James Cooper was born in 1813 in Pilkington, Lancashire, an ancient township near Manchester, abolished in 1894. I haven't been able to establish his parents' identities as yet, but my favorite find so far is the baptism of a James Cooper on May 20th 1813, son of Betty Cooper, Spinster, of Glodwick. Glodwick is an area south east of Oldham, outside Manchester, and part of the Parish Of Prestwich-Cum-Oldham, which encompasses the area where Pilkington used to be. In some of the census reports James is recorded as born in Pilkington, but in others Prestwich is recorded. The first strong record of James Cooper that I have found is the record of his marriage to Alice Turnbull on December 8th 1835, then living in Whitefield when Alice would have only been 17 years old.
According to the 1841 Census, their first child, John, was 5 years old by census day, June 7th 1841, which means he was born before June 7th 1836 - my arithmetic suggests that young Alice may have been a little bit of a naughty 17 year old! And James may have been a bit of a cradle-snatcher!
Alice's parents were William and Isabella Turnbull. William came from Garstang, halfway between Lancaster and Preston, and Isabella was born in Blackburn. They were married in Blackburn on October 8th, 1815, and were still living in Blackburn in 1818 when Alice was born. Somewhere in the mid 1820's they moved to the Manchester area, which is presumably how James and Alice came to meet. The Turnbulls had eleven children, and two of these that I know of died in infancy.
According to the 1841 Census, their first child, John, was 5 years old by census day, June 7th 1841, which means he was born before June 7th 1836 - my arithmetic suggests that young Alice may have been a little bit of a naughty 17 year old! And James may have been a bit of a cradle-snatcher!
Alice's parents were William and Isabella Turnbull. William came from Garstang, halfway between Lancaster and Preston, and Isabella was born in Blackburn. They were married in Blackburn on October 8th, 1815, and were still living in Blackburn in 1818 when Alice was born. Somewhere in the mid 1820's they moved to the Manchester area, which is presumably how James and Alice came to meet. The Turnbulls had eleven children, and two of these that I know of died in infancy.
In the 1841 Census James and Alice were living in Bury New Road, Pilkington, in the parish of Prestwich-Cum-Oldham with children John, 5, Jane, 3 and Edward, 1. James' occupation was listed as "Block Cutter". Block cutter has a few definitions, the most likely being either a person who cuts wooden blocks for hat making, or a person who cuts designs into wooden blocks for printing fabric. I suspect the latter, as a few lines down on the same census report we find Alice's parents, William and Isabella Turnbull, and William is listed as a Calico Printer. Alice's brother John, age 24, is shown as a block cutter also, and it is likely that they were all working in the same mill.
Like many families in the 1800's, the Coopers had to live with tragedy, as Edward Cooper died in 1842, aged 2. By the 1851 Census, James and Alice were living in Stand Lane, Pilkington. Stand Lane still exists today, but is listed as Manchester, and it runs off Pilkington Road. They had five children: John, 14, Jane, 12, Thomas, 8, Allan, 2, and Mary Alice, 1 month. James was recorded as a Draper. A draper was (still is) a dealer in fabrics and sewing goods. I'm not sure if this was his own business or if he was an employee, as next door there lived another draper. Either way it would seem that he was doing fairly well, as the three older children are listed as Scholars. Education didn't become compulsory until 1870, and most people couldn't afford to send their kids to school - most of them worked in the mills or coal mines, even as young as 6 years of age!
Like many families in the 1800's, the Coopers had to live with tragedy, as Edward Cooper died in 1842, aged 2. By the 1851 Census, James and Alice were living in Stand Lane, Pilkington. Stand Lane still exists today, but is listed as Manchester, and it runs off Pilkington Road. They had five children: John, 14, Jane, 12, Thomas, 8, Allan, 2, and Mary Alice, 1 month. James was recorded as a Draper. A draper was (still is) a dealer in fabrics and sewing goods. I'm not sure if this was his own business or if he was an employee, as next door there lived another draper. Either way it would seem that he was doing fairly well, as the three older children are listed as Scholars. Education didn't become compulsory until 1870, and most people couldn't afford to send their kids to school - most of them worked in the mills or coal mines, even as young as 6 years of age!
It would seem that the Coopers and the Turnbulls were a fairly close bunch: the Coopers appear to have moved to Blackburn in about 1854 - their daughter Isabella was born in Pilkington in 1853, while in 1855 William was born in Blackburn, as was James Edward, my Great Grandfather, on May 23rd, 1857, and in the 1861 Census we find the Turnbulls are also in Blackburn, just a two minute walk from the Coopers. William was still working at 69 years of age, still as a Calico Printer, and son John still a Block Cutter. James Cooper, however, had taken a different direction, and was now employed as a Book Keeper in a Fire Brick works. In this Census the Coopers now have nine children with seven still living at home: Jane, now 22, Allan, 12, Mary Alice, 10, Isabella, 8, William, 6, James Edward, 4 and Francis Aspinall, 1. All but Jane and Francis Aspinall are at school. By now John was probably away studying to be a priest, and tragedy had struck again: Thomas Cooper died in July 1860, and was buried at All Saints, Stand (Bury) on August 2nd, just 17 years of age.
Houses were classed by the number of rooms, including the kitchen, but not counting the scullery, entry, bathroom (where there was one), landing, lobby or closet. Thus in a "six room" house we would expect to find a kitchen, living room, and four bedrooms. In 1861 the Coopers were living at 3 Higher Barn Street, a five-room house, with nine people.
