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Angiolina was the 15th child of Baldisaro
Porri (1803-1873)
and his wife Mary and she was born on 15th July 1852 in Skipton.
Ten of
her siblings died while they were young children.
Baldisaro had been
born in Italy and came to England in 1817. He married a local
girl, Mary Ovington in 1827 at Broughton Hall Catholic Chapel. For
more details of Baldisaro Porri and his Businesses go to Biographies/Baldisaro
Porri and Businesses/Porri
& Son. |
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Angiolina was a very good artist and painted a scene
at Lake Como. It
is not clear whether she visited Lake Como or not, but her brother Charles
does suggest a trip there, in a letter he sent when he was on a visit to
Appiano. Angiolina was also a skilled needlewoman and produced
this fine tapestry at St. Monica's Convent, Skipton, in 1870. |
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Angiolina's Mother Mary died on 5th December 1869
and her Father Baldisaro on 2nd May 1872. Angiolina and William had been involved in a long
distance courtship because he was living in Leeds so they wrote frequent
letters to each other and were very much in love. Angiolina got engaged
to William and in a letter he wrote to her he expressed how glad he was
that Angiolina's brother Charles was pleased about the engagement. these
letters are available in the Moorhouse Archives [kept by Felicity Mount]
to anyone who is interested. |
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William and Angiolina married on 24th June 1873 at St. Stephen's Church
in Skipton with William's brother as the best man. William and Angiolina
lived on the Lowerhead Row in Leeds where William was working at Ellison
grocery store. |
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William and Angiolina's first son James Ellison
was born 21st January 1874 at 43 Lowerhead Row and their second son,
Charles Innocent, was born on 8th September 1875. The name Innocent was after Angiolina's brother-in-law
Innocent Fattorini who had died the previous year. Angiolina took
her new baby and his elder brother to see her widowed sister Mary Jane
in Skipton and while they were there James was taken ill and died on 24th
October 1875. He is buried at St Stephens Church. |
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Angiolina and William had five more sons; Baldisaro (born 22 February
1877), Joseph (born 11th May 1881), Thomas Leo (born 11th June 1884), William
Edward (born 21st July 1887) and Francis (born 19th August 1889).
The family
had moved to 4 Newton Terrace in 1874/75 and William continued to work
for Ellison grocery business. |
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It was while he was working for Ellison that William discovered
Lemon cheese [see Biographies/William
Moorhouse] and when they moved to
129 Park Lane he opened his own grocery business and produced Lemon Cheese
to sell over the counter. He soon started to sell it to other grocer's
and such was the demand that William closed his grocery business on Park
Lane and Moved to 30 Alexander Road to start his business of producing
Lemon Cheese and allied products. After two years they moved to a larger
house, 6 Lofthouse Place that had stables and a warehouse at the back |
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Angiolina was a key part to the business as observed [and
put in a letter] by a Mr. Laxton in 1895 who remembered visiting the house
and seeing Angiolina cutting out by hand from greaseproof paper the discs
which in those days were placed on the surface of the Lemon Cheese to prevent
evaporation and crystallization after packing.
Three of Angiolina and William's
son were involved in the business, Baldisaro as a book Keeper, Joseph
as a packer of jam and Thomas Leo as a jam boiler. It was very
much a family business and Charles had helped before he started his training
to be a watchmaker with the Fattorini family in Skipton. My Grandfather
William Edward and his younger brother Francis would also have been involved
in the family business after school. |
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The family were regular worshippers at St Anne's Cathedral in Leeds.
The Cathedral was knocked down at the turn of the century to allow road
widening and a new Cathedral (also called St Anne's) was built on Cookridge
Street between 1902 and 1904. |
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Angiolina Moorhouse died on 22 March 1908, age 55 years of cancer of
the liver, and is buried in the family plot at Killingbeck Catholic Cemetery
on York Road, Leeds. |
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In her will Angiolina leaves £942 to her family. |
<Biographies |
For more photographs see Photographs/William Moorhouse. |
