Chapter 5: WILLIAM OF SLIMBRIDGE

William was born in Tetbury in 1799. His parents took him to Slimbridge as an infant. He married a local girl, Anne Cooper, and fathered six children. Like his father before him he was an agricultural labourer working for a tenant farmer on one of the Berkeley Estate farms. All their children were baptised in Slimbridge parish church between 1817 and 1839. William and Ann moved several times once their family was complete. In 1841 they were in Cambridge (near Slimbridge) and in 1851 in Cam. Their first recorded address in Cam was 45 Cam Street. In 1861 it was Lower Court and in 1871 White Row. Joseph Hancock, an agricultural labourer was lodging with them in 1861. By 1881 Ann was dead and William was living with his widowed daughter, Elizabeth Cooper at Berkeley Arms Court in Cam. William died in the proceeding ten years.

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St George, Cam's Parish Church

Elizabeth, or Betsy as she was known, was William and Ann's first child. In the late 1850's she married Henry Cooper and lived at Berkeley Court in Cam. The family included two illegitimate children, Edwin Henry and (Daniel) George, that Elizabeth had given birth to in Cam in 1852 and 1856 respectively. Like their stepfather, the brothers both became labourers, although Edwin Henry worked as a chimney sweep for a time followed by his son James William. Edwin Henry and (Daniel) George both had families of their own. the former and his wife Hannah had ten known children, at least four of whom worked in the woolen cloth industry. The Cam and Dursley area along with the neighbouring Stroud Valley were well known for their woolen mills. Using first water then later steam power, these mills wove cloth from wool produced in the surrounding Cotswold Hills on the backs of the Cotswold breed of sheep. One of Edwin's sons operated the mill machinery. George's wife, Eliza, was also a weaver in a woolen cloth mill. George and Eliza had at least six children.

Cam Mills - still a working textile factory in 2006

As well as her two illegitimate sons Elizabeth had four children by her husband Henry Cooper, a Slimbridge born labourer. The first two of these, James and Charles, were born in Down Hatherley in Gloucestershire in 1859 and 1863 respectively. Three years later the family had moved back to Cam where Albert and Ann(ie) were born. In 1871 the family played host to George French, a sailor. For many years Charles worked in one of the woolen cloth mills, as a cloth cutter, but at the turn of the century he took up work as a road labourer, helping to build and maintain the local highways. Both Charles' widowed mother and unmarried sister acted as his housekeepers whilst his wife, Emma,was at work in a woolen mill. Charles and Ann(ie)'s brother Albert was described as an 'idiot' in the 1881 census. He died seven years later.

William and Ann's third child was Job. He was born blind. This was probably an inherited condition for his grandmother, Catherine Cooper was also thus afflicted. In 1841 when Catherine was living with William and Ann she was a pauper. Job earned a living as a basket weaver. The baskets will have been made of willows grown in osier beds in the low lying ground around Slimbridge. Baskets intended for washing and other ‘white work’ were made of stripped osiers, hampers and other course work was made of intact osiers. Basket making did not require any great capital outlay and a competent weaver could make a reasonable living of three or four shillings a day. Job lived with his parents and when his mother died in the 1870's he and his father moved in with his sister Elizabeth Cooper and her family.

As already mentioned many girls went into service pending finding a husband and raising families of their own. Charlotte, Job’s sister, entered service in the Curtis household at 68 Woodmancote in neighbouring Dursley. She married Richard Clark(e) in about 1851 and had eight children with him. Richard was first an agricultural labourer then a road labourer. Their first child was born in Dursley, the rest in Coaley. Amongst these children Henry was first an agricultural labourer, then a general labourer at which time he was lodging with widow Elizabeth Workman; his future wife. By 1891 he had become an engine driver living in North Nibley with his wife and only child. Ten years later he was railway platelayer living in Gloucester and no doubt working for the Great Western Railway company. Alice and her daughter by her first husband both worked in the cloth industry in Dursley, as did Charlotte. Richard stayed at home with his parents all his life. He started work as a halter weaver, then became a general labourer and finally a waterworks navvy.

William and Ann(e)'s fourth child, Charles Cooper Thornhill was an agricultural labourer. He lived at home until, at the age of 37, he married Elizabeth Jobbings. The couple then lived in Cam. Elizabeth died in 1886 and Charles disappears from the record at about the same time. William and Ann's fifth and final child William, died in 1839 at less than a week old.

