My COOPER Family

How this all started

My mother knew very little about her family background, although she always said she had lots of cousins. Regretably she died before I could tell her just how many. Both parents had died when she was barely in her teens. Father on the Somme in 1916 and Mother a few years later after re-marrying and having a son who was later to die in Normandy in 1944. After Grandmother died one of my Mother's Aunts became her Guardian.

Like too many families it seems, this Aunt and other Aunts/Uncles didn't talk to her about the family. Classic case of 'children are to be seen but not heard'. So I had to piece together bits and pieces fom her and my memories of holidays in Ecchinswell during the late 30s and early 40s.

With only a rudimentary knowledge of genealogy and a copy of Family Tree Maker 3 that ran on my OS/2 system I set about inputting the little info I had.

I knew even less about my Welsh ancestry as my father had 'run away' from home as a 14 year old, joined the Army and didn't make contact with his family for over 30 years by which time it was almost too late.I did inherit a 'Family Bible' which gave me a start on the Lewis, Hopkins and Jenkins ancestors but the unfinished story of how I traced my Welsh roots to Rumney, Mon., Bonvilston in the Vale of Glamorgan and Carmarthen has no place here.

I joined several family history societies and mailing lists and posted my Cooper interest on the Hampshire Rootsweb list. Initially I had no response at all so I was really suprised to get an email from Tasmania in Jan 1997 which started off 'Dear Cousin'.

Tom Cooper was in fact second cousin to my Mother from a branch of the Cooper family quite unknown to my Mother. Tom sent me a whole load of data which took me back to Richard Cooper and we regularly passed findings, theories, speculations back and forth until Tom died after a fairly short illness in 2001

The IGI has been of very little help as Kingsclere is one of the parishes the LDS didn't get permisssion to film so it has been a case of digging into Hampshire Record Office PR fiche and the HGS 1851 census indexes. The 1881 Census CDs have proved very useful too and now the 1891 Census CDs for Hampshire are providing much detailed information for Kingsclere Families.

In the beginning

The Parish Registers of St. Mary, Kingsclere record the marriage of Richard Cooper and Judith Buxey on 14 May 1786 and the subsequent baptisms of nine children. Richard and Judith are my earliest proven Cooper ancestors. The Baptism Register has earlier Coopers but there are no records which link them to Richard so I have had to look elsewhere for possible links.

Whilst researching another Cooper line I had recorded a Richard Cooper baptised in Woodcot on 4 March 1717. Amongst other children this Richard had a son Richard baptised on 14 October 1758. This birth date would make Richard jnr. 28 years of age in 1786 (and just 14 months older than Judith), so definitely a possible candidate for Judith's husband.

So these early ancestors in my tree are unproven and I have no evidence that the Richard born in Woodcot and the Richard who married Judith are one and the same person. It seems quite feasable that some of the earlier Kingsclere Coopers migrated to Woodcot around 1700, then moved back again and I have found several people from Woodcot (including a Cooper) marrying in Kingsclere to give credence to this idea.

My somewhat speculative tree, at least prior to Richard and Judith is listed under Cooper in the family tree listings

Romany Connections

I haven't found a better alternative to Richard of Woodcot so haven't ruled out the possibility that the Coopers have Romany origins. The earliest baptisms (ca 1650) recorded in 'clere co-incided with the period Romany families were moving into the south of England and there is a long tradition of Hampshire Coopers especially in the New Forest area. Kingsclere Dell has traditionally been associated with gypsies so it would not be unusual to find a Romany Cooper family settling there. Was Richard born and baptised (possibly several times) elsewhere?

Buxey, Gammon and Gibbon with a bit of Smith for good measure.

The Buxey line was easier to trace,with a clear line back to Robertus Buxey marrying Eleanor Gammon in Kingsclere on 15 November 1757. The Gammon line goes back another generation to Guielemus Gammon and Elenora Gibbons who married in Kingsclere on 15 July 1672. None of these surnames seem to have survived to the present day. Links to these families are to be found in the alphabetical listings

Judith's parents were Robert Buxey and Judith Smith. The Smiths of Kingsclere are proving a hard nut to crack but I am now fairly sure I have identifed Judith Smith's parents as John Smith & Elizabeth Churchman, but I'll not be surprised if the Fosters get involved as early registers record baptisms and marriages of 'Fosters aka Smith'.

Smith and Foster are of course common Romany names

Richard and Judy Cooper

Richard and Judy (as she is recorded in the registers) lived in Kingsclere Dell and all nine children are recorded as born there (or more correctly that their parents resided there), Elizabeth ca 1867, John ca 1788, Sarah ca 1789, Robert ca 1793, Joannah ca 1794, Ann ca 1796, James ca 1798, William ca 1800 and another James ca 1802.

