It's August again

 You know what that means - it's Family History Month in Australia and New Zealand.

Last year I challenged myself to do an A - Z Blog challenge through the month. So I have been wondering what to do this year. First I thought I could do one for every day, highlight someone's marriage, birth or life but when I checked my tree it looked like it would be pretty tricky and that some of the August people were way way out on branches quite distant to me.

Then I thought why not do the same as last year and choose different words, families, names...then I cross refernced my new list with last year's posts and heaps of them were the same or very close. So that might be repetitive.

Now what, you're thinking.

Occupations ! That's what.

That is going to be a challenge in itself because some letters have very limited number of occupations and some have lots of to choose from but nobody in my tree who can fit the bill. How many of us have knocker-ups (people paid to wake up factory and mill workers in northern England for early shifts) or umbrella makers or zoologists in our trees waiting for their story to be told.

Suggestions welcome, I might need to be a bit creative and use some lateral thinking. But I'm willing to give it ago. Maybe I will just wander completely off topic for those tricky letters.  So same as last year 26 letters through the month posted one a day, except for Sunday and we will be at the 31st before you know it !

The Family of William Norman and Sarah Vickery

On Friday 19 December 1817 at St Mary Magdalene in the tiny village of Withiel Florey in Somerset a wedding took place. Just three days before the winter solstice. It was the only marriage that year, in fact it was 15 months since a wedding had been celebrated there. Four days earlier William Norman accompanied by his future brother-in-law had been granted a license after swearing an oath to the Lord Bishop of Bath & Wells. William was from Huish Champflower a neighbouring parish to his bride. The license states both bride and groom were upwards of twenty one years…the church record says they were married by license with the consent of parents. Both William and Sarah signed their own names in the register.

Why would consent be required if they were both of age ? Perhaps it was because William and his bride Sarah Vickery were first cousins.  William’s father and Sarah’s mother were brother and sister. Theirs was a family deeply rooted, like many in this branch of my tree, in the parishes on either side of the border between Devon and Somerset on or near the Brendon Hills and Exmoor.

Sarah and William spent the early years of their marriage farming at Tripp Farm in Clatworthy.

It was there in 1818 that their first child was born just three months after the death of Sarah’s mother. In her honour they named their daughter Jane Vickery Norman. They farmed there for at least six years before moving to Treborough where they lived and farmed at Chapmans Farm. By the time they arrived in Treborough they had three children: Jane, Marianne (Mary Ann/Marian) and William. Another daughter Elisabeth had lived just 15 weeks. A further two daughters, Sarah and Caroline completed their family at Chapman’s.

At Chapmans, the census in 1851 recorded that there were 260 acres and that William was employing 3 labourers.

Marianne was the first of their children to marry. On 8 October 1846 she married Thomas Davys of Kingston in the parish of Raddington. Her siblings Jane and William were witnesses to the marriage. Two pages later in the church record, Jane and William were witnesses to another marriage. This time Sarah married James Davys, the younger brother of Marianne’s husband, on 18 January 1849. On the same page, four months later Jane married Joseph Partridge on 12 April. James Davys was a witness this time along with William. Turn the pages a couple more times – 1852 was a popular year for marriages in Treborough and there is Caroline’s marriage to Thomas Langdon Norman, a first cousin, on 24 June. This time George Sutton was the witness alongside William. Thomas Norman’s father was a brother of Caroline’s father, William.

William married Mary Dommett Raddon in Exeter, Devon in 1860, they had one daughter and lived most of their married life in Bristol where William was a publican running the Bell Inn in Hillgrove Street for a number of years before retiring to Nailsea.

After her marriage Jane and her husband farmed at Monkham Farm near Luxborough. They had just two sons before Joseph died in 1853. Jane stayed and ran the farm, her parents came to live there too until their deaths. William died 12 April 1874 and Sarah 1 January 1881. Jane died at Monkham Farm 30 July 1887.

Marianne and Thomas lived at Kingston which he had inherited from his father and grandfather. They had a large family of six daughters and three sons. Two of the sons died young, the third trained as a jeweller and had a business in Truro, Cornwall. They spent some years away from farming in the drapery business in Bristol, but returned to Kingston for the last twenty years of their lives.