During the 1860's the Industrial Revolution was far from over, but things changed somewhat for many people. Another event was taking place which had a dramatic impact on many Lancastrians - the American Civil War. Much of Lancashire's cotton supply came from the American Southern States, and with the Civil War the supply all but dried up, forcing the slow down and even closure of some mills. Through Ancestry.com I made contact with another member, T.L.Cragg, who is my third cousin. He sent me a transcript of a letter from his Great Uncle Frank ( Frank Seymour Cragg ) who was the son of James Cooper's daughter, Isabella. The letter was written to Frank's nephew, Richard Edward Cragg, my second cousin once removed:
".......The reason why my father and also my mother's [Isabella Cooper, b 1852] family came to Southport in the sixties from northeast Lancashire was the privation and almost famine caused in cotton Lancashire by the Civil War in the States which cut off supplies of cotton for industry...." By the 1871 Census James Cooper and his family had moved to 53 William St, North Meols, in an area which is now part of Southport.
".......The reason why my father and also my mother's [Isabella Cooper, b 1852] family came to Southport in the sixties from northeast Lancashire was the privation and almost famine caused in cotton Lancashire by the Civil War in the States which cut off supplies of cotton for industry...." By the 1871 Census James Cooper and his family had moved to 53 William St, North Meols, in an area which is now part of Southport.
The fact that Jane Reeve is listed as 'Step Daughter' led me to wonder if perhaps Alice had had an affair around 1845 - after all, there was a bigger than normal gap between the births of Thomas, 1842, and Allan, 1849 compared to roughly two years between nearly all the other children. But what about the fact that Alice already had a daughter Jane, born in 1838? Could it have been that Alice had a baby to another man, and handed her to him, and then he called her Jane? It seemed a bit of a stretch of the imagination, even for me. Eventually I found a marriage record of Jane Cooper to a Frederick Reeve, stationer, from William St North Meols, on October 24th 1866, at St Paul's in Southport. Jane's father is recorded as James Cooper, Agent (which I think is something to do with book-keeping/accounting), Jane was 28 (thus born in 1838) and Frederick was 47 and a widower. I subsequently found a probate calendar entry for Frederick Reeve, of Railway Terrace, Southport, who died on December 10th, 1866, probate granted to Jane Reeve, widow the relict, of the same address. This all points to the Jane Reeve in the 1871 census indeed being James Cooper's daughter Jane.
A couple of questions arise out of these findings however: why was Jane Reeve recorded as James's Step Daughter, and why was she shown as being 26 years old instead of 32? Part of the answer may lie in the preceeding summary sheet, in which there is an Eliza Read listed as Step Daughter on the same line of that sheet as Jane Reeve on the Cooper sheet. These census reports are not the forms filled in by the householders but are a summary sheet of the information from each householder. The enumerators would go door to door collecting the householders' forms and then copy the information onto their summaries. It's at this stage, I believe, that some of the errors we find from time to time occur. The enumerator possibly wrote "Jane Reeve", and "W" for Widow, then looked at the wrong form to get "Step Daughter", and wrote that in by mistake. As for the age difference, Eliza Read from the previous summary page was 8 years old, and her mother (presumably), Susan Palmer was shown as 33 years old, the age Jane Cooper Reeve should have been recorded as, if people were giving their "age next birthday" or rounding to the nearest whole year. I suspect that Susan Palmer may have been 26, and our enumerator got that mixed up also.
By 1881 the Cooper family was rather different. Still in North Meols, Alice died in December 1880 and most of the children had grown up and left home. James was now 69 and had returned to the Drapery business. William was still at home and still hair-dressing and Thomas Soanes was a joiner. It would seem the draper business was something of a family enterprise, as Mary Alice was a dress maker, as was Harriet Emily, and another occupant on census night was widow Hannah Arkwright, dress maker, age 62, and listed as "visitor". Oldest son John was now married and living in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, as a "Clergyman Without Cure [Care] Of Souls". Isabella had been married for three years to Richard Cragg, a bricklayer from Forton near Galgate, whose family had moved to Southport in the 1860's, and had twin boys, Richard Edward and Thomas James, aged 2. James Edward does not appear to be in the 1881 England Census at all, which I believe is because he had travelled to America in 1880, and most likely was still there. Francis Aspinall was now 21 years old and a joiner, and was living (or at least staying) at the home of John Turnbull, his maternal uncle, in Blackburn.
In 1888, after raising and educating twelve children, being married for 45 years and widowed for 8 years, James Cooper, my Great Great Grandfather, passed away at the age of 75. I haven't been able to establish where he was buried yet, but I imagine it would have been somewhere in Southport. According to the Probate Calendar his effects were £149/16/6 - not a princely sum, but according to census-helper.co.uk, in the mid to late 1800's a common labourer would earn around 3s 9d per week (see note below on Pounds, Shillings and Pence), and a good tradesman, such as a bricklayer, could expect to earn roughly twice that, or 7s 6d. Extrapolate what this represents in relation to James Cooper's effects, and it equates to something like 8 years of a bricky's wage.
James appears to have lived his whole life in Lancashire, working hard like most people to raise and feed his large family. From Pilkington to Blackburn, and then to Southport, he probably led a pretty ordinary life. His children, however, were a different kettle of fish.......
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Pounds, Shillings, Pence (£-s-d): £1=20s, 1s=12d. The £ sign is actually the letter 'L', and this currency was once common throughout Europe. The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denarii. The pound was decimalised in 1971, deleting the shilling, so that a pound became 100p. You can read all about it here, if you really want to know :)
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