My 3xgreat grandmother Sarah was baptised on 5 December 1789. She had two children before she married John Foster, a widower, on 1 August 1816 when she would have been 26 years of age. The first of these children was recorded in the register on 15 April 1812 as 'James base born son of Sarah Cooper, Dell' and the second was recorded on 26 June 1814 as 'Thomas son of Sarah Coper Dell spinster'.

The Foster Connection

Which John Foster did she marry and was he the father of her children? The baptism register shows that a John and Sarah Foster were living at Old Farm and baptising children from 1799-1810. Then follows a gap of seven years before a John and Sarah Foster, also living at Old Farm, are baptising children from 1817-1822. Yet another John and Sarah Foster were having children at Tuckers Hilll from 1814-1824.

I am certain the Tuckers Hill family results from the marriage of a John Foster to Sarah Cock at St. Mary, Kingsclere on 25 July 1811. The registers of this time do not give any details other than bride and groom so cannot identify who their fathers were or even how old the grooms were, details which would help me decide which John is which with more certainty. The baptism of a son, John, on 26 February 1814 is likely to be the first child of John Foster and Sarah Cock as residence of parents is given as Tuckers Hill. (Sarah Cooper had the second of her children in 1814)

So I believe that the John Foster who married Sarah Cooper is the one having children between 1799 and 1810. The last of these was Hannah Foster baptised on 25 Jun 1810. Did this first wife die in child birth having Hannah? For a long time the problem was that I could not find a burial for a Sarah Foster around 1810, but I could not find a marriage about 1799 either.

Recent research has found a marriage of John Foster of Kingsclere to Sarah King of Thatcham at St. Mary, Thatcham on 20 June 1793.

This fits in with the birth of Sarah, John & Sarah (King)'s first child, about 1794, she was probably baptised at Thatcham as there is no record of her baptism in Kingsclere although all the following children were baptised at St. Mary.

Sarah Foster was buried at Thatcham on 15 March 1816, her parents and two brothers are also buried at St. Mary, Thatcham.

So it looks as though John formed a relationship with Sarah Cooper before his first wife died, with Thomas born April 1812 and James in June 1814. John married Sarah Cooper only a few months after his first wife died and their third child Lavinia was baptised on 30 May 1817 followed by George, Louisa and Kezia.

The recent discovery of two wills at Canterbury of John Foster senior and John Foster junior has enabled me to confirm the parentage of Thomas and James.

The will of John snr. confirms it was his elder son John who inherited Old Farm and his younger son Jesse who inherited Waits Farm.

This will also mentions two daughters Sarah (wife of Peter Parsons) and Ann King. It would have been helpful if Ann's husband had been named as well but it seems quite possible he was the John King born in Newbury who married an Anne Foster at Thatcham on 23 Feb 1797.

An unresolved question is the relationship, if any, of John and Ann King to John's first wife Sarah

John Foster jnr. states in his will:-

"....two third parts thereof unto and between the eight children I had by my late wife Sarah viz. Sarah, Deborah, John, Ann, Martha, Thomas, Hannah and Mary share and share alike and the remaining one third part thereof unto and between the five children I have had by my present wife viz. James, Thomas, Lavinia, George and Louisa"

I have omitted some of the detail about husbands of the older girls in this quote but the family he details matches the data from baptism registers with the exception of the first child Sarah who may have been baptised at Thatcham as mentioned earlier.

John died at Old Farm in April 1821 so never saw the last of his children, Kezia, who was born on 9 July 1821 at Old Farm. Sarah as a widow married Benjamin Bozley in 1827 and had two more children before her death at Summershurst Green in August 1844. Summershurst was another of the farms held by the Foster family

Cooper or Foster?

So why was my Mother's maiden name Cooper when the foregoing suggests it should have been Foster?

It goes back to James, the first of those baseborn children. James married a Maria Hawkins at Stratfield Mortimer on 10 April 1837. The entry in parish register for the baptism of their first son Francis has father as James Foster but his birth certificate has Father as James Foster otherwise Cooper which strictly speaking is correct given that James was base born.

James seems to be confused as to which surname he wants to be known by. He is recorded as Foster in the 1851, 1861 and 1881 Census but Cooper in 1871 and 1891. He is living near Old Farm with wife Maria in each census up to 1881 so I don't doubt it is the same couple. In 1891 he is a widower age 79, living near Job and Emily Foster (see below) at Goose Hill.

Both the elder son, Francis, and their second son James (my great grandfather) seem to have had no doubt about being Cooper and all subsequent records for their marriages and baptisms of their children record them as Cooper.

