James Edward And Isabella Cooper

James Edward Cooper, my Great Grandfather, was born on May 23rd, 1857, in the industrial town of Blackburn, Lancashire, England. His father, James Cooper, was a book keeper in a fire brick works. In 1861 the Coopers were living at 3 Higher Barn Street in Blackburn, and James Edward, then four years old, was at school. Blackburn was a heavily industrialised town, producing cotton predominantly for the Indian market. There were also several engineering works producing power loom weaving machines, several breweries, quarries and brick works. At that time James Edward had four older brothers, three older sisters, a younger brother, and a fifth older brother who had died at the age of two before James Edward was born.

The Coopers lived in a small terraced house in central Blackburn, close to the Leeds to Liverpool Canal, which connected the town to many other industrial and coal mining towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and to sea ports on both the east and west coasts of England. The home  at 3 Higher Barn Street was a five-room house, so it probably had just three bedrooms to accommodate this rather large family.

The 1860's was a hard decade for many of the people in northern and eastern Lancashire whose livelihoods depended on the cotton and associated industries. The American Civil War cut much of the supply of cotton from the United States, leading to mill stoppages and closures. Like many families, the Coopers moved to Southport in the mid 1860's to find employment there. By the census of 1871, the Coopers were living in North Meols, James Edward was 14, and was still in school.

In the years that followed James Edward finished school and became a wood carver, and in 1880 he travelled to New York to pursue his trade. My mother told me that James Edward did some wood carving in the Trinity Church in Wall Street, New York, and I've found that some major works were carried out in that church in the late 1870's, but the main works were completed before 1880. It is likely, however, that well after the major structural works were finished other work such as wood carving went on for some time.

".....The old Altar of the Church, together with the wooden screen which stood behind it, was removed ; and in place of these were erected a new Altar and Reredos, of which a full account will be found further on. As the Reredos occupies a space formerly used as a passage-way connecting the northwest and southwest angles of the building, it became necessary to provide new means of communication, and as the rooms heretofore occupied by the clergy and choir and used for robing were small, inconvenient, and quite inadequate to their purpose, it was determined to make an addition to the Church, at the western end, and thus to provide ample accommodation for all who need it. This work also was done under the direction and according to the plans of Mr. Withers. The cost of the Altar and Reredos was borne by the Messrs. Astor; the of the extension, as well as the expense of decorating and illuminating the chancel, from pavement to roof, of retiling the sanctuary and choir, of providing new stalls of richly-carved oak for choristers, of carrying a low wall across the entire front of the choir, pierced by an entrance for the clergy and processions, of cleaning and tinting the roof and walls of the Church throughout, and of making many other improvements which it is not important to specify here..."

Trinity Year Book, 1878. P.47:

I don't know for sure that James Edward was involved in these works or if he worked at Trinity later in the 1880's or 90's on smaller matters that are not recorded in the Archives. Ironically, the current rector of Trinity Church (at the time of writing) is Rev Dr James H Cooper - purely coincidence, I believe. I haven't yet been able to establish when James Edward returned to England, but I do know that it was before August 1884. His mother, Alice, died late in 1880, and it could be that for this reason James Edward's adventure in New York was cut short, although I haven't been able to find him in the 1881 England Census taken on April 3rd.

Having travelled to New York to seek his fortune, it's unlikely that James Edward found it in such a short time. With all his money spent re-crossing the Atlantic sooner than he had planned, James Edward probably returned to England broke, and would have had to find employment quickly. According to my mother's stories, James Edward did a lot of wood carving in churches, and I suspect he may have found work in a church in or near Lancaster, where he met and possibly worked for an Irish wood carver named James Brandon.  In 1881 James Brandon was boarding at 14 Leonardgate, Lancaster. This was the home of Isabella Smith, a 64 year old widow living with her daughter, also named Isabella, aged 21. Isabella Smith Senior was a grocer, the younger Isabella was her assistant, and in 1881 they had four boarders living in their home, two of which were wood carvers.

Miss Isabella Smith was born in Lancaster on April 5th, 1860. Her father was Joseph Smith, a silk dresser turned grocer and baker from Scotforth, and her mother was Isabella Alston, a dress maker from Galgate who later also became a grocer and baker with Joseph. In the 1880's the Wesleyan Methodist and other churches in the Lancaster area were experiencing considerable growth, and a lot of new construction and renovation was taking place. I suspect that James Edward found a couple of years work in Lancaster, and possibly boarded at the Smith house, ultimately courting the young Isabella

The work must have run out after a couple of years because by 1884 James Edward was living in Bolton and working as a tobacconist.



