Stephen Mercer Lightley was born in Bridlington Quay in July 1856, the son of
Thomas Lightley and
Elizabeth Robson Bayes. In 1870 he was
apprenticed for a period of seven years to Dowsland Wardill Junior of Bridlington Quay
who was a joiner and carriage builder. In August 1880 he married
Betsey Helen White in Barnsley and by the following
year they had settled in the Wath-upon-Dearne area of Yorkshire, where Stephen worked
as a colliery carpenter. They had at least nine children and also brought up their
nephew Richard as their own son. Stephen died
in 1908.
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