Francis Cooper married Ann Froud at the Parish Church, Englefield on 14 May 1864 and their six children were born in the Reading area. All their children subsequently moved away from the area and ended up as far afield as Canada and Tasmania

The Fisher connection

Seth Fisher was a Hawker who is mentioned in 'Kingsclere Woodlands Story' as being very successful. He is recorded age 65 'living on own means' in 1891. He married Mary Ann Hunt at St.Paul, Ashford Hill on 26 April 1846, this was the first marriage in the newly created parish of Woodlands so is entry no. 1 in the register.

They had eleven children, the eldest being Esther baptised 19 July 1846. Seth married again after Mary Ann died in 1875 and is recorded at Old Farm Lane in 1881 with a wife Eliza but I have yet to discover who she was or where they married. The link with the Foster family was to be continued with the marriage of Esther's younger sister Emily to Job Foster on 11th October 1873

Back to the Coopers

Thomas Cooper married Esther Fisher at St. Paul on 18 March 1865. They are recorded as living at Holdup Hill Farm in 1881 with Thomas being a sawyer. They were to have twelve children of whom I can find baptisms for only the first five at St. Paul or St. Peter, Headly.

A photograph in 'Kingsclere Woodlands Story' includes, I believe, both Thomas and Esther in the group of local Methodists protesting against a distraint sale at Scarletts Farm, so it seems likely Thomas and Esther were members and had the rest of their children baptised at one of the Methodist Chapels in the area.

Some time after 1891 Thomas, Esther and family moved to Ecchinswell. They both died in 'Grandma's Cottage' in Mill Lane in 1921, Thomas on 29 Jan and Esther on 24 February and are buried in St. Lawrence churchyard in a family plot with several children who had stayed in Ecchinswell and worked for the Kingsmill family. Two of their 12 children, Francis (Frank) who was my grandfather and younger brother John were killed in WW1.

Personal Memories

I have happy memories of Mill Lane, Ecchinswell as we used to go there to stay with our 'Nan' every summer holiday and one year in the early 40s we stayed all winter and attended the village school just up the lane. At the other end of Mill Lane from the school was situated the blacksmiths shop and I spent many hours there watching all that went on and was occasionally allowed to pump the forge bellows.

We often walked to Kingsclere to visit the doctor or go shopping. My Mother had worked for Doctor Pellows of Kingsclere as nanny to his children before she married so knew the village well.

Nan was my Great Aunt Sally (Sarah Ann Cooper), she had become guardian to my Mother after grandmother Emma Rose (Barker) died in 1922. Nan lived in the middle cottage of the row of three cottages opposite the Mill. She had moved across the lane from 'Grandma's Cottage' when she married 'Old Sam' about 1923 when she was in her 50s and Sam was 80. Samuel Hunt was a shepherd who worked on Watership Down.

At the ripe old age of two years I managed to offend Sam by knocking the head off his prize seed onion and was never forgiven. The cottage had a huge garden and Nan was almost self sufficient, growing all her vegetables and keeping pigs and chickens right into her seventies.

She was a parish councillor for some years and a tireless worker for the church she loved. The regular walk up the drive to Sidmonton Church is no longer possible, but we would have done this every Sunday as the morning and evening services alternated between Ecchinswell and Sidmonton. Nan always attended both services and we were not allowed to miss whatever the weather!

Nan died at my parents home in Bournemouth in 1950 and was buried in St. Lawrence churchyard, in a large family plot with her parents, two brothers and a sister-in-law.

The forge has long gone, so has Stratton's General Stores near the school where we could buy bread hot from the wood-fired oven, it always had the corner nibbled away by the time I got indoors! The Methodist Chapel is now a private house and there is no longer a Post Office and Stores at that (northern) end of the village.

The laundry at Rats Cottages has been partially demolished. Another Great Aunt ran this for the Kingsmill family. Both my Mother's sisters worked here as Aunt Alice (Alice Elizabeth Smith) was their guardian, slave labour they called it in later years. A regular job for me when we visited was pumping water from the well up into the great tank in the roof.

In my imagination I can still feel the heat of the drying room or the coke stove where all the different shaped irons were heated and visualise the wooden sinks and the great copper were things were boiled or starched.

No washing machines or spin dryers in those days, rinsing was done in cold water and everything got passed through the wooden rollers of the mangle, not pleasant tasks in cold weather.

Those were the days when 'gentlemen' changed clothes several times a day depending on their activities and nothing was ever worn twice. All bed and table linen was starched as were the wing collars and shirts that the men wore to dinner, even the caps and pinafores worn by the servants got starched. There was much need for the fancy irons to smooth the linen, shape the collars and crimp the caps of the servants.

My memories of Ecchinswell and Kingsclere are undimmed although I have not stayed there for more that a few hours at a time since 1950. The influence of those holiday visits is such that I feel more country bred than townie.

Since starting to research my backgound I have come to realise that I have links of one kind or another to many of the families of Kingsclere and this is reflected in the family trees I have included on this website. I still have much to do and hope to find links to families living in the area today