James Sydney Cooper
Born in Bolton, 1885

On August 20th 1884 James Edward and Isabella were married at the Wesleyan Chapel, Lancaster. On December 22nd 1885 their first child, James Sydney Cooper, was born in Bolton, where James Edward was still working as a tobacconist. James Sydney was baptised at St Peter's, Bolton-le-Moors, on March 21st 1886

By the time James Edward and Isabella's second child, Isabel Ethel, was born in 1887, it would seem that these Coopers were back in Lancaster, and James Edward had resumed his trade of wood carving:

At first I thought that the Worcester Street referred to in this transcript was what is now called Worcester Avenue in Lancaster, because on the 1911 census form Isabel Ethel is recorded as having been born in Lancaster, and similarly in the Birth Registry. However, generally in the Lan OPC transcripts when a person's "Abode" is not in the local area, the town they live in is written. But when I located St James in Higher Broughton, part of Salford, I found that there is a very short (nowadays at least) street called Worcester Street, just around the corner from the church. Now the record above shows Isabel Ethel's birth date as March 26th, but I have reason to believe this is an error of either the original entry or the transcription, as her date of birth is shown as February 26th in other records.

Isabel Ethel Cooper
Born in Lancaster, 1887

This leaves a period of five months between her birth, in Lancaster, and her baptism in Broughton, and presumably during that period the Coopers moved to the Salford area. 



In October or November 1887 James Edward booked a passage to New York in a second class cabin on the Alaska, a four mast, two funnel, iron hull ship which won the Atlantic Blue Ribbon in April 1882 for crossing the Atlantic in 7 days, 6 hours and 43 minutes. The family of four sailed from Liverpool on or about April 9th, 1888, arriving in New York on April 16th. As far as I can tell, James Edward's father, James Cooper, died just weeks after James Edward's departure to New York, on May 28th. I have no evidence of James Edward returning to England on the death of his father, probably having found out about it too late, and probably also being short of funds for a return trip.

The Coopers settled initially in New York City and it was perhaps around this time that James Edward did the wood carving work at Trinity. His sister, Isabella (Cooper) Cragg was living in New York at this time, with her husband Richard and twin sons Richard Edward and Thomas. Richard Cragg was a bricklayer from Forton near Lancaster, and most likely would have been a good work contact for James Edward, having now been living in New York for seven years or so.

On December 2nd, 1889, James Edward and Isabella Cooper's third child, John Knowles Cooper, was born in New York City. My mother referred to John Knowles as "Uncle Jack", and would often tell us stories about his exploits and adventures (but that can be for another chapter!). Seventeen months later, Alice Winifred Cooper, my Grandmother, was born on May 3rd 1891, also in New York.

By the US Census of June 1st, 1900, James Edward and Isabella Cooper were living at 79 Mount Prospect Avenue, Newark, Essex, New Jersey. Since my Grandmother's birth in 1891 they had had a further four children, but two had died in infancy, and I strongly suspect that yet another was stillborn. In May last  year (2013) I spent a few days in Canada with my Aunty, wife of my late Uncle Keith, my mother's brother. As luck would have it, the most economical way I could come up with at the time to get to Ontario was to fly into Newark, New Jersey and drive up to Canada from there. Heading back to Australia I was fortunate enough to have a few hours to kill before my afternoon flight out of Newark, so I went to find 79 Mount Prospect Avenue. Sadly, the building that now stands at that address looks as though it was built around 1960, so is probably not the former home of my ancestors, unless it has merely undergone extensive renovations. Time didn't allow me to check with local authorities as to whether or not the street numbers had been changed since 1900 - that can be a mission for next time.

Turning out of Mount Prospect Avenue into 7th Avenue, then again onto Clifton Avenue, I stumbled upon the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  

At the time I wondered if James Edward did any work in this magnificent granite cathedral, but on returning to Australia I discovered that the foundation stone of the building was only laid on June 11th 1899, making it highly unlikely. But I did ponder that my Grandmother, then aged 8, her brothers James Sydney, John Knowles, sisters Isabel Ethel and Jennie Emily, and their parents would probably have been amongst the 50,000 people who lined the streets to watch the parade to the cathedral site, or the 100,000 people who gathered at the site to watch the corner stone laying ceremony. 

