Charles Cooper
(1770-1848)

Charles Cooper was the youngest of the ten children of brewer's labourer Charles Cooper and his wife Judith Thing of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.

When Charles was little more than one year old, his father died, leaving Charles' mother with their five surviving children to care for. She soon re-married, this time to widower James Barber.

It seems that Charles had a relationship with Mrs. Martha Wadsworth (née Martha Cornwall), which by 1794 resulted in her naming her Wadsworth son Charles Cooper Wadsworth. By September 1796, she baptises a daughter, which the Ely church records notes as 'Martha Wadsworth of Martha Wadsworth - reputed of Charles Cooper'. It is not clear whether Martha had been widowed by her husband John at the time of either of these baptisms, as his death remains to be found.

About a month after baptising baby Martha Wadsworth, Charles and Martha marry a few miles away in Mildenhall, Suffolk, and then return to Ely where they settle down to raise a further six children.

By the time that their final child Richard is born in 1818, Charles is noted as a Brickmaker.

Charles pre-deceased Martha by about 5 years in 1848.

Life Events

Born

• circa 1770 at Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.

Baptised

• 13th October 1770 at Holy Trinity Church, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.

Married

• Martha Cornwall (1769-1853) on 23rd October 1796 at St. Mary's Church, Mildenhall, Suffolk, England.

Children

• Martha Wadsworth (1796-1859) married Thomas Royston (1790-18??)
• Mary Cooper (1799-?)
• Sarah Cooper (1802-?) married John Mantle (1797-?)
• John Cooper (1805-?) married Elizabeth Butler (18??-?)
• Robert Cooper (1807-1889) married Elizabeth Fison (1809-1886)
• William Cooper (1810-?)
• Richard Cooper (1818-?)

Census and Residence

• 1841: 70yrs, Drum Corner, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.

Employment

• 1818: Brickmaker

Death

• July 1848 in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, aged 77 years.

Burial

• 25th July 1848 at St. Mary's Church, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.