some time, neither were able to sign their name on the marriage certificate, placing a cross mark instead. Mary Ann gave her occupation as a Tenter¹ and John as Card Grinder¹. Mary Ann's sister Hannah was one of the witnesses, the other was William Scarr, presumably a friend of John. Amusingly, Mary Ann's residence at the time of her marriage was in Mary Ann Street in Blackburn.

The couple were able to set up home in one of the newly built terraced houses in Oxford Street, which was part of a large housing development in the Audley district in the 1870's. Their house was number 6, a two-up two-down, close to Audley Range. The baby, a boy, was born on the 13th of October 1873 and baptised a month later at the church of St Mary the Virgin in Blackburn. (St Matthew's Church on Oxford Street, wasn't built until 1886). More children followed and Mary Ann gave up work to keep house and look after their growing family. Around 1889, the family moved from number 6 to number 42 at the top of that section of Oxford Street. By 1911, with no young children to look after, Mary Ann returned to the Cotton Mill, working once again as a Slubber

In the 1911 Census, Mary Ann and John state that they had thirteen children, of which four had died. Only twelve children have been identified to date, of which two (James and Richard) died in infancy and Alice died at the age of 18 in 1910.

Joseph Jackson 1873-1953
William Jackson 1875-1956
John Jackson 1876- ??
Ellen Jackson 1878-1953
Mary Jackson 1881-1955
Celia Jackson 1883-1959
Thomas Jackson 1885- ??
James Jackson 1888-1888
Thurston Jackson 1890-1965
Alice Jackson 1892-1910
James Jackson 1895- ??
Richard Jackson 1897-1897

Mary Ann and John remained at number 42 Oxford Street for the rest of their lives. Mary Ann died on the 13th of December 1939 at the age of 84 and is buried alongside John and her daughter Alice in grave number 14755-6 at the Old Blackburn Cemetery on Whalley New Road.

Notes

1. Occupations
A Cotton Slubber operated a machine that removed imperfections (known as slubs) in the cotton in preparations for spinning.
A Grinder in a Cotton Mill was a semi-skilled job, who used grinding tools to cut the metal teeth on the cards for staightening the cotton fibres prior to spinning.
A Tenter was someone who looked after a machine, such as a carding machine.