The cathedral construction was plagued with errors and design changes and took many years to complete. By the time James Edward returned to England, the walls and towers were still under construction. The final completion did not happen until 1954!

It took a while to firmly establish exactly when James Edward and family returned to England. They were in Newark for the June 1900 US Census, and I was unable to find them anywhere in the 1901 UK Census, but their youngest child, Egbert Arthur Cooper, was born in Salford in late 1902. Then I found a UK incoming passenger list for the ship "Etruria", which sailed from New York to Liverpool in May 1901, which almost confirmed their return, apart from a couple of confusing and frustrating anomalies: on the list there is a family of Coopers - the names are almost a perfect match. They are written as follows: Jas Cooper [James Edward], Mrs Cooper [Isabella], Jas [James Sydney], Ethel [Isabel Ethel], Jno [John Knowles], Winnie [Alice Winifred], Jennie [Jennie Emily],  and Alice [?]. Alice Cooper is a bit of a puzzle. My mother's notes showed an Alice Cooper who died in infancy, and in the New Jersey Birth records I found an un-named "Female Cooper" born on June 5th 1892, to exactly matching parents (i.e. names, even mother's maiden name, year of birth, English) who doesn't show up in any census record from the US or the UK. Yet if this "Female Cooper" was Alice, why would they have named her Alice, given that Alice Winifred, who lived until 1988, was already born? That could possibly be because my Grandmother was always known as Winnie, and perhaps they wanted a girl to be known just as Alice (James Edward's mother's name). Be that as it may, the passenger list shows Alice as 1 year old - she would have been 9. However, the list doesn't show Gerald Edmond Andrew, born in 1900 in Newark, who would have been 1 year old. Gerald Edmond Andrew was shown in the 1900 US census as simply Andrew - could this have been an error of hearing/recording "Alice" instead of Andrew or Andy? Another anomaly in the passenger list is that this family's ages were listed in the column headed "Scotch", not the column headed "English". This could simply be that the guy writing the names on the list stayed in the same column by mistake after entering the previous family under Scotch.

The final anomaly is the ages themselves - though they're close, a bit too close to be coincidence, they are still not quite right:

James Edward - 40: he would have been 43 up to May 22nd 1901

Isabella (Mrs Cooper) - 43: she would have turned 41 on April 5th 1901

James Sydney - 14: he would have turned 15 on December 22nd 1900

Isabel Ethel - 11: she would have turned 14

John Knowles - 10: would have been 11

Winnie - 9: Alice Winifred would have turned 10 on May 3rd 1901

Jennie - 7: Jennie was born in June 1893, so would have still been 7

Alice/Andy - 1: Andy would have turned 1 in March 1901.

 

It appears that either the writer wasn't listening very well at the time, or was copying from another list a little carelessly. If we study the list above and consider two assumptions: first, that this information may have been recorded on the day of booking (as opposed to departure), and second, that date was before April 5th (Isabella's birthday), then we can see that James Edward's and Isabella's ages are in fact inverted. Then, if our writer looked at Isabel Ethel's age (14) but entered it in James Sydney's spot, we can see how things started to get mixed up - James Sydney has Isabel Ethel's age, while Isabel is given John Knowles's age. John Knowles' age gets made up and the last three are correct. On this basis, I have concluded that this document does in fact show us the return of James Edward and family to England in May 1901.

Jennie Emily Cooper
1893~1907

Having returned to England in May 1901, the Coopers appear to have settled fairly soon in the Salford area, because their last child, Egbert Arthur, was born in Salford in the October-December Quarter of 1902. I haven't been able to find a baptism record for Arthur, which would have narrowed down his birth date, and as yet I only have a Birth Registry listing. A little over four years later, having already suffered the loss of two children born in America and, I believe, one still-birth, tragedy again struck James Edward and Isabella, when 13 year old Jennie Emily became ill and died. She was buried at St John's, Pendlebury, on April 4th 1907. In the photo, Jennie Emily is holding a porcelain doll, which Isabella gave to my mother when she was a young girl, and which we still have in our possession.

