Hamlet spent his whole life in Westhoughton, Lancashire, mainly in the Wingates area of the town. He married Mary BAMBER on 31 Aug 1822 at St Mary, Deane, Bolton, since the Westhoughton church at that time had no authority to conduct marriages. Hamlet and Mary had nine children - six girls and three boys.

In Hamlet's younger days he worked as a silk weaver - a common occupation in Westhoughton at the time. In 1841 he was living in a street known as Top o'th Slack, and in 1851 he was at Floral Cottage (sounds lovely!). By the early 1850s he had become a publican in charge of the Dog & Pheasant public house on Manchester Road. This is confirmed by entries in his daughters' marriage certificates and in the 1861 and 1871 census records. When he died in 1878 his address was The Square, Wingates, Westhoughton, and he was buried at the recently opened St John's church, Wingates.

All but one of his family remained in the Westhoughton area, but the one exception was his son Hamlet HARTLEY (1838-1922) who left his job as a ooal miner in the early 1860s and emigrated to the United States, where he married Sarah MILLS (1850-1925) - another immigrant, from Oldham, Lancashire - on 24 March 1868 in Aurora, Illinois before settling in Pawnee City, Nebraska as a farmer. Hamlet and Sarah had 12 children (including two pairs of non-identical twins).

Hamlet Hartley (1799-1878)