Searcing for Cooper/Attenborough

[maxi]

Hello from Australia

I have only just discovered this site!! Thankyou it's wonderful

I have been searching for my x3 grandfather Charles Cooper who emigrated to Australia in 1855 on board the Schomberg, which was shipwrecked off the famous Victorian shipwreck coast. (so no passenger records exist).

His parents were William Cooper and Mary Attenborough, and he was born at Boston Lincs in c1812.

Family story tells us that Charles came from a family who owned woollen mills in Boston, (I have no idea) after his first wife died (again no idea!) he went mad so his family shipped him off for a new start!!!!

He married here in Australia in 1869 and went on to have more children.

I guess there are alot of questions here for us, and I would appreciate anyone who has even heard of Cooper/Attenborough, or even woollen mills,
this is my Major brick wall

Thank you for reading my brick wall, and I have enjoyed reading all the posts and just looking around

Maxi

[Wirral]

Hi Maxi

Welcome to the forum. I can't find any Coopers in Boston at that time who were mill owners, but there is one who could be a relative - a tailor & woollen draper. It is possible that the story you have had passed down of the family owning woollen mills has become distorted over the past 150 years, but it may still have a kernel of truth.
From the 1851 census: HO107/2099 folio 125 page 10, Market Place, Boston, Lincolnshire
Morris Cooper head, Widr, 41, Tailor employing 15 men, Norfolk Swaffham
Sarah Cooper dau 11 scholar, Lincs Boston
Mary Cooper dau 8 scholar, Lincs Boston
Ann Cooper sister M 51 visitor, Lincs Boston
Rebecca Rolfe serv U 31 House servant, Lincs Boston
Sarah Kirkham serv U 15 House servant, Lincs Boston

From the 1851 census: HO107/2099 folio 125 page 10, Market Place, Boston, Lincolnshire
Morris Cooper head, Widr, 41, Tailor employing 15 men, Norfolk Swaffham
Sarah Cooper dau 11 scholar, Lincs Boston
Mary Cooper dau 8 scholar, Lincs Boston
Ann Cooper sister M 51 visitor, Lincs Boston
Rebecca Rolfe serv U 31 House servant, Lincs Boston
Sarah Kirkham serv U 15 House servant, Lincs Boston

Can I ask where you got the information on the parents of Charles Cooper & his date & place of birth? Is it from your own family records, eg letters, documents, or from the IGI? The latter lists birth & marriage "information" on the family, but there are no references given at all. If they are incorrect, then they could lead you off on the wrong track - & we've all been there before in our own researches.

[Wirral]

Sorry, I've been hit by the dreaded "text repeating bug" that plagues this site. Trying to correct it just makes it worse.

[Geoff Everitt]

The same family in 1841

613-1/30
Market Place, Boston
Morriss COOPER 30 Tailor, NOT Lincs
Sarah 25
Sarah 2
Ann 6m
Hannah PIMPLETON? 20 FemServ
Sarah CARTER? 15 FemServ
Others born Lincs

No marriage for Morris COOPER occurs in the Lincs FHS marriage transcriptions 1837-50, the IGI or FreeBMD.

He appears on the 1881 census, 71 Tailor born Swaffham Norfolk ... but we are being sidetracked perhaps ....

[Geoff Everitt]

Someone on the IGI has guessed at a COOPER/ATTENBOROUGH marriage in Boston 1817. Perhaps if Pam Downes sees this thread she will be able to find a real marriage.

[maxi]

Hello Geoff,

Thank you for reading my message: information!! where to start, I first started looking for this fella as a favour for my paternal grandmother, charles was her grandfather....

Charles was listed as a gentleman/gardener here in our australian records, and he wrote for a well known newspaper of the day called The Argus.

There was also a story of a gentleman arriving from England and trying to pursuade Charles to return home, "that there is more than enough money, that you will never spend it all".....Charles sent this gentleman packing!!!

Charles was appently married in England, with two children all were killed when the coach that they were passengers in overturned killing them all. Greif stricken the family shipped him here to Australia.

Details according to marriage cert:

Marriage in state of Victoria Australia
3 May 1869 Charles Cooper to Elizabeth Webb
Charles listed as a Widower date of former wife death: December 1855
with 2 children listed as dead also
Birthplace: Boston Lincolnshire England
Age : 51 (dob:C1818)
Parents: William Cooper and Mary Attenborough
Fathers Rank or Profession: Farmer !!

Charles death recorded in the State of Victoria, Australia
December 29, 1896
Camperdown, Victoria
Occupation: Gardener
Age: 78 years (dob: c1818)
Parents: William Cooper and Mary Attenborough Farmers
Born : Boston England
How long in Austrlian Colonies: 28 years (arriv: c1868) (disputing the claim of being wrecked on the Schomberg, which went down in 1855 off moonlight head, Victoria Aust)
leaving 6 adult children behind:

I once also had a distant cousin, who had had the wonderful trip to England and she went to the church records, and found that Charles had two siblings one called Ebenezer and one called Suzanna, and that was all that she would share with me!!! So I guess there is a whole lot more to that story..

Anyway, that is really all I know. Thank you again for helping me, and reading my little message....

regards from a very very hot australia
Maxi

[Geoff Everitt]

Hmmm, he's a problem isn't he ... almost as bad as trying to edit a post on this board!

I can't see any sign of him on the 1851 census.

Have you seen the stuff on www.familysearch.org ? Just put Charles Cooper 1818 into the search boxes and you will find him ... is it true that his 2nd wife was born Elizabeth Lucy HOWARTH?

You must be cautious with the contents in that file; it assumes he was born 1818 (probably from the same source as you do), it assumes his parents married the year before he was born (who knows if he was the first child?). It assumes his father was 25 and mother 21 when they married etc etc.

I'll do some more looking.

[maxi]

Hi Geoff,

Sorry to take longer anwering this question: yes Charles did marry Elizabeth Lucy Webb (nee Howarth). The submitter to the IGI is my Aunt, who is a member of the Mormon Church. The information that is entered here on this web site was gained from me via a tricky way!!!! my uncle enquired about another branch of the family and on the tree that I gave him were the Coopers, and bingo, that entry is put on the IGI. Note that a film has not been noted as the source.

Elizabeth Lucy Howarth is the daughter of two convicts who were shipped to Tasmania in the early stages of deportation, and she was married at 13 to a Mr Webb who was a gentleman in his 50's at their time of marriage. Elizabeth was left a widow, and then went onto marry Charles Cooper..... and so the story goes!!!!

must go, getting my eldest son ready to start his first day of school in 18 hours time....nope I don't want him to go, however, he is more than ready, even if I am not!!!!!

Cheers
Maxi

[ChristineR]

I have been searching for my x3 grandfather Charles Cooper who emigrated to Australia in 1855 on board the Schomberg, which was shipwrecked off the famous Victorian shipwreck coast. (so no passenger records exist).
....
Maxi

http://www.access.prov.vic.gov.au/pu...OVguide023.jsp

Hello Maxi,

you will be pleased to know that the passenger list has survived - and online - in the PROV database. There is a COOPER family on board. The ship did not go down right away and there was time to ferry off passengers and I suppose the paperwork too.

If the link does not work, just go to the Public Record Office of Victoria web page, and to the online databases, and scroll down to the "Unassisted" passengers database - they paid their own way.

Christine
Australia

[cdsearch]

Hello.

Email on its way to you with extracts from NBI2.

Mike.