3 . . . . .William THORNHILL b.1799 d.<1891m.Ann COOPER
4 . . . . . . Elizabeth THORNHILL b.1828 d.>1891 m.Henry COOPER
5 . . . . . . . Edwin Henry THORNHILL (illigit.) b.1852 d.1935 m.Hannah FRENCH
6 . . . . . . . . .Herbert\Hubert Henry THORNHILL b.1875 d.1955 m.Annie HILL
6 . . . . . . . . .Minnie THORNHILL b.1877 d.>1898 m.Harry William COOK
6 . . . . . . . . .Helena THORNHILL b.1879 d.>1901 m.- -
6 . . . . . . . . .James William THORNHILL b.1880 d.1962 m.- -
6 . . . . . . . . .Archable G. THORNHILL b.c1882 d.>1901
6 . . . . . . . . .Alice Hannah F./E. THORNHILL b.1883 d.>1891 m. - -
6 . . . . . . . . .Ella THORNHILL b.c1884 d.>1901
6 . . . . . . . . .Eva V.\Marie THORNHILL b.1885 d.>1901 m.- -
6 . . . . . . . . .Edwin Joseph F. THORNHILL b.1889 d.1976 m.- -
6 . . . . . . . . .Unerida THORNHILL b.1900 d.>1901
5 . . . . . . . (Daniel) George THORNHILL (illgit.) b.1856 d.1940 m.Eliza -
6 . . . . . . . . .Albert George (aka Alfred) THORNHILL b.1881 d.1966 m.- -
7 . . . . . . . . . . - THORNHILL
6 . . . . . . . . .William Pierce (aka Percy) THORNHILL b.1884 d.1965 m.- -
7 . . . . . . . . . . - THORNHILL
6 . . . . . . . . .Ernest Charles THORNHILL b.1888 d.1962 m.Ethel D. STRONG
7 . . . . . . . . . . Joyce E. M. THORNHILL m.Perceival F. J. MARTIN
6 . . . . . . . . .Florence Mary THORNHILL b.1890 d.1929 m.James D. KNIGHT
6 . . . . . . . . .Wallace Frank THORNHILL b.1892 d.>1901
6 . . . . . . . . .Arthur Maurice (known as Maurice) THORNHILL b.1895 d.>1901
5 . . . . . . . James COOPER b.c1859 d.>1871
5 . . . . . . . Charles COOPER b.c1863 d.>1901 m.Emma –
6 . . . . . . . . .Daisy B. COOPER b.c1886 d.>1891
6 . . . . . . . . .Lily COOPER b.c1887 d.>1891
6 . . . . . . . . .Amy E. A. COOPER b.c1890 d.>1901
6 . . . . . . . . .Gladys COOPER b.c1892 d.>1901
6 . . . . . . . . .Elizabeth COOPER b.c1894 d.>1901
6 . . . . . . . . .Winifred COOPER b.c1896 d.>1901
6 . . . . . . . . .Fritz Jack COOPER b.1899 d.>1901
5 . . . . . . . Albert COOPER b.1867 d.1886
5 . . . . . . . Ann(ie) COOPER b.c1872 d.>1891
4 . . . . . . Job THORNHILL b.c1831 d.1886
4 . . . . . . Charlotte THORNHILL b.c1833 d.>1901 m.Richard CLARK(E)
5 . . . . . . . Henry CLARK(E) b.1852 d.>1901 m.Elizabeth –
6 . . . . . . . . .Mary Ann CLARK b.1880 d.1957 m.Ernest George Hudson STANDLEY
7 . . . . . . . . . . Myra Gertrude Hudson STANDLEY b.1908 d.1970 m.Philip Maurice MORRIS
8 . . . . . . . . . . . Janice Myra MORRIS m.David Sharland LEWER
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Helen Elizabeth LEWER
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .David Philip Sharland LEWER
8 . . . . . . . . . . . Sandra Elizabeth MORRIS m.David Howard SPURGEON
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Richard Graham SPURGEON
9 . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rachel Sarah SPURGEON
5 . . . . . . . Sarah Ann CLARKE b.c1858 d.>1881 m.Samuel BRITTON
6 . . . . . . . . .William BRITTON b.1881 d.>1901
5 . . . . . . . Alice CLARKE b.c1860 d.>1901 m.#1 - WATTS #2 Thomas Richard PIKE
6 . . . . . . . . .#1 Gertrude WATTS b.1880 d. >1901
5 . . . . . . . Charlotte F./Louisa CLARKE b.c1863 d.>1881
5 . . . . . . . Richard CLARK(E) b.c1866 d.>1901
5 . . . . . . . Emma CLARKE b.>1868 d.>1881
5 . . . . . . . Eliza M. CLARKE b.1870 d.>1881
5 . . . . . . . Herbert John CLARK(E) b.c1873 d.>1901
4 . . . . . . Charles Cooper THORNHILL/THORNALL b.c1836 d.>1881 m.Elizabeth JOBBINGS
4 . . . . . . William THORNHILL b.1839 d.1839