Born to Samuel and Mary (née Heathcote) in 1864, he carried on his fathers occupation as a farmer at Holly and Stanley farms in Bickerstaffe, before marrying Jane Heyes in 1887, producing seven children.
The Knowsley Estate has residential properties in the rural parishes of Knowsley, Eccleston, Rainford, Bickerstaffe and Ormskirk.
It was set with variations for the harpsichord as Miss Dawson's hornpipe, was introduced in Carey's and Bickerstaffe's opera ‘Love in a Village,’ and is mentioned as ‘Nancy Dawson’ by Oliver Goldsmith in the epilogue to She Stoops to Conquer.
Philip Bickerstaffe (1639–1714) was an English merchant and the owner of Amble Works.