Grime Family History
The Grime family of New Bedford can be broken into its four parts: Grime – Brierley – Spoor – Brault. The Spoor and Brault have been written about extensively before, so here we concentrate on the Grime and Brierley parts. David Grime immigrated with his family in 1892 from Blackburn of Lancashire County in England to New Bedford of Massachusetts. He had with him his wife Elizabeth Nowell and their 7 children. The industrial revolution had started in England in 1760 and stayed strong there until about 1880. It continued in the small towns of New England from about 1800 to 1850 and then moved to the medium-sized cities. Lancashire County of England is the heart of industrial England. Thus when times changed and jobs got scarce it suffered the most. David Grime was a weaver like most of that region. He could see the shift in the industry and struck out for the cotton mills of New Bedford. He would have 3 more children in Massachusetts and the entire family was employed as weavers in the mills. At least five generations of the Grime family had lived in Blackburn England and had all married at the Blackburn Cathedral. The children, the 6th generation, would carry on their hard work in the mills of a new country.
Thomas Grime was the first son of David and Elizabeth. He would first marry Evelyn Saxon in 1908 and they would have three children – Leonard, Reynolds, and Norman. Evelyn would die after 6 years of marriage and Thomas would remarry. His second marriage was to Inez Maud Brierley of South Berwick Maine. Their children were Muriel, Hazel, Thomas, Robert, Annetta, and June. Robert would marry one of the Spoor sisters in 1953.
Inez Brierley was born to Charles Brierley and Winetta Alice Hilbourn in 1895. The Brierley family had come to South Berwick by way of Ontario and before that England and Ireland. The Hilbourn family had been in southern Maine for over 200 years. They were farmers and also worked the woods as hunters and fishermen. Old Maine data is easy enough to find. The South Berwick Historical Society is very active and has an excellent web page. I was able to find an image of the maternal grandparents of Inez.
Industrialization changes not only the landscape but also the people. Farming would give way to industry and small towns would become big cities. South Berwick has not changed much but cities like New Bedford were changed forever. Former farmers with go there with their traditional values and within a generation even their personal lives would change. Inez Brierley had 9 siblings but only 3 of them lived past their youth. A chance at a better life must have thrilled her.