The Tobin family are my mum’s mum’s family. The name can be traced back to France. Originally St Aubyne and it is believed that they migrated to Ireland during the Norman conquest.  Tobin as we know it is an Anglicised form of the Gaelic name – Tóibín.

The collapse of the textile industry in the southeast of Ireland and a series of poor farming seasons between 1770 and 1830 resulted in much economic hardship for members of the working class.  My ancestors left Ireland in the early 1800s.  They moved to Macclesfield as part of the silk weaving trade and eventually moved to Manchester to work the cotton trade. My branch of the Tobin family lived in Ashton-under-Lyne until World War 2. 

My Great Grandfather was an air raid warden who also ran a pub. My Grandmother moved up to northern Cumbria during the latter part of the war in her teens to join the land army. 

The first Tobins to move to England from Ireland were John and Catherine Tobin,who were both silk weavers from Cork.  The 1851 census show they had five children since their move to England, all born between 1829 and 1843.  All the family worked in silk mills in Macclesfield, which was known as the silk town.  Their son John was a silk weaver, which meant he was the operative of a loom which made silk cloth and the four daughters were silk piecers, who were responsible for joining together the broken threads as they broke in the loom during the spinning process.  The youngest, Jane was only eight years old! 

The family moved to Manchester at some point after the 1851 census.  The silk industry was starting to fail in Macclesfield but the cotton industry was booming in Manchester and gave them more opportunity for them to work as cotton weavers.