Martha Woolfitt was born in about 1742 of Bolton, Lancashire, England. She married Thomas Bentley 5 August 1763 in St. Peter, Bolton. No christening record has been found for Martha in Lancashire.

Woolfitt is a fairly rare surname in England. It is primarily found in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. There are only 1,225 occurrences of Woolfitt in the Internationational Genealogical Index (IGI), which records birth, christening, marriage and some burial records.

The origins of the name are explained at www.surnamedb.com: "Recorded in several spellings as shown below, this surname represents the rare survival of an Olde English pre-7th century personal name "Wulfgeat". Few native given names were retained after the Norman Conquest of 1066, when a large number of Continental personal names were introduced and subsequently became very popular, either from choice or expediency. "Wulfgeat" is composed of the elements "wulf", meaning wolf, and the ethnic name "Geat". This refers to the original Scandinavian people to which the legendary 'Beowulf' belonged. 'Wulfgeat' is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 in a variety of forms including Wluiet, Wluiat, and Vlfiet. Not surprisingly the name generated a number of surnames including Wolfit, Woolfit(t), Woffit, Woolfoot, Woolvett, Woollett, Woolatt, and Ullett, Ulyet, Ulyatt, and Ullyott."

A study of Woolfitt, Woolfit, Woolfate, and Woolfoot in the IGI shows that only 67 occurrences of Woolfitt are recorded in Lancashire. Of these, only five events took place in the 1700s - several estimated records of Martha's birth, a christening for Anne Woolfitt, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Woolfitt in 1723, and three marriages for three Woolfitt women (Alice, Jane and Rachel). Trying alternative spellings does not find additional occurrences of the name. It is obvious that Woolfitt is not a Lancashire name at that time.

In looking at other counties, there are occurrences of less than ten events (birth, marriage, death) for the name Woolfitt in the counties of Devon (4), Dorset (1), Durham (5), Essex (4), Hampshire (5), Kent (2), Leicestershire (3), Northampton (3), Suffolk (2), Surrey (9), Sussex (1), and Worcestershire (2). Derbyshire has 11 occurrences, and London has 33. Most of the occurrences of the surname happen in the counties to the east of Lancashire: Yorkshire (102), Nottinghamshire (467), and Lincolnshire (504).

In all of the IGI records in the 1700s, after removing duplicate references to Martha of Bolton, there is only one birth or christening record for any Martha Woolfitt in England. This is a record for Martha, christened 17 January 1741 in Askham, Nottinghamshire, the daughter of John and Hannah Woolfitt. It is most likely that this is our Martha, born in Nottinghamshire and moved to Bolton, Lancashire by the time of her marriage in 1763. She may have moved, seeking work in the industrial revolution of the late 1700s, and ended up in Bolton, a major cloth manufacturing and weaving center. Additional research is under way to confirm this connection.
 

John Woolfit, a yeoman farmer, was churchwarden in Askham between 1745 and 1749. He was buried 8 April 1767 in Askham. John and Hannah Woolfitt had this family:
 

1. Mary, christened 7 November 1734 in Askham.
 

2. Sarah, christened 29 April 1739 in Askham; buried 1 January 1745 in Askham.
 

3. Martha, christened 17 January 1741 in Askham.
 

4. Maud, christened 31 October 1746 in Askham.
 

SOURCE: IGI; Askham parish register, FHL #503471.