Between
them, Ann Eliza Cooper and her sister Hannah Skaife gave birth to, and raised,
10 boys, the sons of Thomas Hamilton, between 1869 and 1896.
Ann
Eliza was born in 1850 and Hannah in 1860 in Cheetham, Manchester, to Thomas Cooper
and Ann Tomlinson. They both ended up in Glasgow - Ann Eliza arriving around
1870 and Hannah Skaife in the early 1880s. A third sister, Mary Ellen (known as
Polly) married George Taylor in Glasgow in 1886 and lived near her siblings in
Shawlands.
Thomas
Cooper was only 45 when he died at his place of work, the Union - he was a
workhouse overseer - in Ashton under Lyne in 1867. His father Francis, also an
overseer, had died 5 years earlier. But when he arrived in Manchester between 1823 and 1825
he was in the food business - on his youngest son’s baptismal record he is
described as a bread baker. He may have
broadened this into victualling - from 1851 to 1856 his son Thomas was a grocer & provision
dealer with a shop in central Manchester, possibly in Red Bank.
The
Coopers came from a number of villages located on the western rim of the Vale
of York. Thomas was born in 1823 in Ripley, an estate village to the north of
Harrogate, also the birthplace of his 3 older siblings. There are a number of
Cooper records for the Ripley / Hampsthwaite area around the end of the 18th
Century but most appear to refer to another family. For example, a Francis Cooper
was born in Ripley in 1812 to John Cooper, who was born in 1783 to Francis Cooper
and Catherine Swale.
Thomas's father, Francis, was listed as a farmer in Baines's Directory and Gazetteer of 1822
for
Ripley.
There is good evidence that he lived there: his known children were all born there; and he gave Ripley as his address
when, five years earlier, on 5 July 1817, he offered a reward of 5 guineas for information
leading to the conviction of the offender(s) who stole his horse from a field near
Thorpe Lodge, a mansion in the hamlet of Littlethorpe.
Seven years earlier in 1816, Francis had married Jane Skaife at Ripon Cathedral.
When he died in Manchester in 1862 his age on burial was 66, suggesting
a birth in 1796. In the 1861 census for North Deighton (near Wetherby - he was vsiting his brother),
he was a 65 year-old official in the Poor Law Union of Manchester. His birthplace was given as Winkslow, a
misprint for Winksley, a village to the west of Ripon, where he was baptised on 24 January 1796,
the son of a Francis Cooper.
Francis's father, known as
Francis Cooper Junior, was baptised in Littlethorpe in 1772, the firstborn child of Francis Cooper (Senior)
and Elizabeth Allanson. The Coopers were probably farmers - in 1798 Francis Jnr was tenant of an allotment
that was owned by a Mrs Allanson; she was probably a member of the Aislabie family of Studley Royal and
a local benefactor. Her husband was Charles Allanson, the MP for Ripon. A connection between these two and
the Elizabeth Allanson who married Francis Cooper would seem possible but is as yet unproven. The Allanson
name was evidently well respected by the Coopers - it was used as the middle name of at least 3 of their
children and is a useful means of tracking the family. Francis Cooper Snr died in Littlethorpe
at the age of 73, giving a birth date in 1744. Unfortunately, the records for this period in Ripon are
extremely sparse. The only known pair of father and son Francis Coopers came from the nearby parish of Little
Ouseburn, just 10 miles SE of Littlethorpe. The son, possibly our Francis Snr, was baptised there on 17 December 1744,
the father on 3 November 1715.
This last Francis Cooper married a Mary Gatenby in Little Ouseburn on 17 December 1740, where his four known
children were born between 1742 and 1749. His burial in Ripon Cathedral was recorded on 24 March 1786 but
there is no grave or inscription extant.
Jane Skaife was the daughter of Thomas Skaife of Braisty Woods, near Pateley Bridge.
Thomas owned land in Littlethorpe, though it is not known when he took up
residence there - the 1798 Land Tax Redemption book shows his son Allason as
the occupant. Jane was likely to have been living there when she married
Francis Cooper in 1816. Baines's 1823 Trades Directory shows Thomas at
Littlethorpe as a Gentleman. He died there in 1836. According
to the Scaife Sentinel website, the Braisty Woods Skaifes could have been
descended from Thomas Schayf de Ingerthorpe (six miles from Braisty), who
according to a deed made in 1293, gave two pence per year to the porter at the
gates of Fountains Abbey for the relief of the poor. In the 15th century,
Scaifes at Brimham (just north of Braisty) were described as "Keepers of
the Abbot's sheep", so Fountains Abbey was of key significance to the
history of the family. At the Dissolution, the Skaifes secured substantial
future gains by converting their tenancy at Braisty Woods to freehold. This supported
the family (which was headed by a succession of men called Thomas) for the next
three hundred years. A branch moved to Manchester in the mid-19th Century and
the Braisty property finally passed out of the Scaife family in 1869.
Francis probably inherited Thorpe Lodge either from his father (Francis), who died in 1810, or from his
grandfather (Francis), who died in 1817. In February 1823 he, "Mr Francis Cooper, of Ripley, the Owner",
advertised for sale or let a "substantial house" in Littlethorpe.
Presumably, he been renting out Thorpe Lodge while he continued living and farming in Ripley.
However, by 1823, for reasons unknown, he and his family were evidently preparing to pack up and
leave for Manchester.
He seems to have spent two or three years in Winksley before returning to Littlethorpe, his father's
birthplace.
At least 5 more brothers and sisters were born at Littlethorpe.
Francis Snr was himself a proprietor of a small plot of land, which in 1798 was occupied by his son.
He was registered in Littlethorpe as a voter - meaning he was a freeholder - in 1807.
How and when the Coopers came to move from Little Ouseburn to Littlethorpe is not known.
However, the Gatenby family had interests in property in Littlethorpe, specifically at Chapel Garths,
thereby providing a tenuous connection between the two parishes.
And there was a possible connection with the parish of Kirby Wiske, near Thirsk - it was where Mary Gatenby came from:
an entry in the Kirby Wiske marriage register has her marrying Francis Couper of Letteleston, presumably Little Ouseburn.
