BENTLEY and RELATED FAMILIES
Chapter 8: The COOPER Family of Halesowen
Cooper is an occupational name relating to the making and repairing of wooden vessels such as barrels, tubs, buckets, casks, and vats. It is derived from the Middle English couper or cowper, which in turn apparently originated from Middle Low German kuper, a derivative of kup tub, a container. The prevalence of the surname, its cognates, and equivalents across the Continent bears witness to the fact that this was one of the chief specialist trades in the Middle Ages throughout Europe. In 1851 it was the 29th most common surname in the United Kingdom, in 1996 it was the 32nd most common.
The earliest reference to the name occurs in Surrey for 1176 where mention is made of a "Robert le Coupere". The considerable variations in spelling are very early evident. In 1181 there is a "Selide le Copere" (Norwich); in 1296 we learn of a "Geoffrey Cowper" in York. In London (1378) a man called "Walter" is registered under both "Cuppere" and (later) as "Couper" while yet again in York, we find "John Copper" (1424). It is now one of the commonest names in England.
Our Coppers are first known in the large parish of Halesowen. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the parish comprised the market town of Hales Owen, in the Halesowen division of the hundred of Brimstree, a detached portion of the county of Shropshire, and the chapelry of Cradley, and the hamlets of Luttley and Warley-Wigorn, in the lower division of the hundred of Halfshire, Worcestershire. In 1831 it contained 10,946 inhabitants, of which 8817 were in that part of the parish which was in Shropshire. 1759 were in the town of Hales Owen (as it was known at that time).
Fredrick William Hackwood writing in Extracts from Oldbury & Round About in 1915 described the complexity of the Worcestershire/Shropshire boundary thus -
‘To complicate matters still more, the mother Parish of Halesowen, was not always included, for its wider Government and superior civic administration, within the County of Worcester, to which it geographically belongs, but formed for several centuries a detached and outlying portion of Salop (Shropshire). Nor was the whole of Halesowen included in Salop. It is a large Parish of several townships, one of which was already in Worcestershire, as is testified by its name Warley Wigorn, and it did not consist of one piece, it was cut up into small patches and scattered among the townships of Oldbury, Langley and Warley, Salop which were in Shropshire, so that on small scale ordnance maps it was scarcely possible to distinguish the boundaries of the two counties.
These anomalies, dislocations and confusing boundary lines, after existing for centuries, were rectified by statute a few years after the passing of the Great Reform Bill of 1831, and when at last this detached piece of Shropshire was eventually taken into Worcestershire, it formed a tongue of Wigorian territory which thrust itself like a peninsular of foreign soil into Staffordshire - an intrusion, which the precessions said ought to be rectified by merging into that county.’
Benjamin Cooper was born about 1770. In 1816 he was a labourer living at Ridgacre, east of Halesowen village, with his wife Amelia. Benjamin and Amelia had only one known child, Frederick, who was baptised in Halesowen Parish Church on 15 September 1816. By 1841 Benjamin had raised himself to the trade of pig dealer. He must have become a man of some means, for he managed to afford an education for his son.
No doubt as a result of his father’s influence and occupation, Frederick became a butcher. A trade he followed throughout his life. He moved a couple of miles north and was living in Smethwick, which was then a rural hamlet, when he married Sarah Sadler in Smethwick Chapel in the autumn of 1841. Sarah too was born in Warley Wigorn. She was two years Frederick’s junior. The couple moved back to Warley Wigorn/Yardley Green, which was still a small village. Sarah had seven children, before dying in May 1854, probably whilst giving birth to her daughter Elizabeth. Sarah was duly buried at Holy Trinity, Langley. Her daughter was not to be baptised for another three years. By that time Frederick had married Caroline. Elizabeth was baptised at the same time as Frederick and Caroline’s first child, Thomas.
Five children, all boys, were born to Frederick and Caroline. Frederick died during March 1863 and, like his first wife, was buried Holy Trinity, Langley. Caroline then married Michael or Richard Bedford and had at least four more children by him. Bedford was a labourer in the local ironworks.
Of Frederick’s first seven children, the oldest, Benjamin followed in his father’s footsteps and became a butcher. He had a shop near the church, at 30 Trinity Street, in Langley throughout the 1870’s and 1880’s, until his death in about 1890. In 1891 his widow, Mary nee Durn, was living at 8 Hobicus Lane with her eight children. The two oldest girls were working in a nearby factory, possibly in the engineering works associated with Langley Forge or at Oldbury Chemical works, and their two oldest brothers were both brewery labourers, probably working at the large Crosswells Brewery or smaller Ardengrove Brewery.
Benjamin’s brother, William, worked first as a puddler (one who stirred molten iron) then a general ironworker. He was probably employed at the iron foundry on Clay Lane in the first instance, then later at Langley Forge. During this latter period he was living with his wife, Emma Yardley, on George Lane, Warley Salop, about 1mile south of Langley. William and Emma are not known to have had any children. William’s brother, John, also worked as a puddler. After leaving his stepfather’s home in Hobicus Lane in Langley before 1881, he moved, with his half-brother Thomas to Wyley Street. By 1891 both young men were living at 16 Broad Street. Thomas had started his working life as a labourer in the ironworks, but soon became a bricklayer. In 1881 he had an apprentice, Enoch Yardley, living-in.
Three of Frederick’s children were to become bricklayers at some stage. In 1871 George was living with James (chapter 9) at Park Buildings in Langley, both were bricklayers. Ten years later their half-brother Thomas was a bricklayer, by which time George was a carpenter lodging with fellow carpenter George Gibbs and his family at Park Lane in Harbourne.
Edwin/Edward became the forth of Frederick’s sons to work in the local iron industry. He was an ironworks labourer from before 1871 until at least 1881. At the former date Edwin/Edward’s younger brother, Frederick, was a general labourer. Ten years later however he appears to have been working as a spectacle maker, whilst boarding with Frederick Ashford, an engraver, and his family in Harbourne.
Whilst having a son named John still living as a result of his first marriage to Sarah, Frederick had the last child of his second marriage to Caroline, baptised as John. This child appears to have died young, as does his brother Charles. Nothing is known of the fate of sisters Sarah and Elizabeth.
Benjamin COOPER b.c1770 d.>1841m.Amelia -
….Frederick COOPER b.1816 d.1863 m.#1 Sarah SADLER m.#2 Caroline -
……..#1 Benjamin COOPER b.1842 d.c1889 m.Mary DURN
…………Sarah COOPER b.c1868 d.>1891
…………Mary COOPER b.c1869 d.>1891
…………Annie COOPER b.c1871 d.>1881
…………William COOPER b.c1872 d.>1891
…………Benjamin COOPER b.c1874 d.>1891
…………Eliza COOPER b.c1879
…………George COOPER b.c1880
…………Ethel COOPER b.c1887
…………Ellen COOPER b.c1889
……..#1 William COOPER b.c1846 d.>1881 m.Emma YARDLEY
……..#1 Sarah COOPER b.c1847
……..#1 George COOPER b.c1848
……..#1 James COOPER b.c1850 d.1924 (chapter 9)
……..#1 John COOPER b.c1852 d.>1891
……..#1 Elizabeth COOPER b.c1854
……..#2 Thomas COOPER b.c1857 d.>1891 m.Emma -
…………Clara COOPER b.c1878
…………Thomas COOPER b.c1880
……..#2 Edwin\Edward COOPER b.c1859
……..#2 Charles COOPER b.1861 d.<1871
……..#2 Frederick COOPER b.c1863 d.>1881
……..#2 John COOPER b.1864 d.<1871
