Digging up Sir Ian’s working class roots

The roots of one of Wigan’s most famous sons has been traced.
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Giant genealogy company Ancestry decided it would create a family tree for Sir Ian McKellen.

The 82-year-old star of stage and screen was born in Burnley but brought to Wigan at an early age to live on Parson’s Walk on account of his father’s job and he stayed in the town for 12 years, gaining his first experiences of the theatre here.

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Sir Ian Mckellen as HamletSir Ian Mckellen as Hamlet
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We discover that Sir Ian’s great-grandfather, James McKellen was born in Northern Ireland. At some point before 1861, his family, which consisted of his widowed mother, his five adult siblings, and two of James’s nephews, moved to Chorlton Upon Medlock, Lancashire.

During this time, James was working at a “small warehouse”. Later in life, James would work as a hosier and glove-maker.

Although much of Sir Ian’s family were associated with the booming clothing industry in Lancashire, his maternal grandfather, James Sutcliffe, took a different route.

He was a Congregation Minister, as listed in his entry on the 1901 census and at that time had only been married to Elizabeth Bannister for a few months, but they had Elizabeth’s elderly father, Robert, living with them.

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Also at the time of the census, there is a visitor staying with the Sutcliffes, however it is unclear how they know each other.

James Sutcliffe passed away when Sir Ian was a teenager, so it is likely that he knew him in some capacity.

Records also show details relating to Sir Ian’s paternal grandmother Alice Beatrice Murray. She was born on August 25, 1879, in Stretford, Greater Manchester to William W Murray and Alice Murray. Her father and Sir Ian’s great-grandfather, William, were part of the clothing industry in the area at the time as a shirt-maker.

On April 13, 1884, Alice and her younger sister, Ethel, were taken to the United Reformed Church in Withington to be baptised. Both girls were older than most of the other children registered on the same page, but the family is listed as seat holders in the church so it is unclear why they would be so much older than most children.

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It is also unique that the family was not living in Withington at the time of this event, so they felt the need to go to this church for some reason instead of going to one in Stretford.

After the seeds of acting were sown in Wigan, Sir Ian went on to be one of Britain’s biggest stars, renowned for his Shakespearean roles and scene-stealing performances in blockbuster movies including The Lord of the Rings and X-Men franchises.

He recently reprised his role as Hamlet, 50 years after first playing the doomed Danish prince.

He promised an “age-blind interpretation” of the Shakespearean tragedy at the Theatre Royal in Windsor.

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