Frederick Cooper

Frederick Cooper was the last of Samuel and Elizabeth’s children to be born in England before they emigrated to New Zealand. He was noted as aged 6 months on Samuel’s application for Free Passage to New Zealand in November 1840. After purchasing his birth certificate, his birth date as confirmed as 20 April 1840, and he was baptised on 10 May at St Catherine's, Montacute.

The family were first offered passage on the Lord William Bentinck to sail from Gravesend on 7 January 1841 when Frederick would have been just 8 months old. For some reason they did not take up this offer, reapplying instead and travelling on the Oriental which sailed from Plymouth 22 June 1841.

As with his older siblings, nothing is known of Frederick’s early life in Wellington. His obituary in 1908 seems a little tangled with the lives of his older brothers. He apparently went to the Otago goldfields and then on to Ballarat, returning to New Zealand to marry. The dates don’t seem to make sense to me.

Gold was discovered near Bendigo in 1852 when Frederick would have been 12 years old. From all accounts the goldrush in Otago began in 1861.

It may have been the Otago goldfields that brought his brothers back to New Zealand from the Victorian goldfields but I’m pretty sure Frederick either did not go at all, or perhaps went to Otago very briefly.

In 1860 he had launched his seed and nursery business in Wellington where he first had a nursery at the top end of Taranaki Street. In 1863 he married Ellen Carpenter and the two of them worked at growing the business and established a store on Manners Street near Herbert Street (about where McDonalds is today). In 1864 he applied to be on the electoral roll and gave his address as Wingfield Street and his eligibility as a freeholder owner of a house and land at that address. Wingfield Street itself doesn't exist today. It ran parallel to Fraser's Lane which was pretty much where Aiken Street runs today and could be accessed from Molesworth Street or John Street which ran from Fraser's Lane. John Street today  looks like a delivery entrance running off Aiken Street between the National Library and the now demolished Defence Building and Freyberg Building (but is labelled Guthrie Street on maps). Frederick & Ellen had ten children; eight daughters and two sons between 1864-1879. Two of their daughters died in childhood, one aged 3 years and the other 9 years.

The family run business traded for more than 100 years before being sold in his grandchildren’s generations to their one time business rival business Yates. Frederick had nurseries in Taranaki Street and in Lower Hutt as well as the store in Manners Street. Bijoux Nurseries were in Woburn near where Te Omanga Hospice is today. Frederick traded globally, Cooper’s Seeds being in great demand. An article in the Upper Hutt Leader gives some history about the beginnings and development of the business in its 100^th year.

Frederick left notably the most well known footprint of all his family in New Zealand history. He was recorded on a number of documents throughout his life helping us to paint a better picture of who he was. He was amongst the witnesses at the inquest into his brother Thomas’ drowning in 1867. He also appears to have taken over and run Thomas’ business for a time after his death as mentioned here. His affidavit when his cousin Frederick Stagg died intestate in 1875 was a recent find, which lead to the discovery that other family members had also emigrated to New Zealand.

It was a surprise after all the discoveries of his great business success and legal interactions to learn that he died intestate in 1908 aged 67.

#52Ancestors, Week 36, Work

I don’t think I have anyone in my tree with an occupation which would be considered out of the ordinary.

Farmers, ag labs, railway employees, tailors, builders, engineers, teachers, nurses, domestics, grooms, coachmen, taxi drivers, truck drivers, mechanics, publicans, gardeners, sailcloth weavers, glovers, fitters, bakers, millers, labourers, clerks, cordial manufacturers and nurserymen can all be found scattered through my tree.

When my Cooper ancestors came to New Zealand in 1841 Samuel the head of the family was a tailor. A trade he had worked at in Montacute, Somerset before emigration. I don’t know where he learnt this trade, perhaps from his father although he died when Samuel was quite young; so maybe not.

Samuel and Elizabeth bought with them seven children. John the eldest was my great great grandfather. He was about twenty when they left England and followed his father and became a tailor. Two other sons began ginger beer and cordial manufacture businesses. Thomas was reputed to be the first to do so in New Zealand. Frederick who was just fourteen months old when they emigrated went on to establish a firm which operated for over 100 years.

F. Cooper Ltd.

It was recognized as a world leader in the production of seed peas for freezing and canning as well as a well established reputation as a producer of other quality seeds.

Fred married Ellen Carpenter in 1863. She was born in Wellington in 1842 shortly after her parents had arrived. Together they set up shop in Manners Street, near Herbert Street. Herbert Street no longer exists, but their shop was on the site, or very close to, where McDonalds now operate on the corner of Manners and Victoria Streets. They sold groceries, fruit and other needs of early settlers as well as seeds and plants from a nursery which Fred had already established between Taranaki and Hooper Streets. In 1866 they placed a half page advertisement in the Wellington Almanac. Their business prospered and four years later in the same publication they advertised that they had been able to erect a large building adjoining the shop where they intended to conduct all of their business.

By 1880, they had outgrown the space between Taranaki and Hopper Streets and extended their interests to Alicetown, south of the present Ewen bridge on the western side of the Hutt Valley. Here they established the Bijou Nurseries. In spite of economic fluctuations they were able to build on their early steady solid growth and in 1890 were obliged to find a larger building. This time on the east of Manners Street near the junction of St Hill St (today this is the laneway running between ASB Bank and Subway on Manners Street through to Bond Street).

Ellen and Fred had a family of eight children. Their two sons and three of their daughters joined the family business. In 1899 their son George aged twenty was sent to England to investigate prospects and returned with a contract to export seeds to the United Kingdom.

Fred died in 1908 but the business continued to grow in the hands of the two sons. In 1909 they erected a five storey building on the corner of Mercer and Willis Street; in 1913 they needed another building, this time in Dixon Street, near Willis Street. They operated from this site until at least the 1960s. The business passed to another Fred Cooper, grandson of the founder in the 1950s.

Coopers were at one time the largest seed house in New Zealand. In 1974 F Cooper Ltd was sold to Arthur Yates & Co Ltd. Yates had begun a similar business in Auckland in 1883, expanding to Australia in 1887. The Yates Seed Division was sold to South Pacific Seeds in 2003. The brand name  for commercial growers was changed to Terranova Seeds. Today Terranova Seeds are still the largest vegetable seed supplier in New Zealand.

References:

https://newspaperarchives.uhcc.govt.nz/?a=d&d=UpperHuttLeader19600317.2.3&

https://www.grassland.org.nz/publications/nzgrassland_publication_2494.pdf