Adding to James Edward and Isabella's woes at this time was their son Jack [John Knowles Cooper] who, according to my mother's stories, was never happy about the family returning to England and was determined to get back to America. The story was that Jack, in his teens, ran away from home and stowed away on a boat from Liverpool. Despite his parents contacting police and them searching the docks and the ships, Jack wasn't found, and successfully made his escape. But I've only recently discovered the timing of Jack's adventure. Jack left England on April 11th, arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 28th 1907. Jennie Emily was buried on April 4th, which means that Jack made his getaway less than a week later. The timing seems odd, making me wonder if there was a connection between these two events. Perhaps Jack felt that if they had stayed in Newark Jennie wouldn't have become ill, making him even more resentful of being in England, and if he reflected this sentiment around his already distraught parents, there may well have been a high level of friction and ill feeling within the Cooper household.



James Edward and Isabella Cooper were living at 48 Alresford Rd, Salford when Jennie Emily died, and this is where we find them four years later in the 1911 UK Census. Living with them on census day were all of their children except James Sydney, but including Jack, now 21, who had returned from America and was working as a "Railway Engine Stoker Ship Canal". The Manchester Ship Canal was built between 1887 and 1893 and allowed large ships to travel 40 miles inland from Liverpool to the Port of Manchester. The Manchester Ship Canal Railway connected the docks on the canal to Trafford Park, a massive industrial estate created in the 1890's, and also connected to various railway companies that had tracks near the canal. Isabel Ethel was 24 and a school teacher, Alice Winifred was a student teacher, Gerald Edmond Andrew and Egbert Arthur were at school, and also with them that night was Arthur Gerald Smith, Isabella's nephew, son of James and Catherine Smith, who was an electrician. James Sydney was now living at 75 Stapleton St, Pendleton, Manchester, and working as a shipping clerk for an Australian Cotton Merchant.



Isabella Cooper and my mother, 1924

The 1911 UK census was the last one to be released for public viewing because of privacy laws which say they cannot be released for a hundred years. The Coopers continued to live at 48 Alresford Road, Salford for the rest of their days, and my mother and my uncle used to visit them there regularly. Isabella (Smith) Cooper died there rather tragically in December 1943, aged 83, apparently from horrendous burns she suffered after falling into the fireplace at home. She was buried at St John's, Pendlebury on December 21st 1943. James Edward continued with wood carving for many years, doing lots of work in churches and making furniture at home. My uncle told us of how he would work on his bench, with everything so meticulously and habitually placed that he would reach for the tool he needed with left or right hand, without ever taking his eyes off the piece he was working on. Only a few pieces of his work survive that I'm aware of, and to date I haven't been able to find any of his work in churches, except possibly for some he did in St Oswald's in Grasmere, in the Lake District.


Isabella Cooper at
48 Alresford Rd, Salford, c1930's

From a humble, cotton town birth in Blackburn in 1857, through the hard times of the 1860's and the move to Southport, to New York, New York and Newark, New Jersey, and finally back to Salford, Manchester, James Edward, one of the Wandering Coopers, carved a life for himself and his family, and passed away on January 4th, 1947, just short of his 90th birthday. He died at 91 Eccles Old Rd, Salford. I believe at the time this was Hope Hospital, and the buildings have been renumbered since. James Edward Cooper was buried at St John's, Pendlebury, along with Isabella, his wife of 63 years, and his daughter Jennie Emily, on January 7th 1947.

The Work Of James Edward Cooper

The pictures below do not really do justice to the craftsmanship of James Edward, but unfortunately are nearly all that remains of his work that I have been able to photograph. These items are all in the care of my Aunty in Canada.



Jewel Box

"Hidden" catch



"Hidden" drawer



Candle Sticks



Document box



Table - the "twist" in the legs isn't actually a twist at all, but was carved out of a larger piece of timber.

My mother had often told me that her grandfather had carved the pulpit at St Oswald's Church in Grasmere, in the English Lake District. In 2004 we visited St Oswald's in the hope of viewing and photographing this pulpit. Unfortunately, while we found the church and the pulpit, we found another name associated with the carving, and no sign or record of James Edward Cooper. It's possible that I, or even my mother, had the wrong church. I shall resume that quest at the earliest opportunity.....

Before leaving England in 1972 my mother had the full set of these chisels that used to belong to James Edward. Sadly, the rest of the set were lost, but my friend managed to save this one for me.

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