James and Sarah lived first at Nethercott Farm in Lydeard St Lawrence. They were there on the 1851 census where James was farming 80 acres of land and employing 1 labourer. On census night Sarah’s younger sister Caroline was visiting and they were parents to one son. Their second son would arrive 6 months later. I had hoped that birth certificates might reveal their places of residence so that I could create a timeline, but no. For the first four children just the parish of their birth was recorded. However sons number 3 & 4 were baptised at Bathealton and their birth certificates state Milverton - which is a sizeable parish - as their birthplace, which suggest that home was no longer Nethercott. They were at Hurstone by 1857 though as the three youngest children are recorded as being born there. On census night 1861 they were at Hurstone with their family of six boys. Just one month after the census they would welcome their first daughter, however Caroline lived just 7 months.

It was Hurstone they left behind, servants and all, when they joined the growing emigration movement, packed up their family and set off for New Zealand in 1862. It has been suggested that James was left £600 by his grandmother, in contrast Thomas as the eldest son was left the lease of Kingston. This endowment, it has been speculated was possibly used to fund the move and establish James and Sarah’s new life in New Zealand.

Their plans did not initially come to fruition, but they were obviously made of tough stuff. Three more children completed the family after their arrival in New Zealand, one born in Auckland and the youngest two in the Coromandel where gold was the lure. Farming was something they knew and they pursued this endeavour in the Tuhikaramea area near Hamilton.

It was in Thames that Caroline, her husband and young daughter joined James and Sarah, arriving in Auckland in 1864. Sadly Caroline died at Shellback Creek near Tararu on the Thames Coast just 5 years later. Caroline & Thomas’ daughter Harriett married her first cousin, James and Sarah’s second son.

Other members of the wider Norman family were also emigrating from England, several cousins and an uncle went to Canada and America – some even fought in the Civil War. I’m sure there are others too – I just haven’t found them yet. 

Drapery was big business it seems and several other members of the Norman family and the Davys family were in this industry in the 1800s – another area I need to research further and record. Time permitting there are more new blog posts under development.

I have some other posts about members of the wider family, or which mention them if you are interested to read them while you wait for me to get organised.  The Great Chatsworth Rail Disaster  . YMCA and Land - there may be others.

I have made a map it still needs a bit of tweaking but for now using the link should allow you to move about the locations I have talked about.

The Pandemic Unfolded

So, it has been a year. And what a year it has been.

A year ago we had no idea what was coming. None of us were ready.

A year ago much of the population across the globe became obsessed with toilet paper and other essential items. Stripping grocery shelves bare within minutes.

Our understanding and realisation manifested as facts were uncovered – but not as quickly as the virus spread.

Countries which should have been well prepared for an event such as we were facing turned out to be amongst the least prepared. Whether it was through lack of preparation, poor assessment of the situation, bad advice, a lack of understanding about pandemics or by those in power being deniers of the facts or not having the ability to grasp the basics about epidemiology, citizens of many countries faced challenges, losses and illness which will have irrevocably changed their world. Some countries acted quickly, others did not. Some changed their thoughts from one action to the other. Closing borders, opening borders, not allowing travel, encouraging travel – to their detriment. 

It was difficult to watch.

It was just as difficult to watch the ridiculous panic buying and hoarding behaviours, the protests about being told to stay home or wear a mask. Common sense does not prevail for us all in these times.

Thousands of people lost their jobs as industries ground to a halt, or at least a go slow. Plane spotting was an event, not an everyday occurrence. Businesses rewrote their business plans overnight or in a week to adapt to the changing restrictions about gathering in numbers, social distancing and many managed to stay afloat. Parents became teachers and work from home orders saw office supplies and computer gear vanish off shelves as quick as toilet paper as everyone set up their home office.

We couldn’t go anywhere so we became tourists online, touring palaces, museums and art galleries. People in the arts bought their art to our homes, we watched ballet, musicals and concerts filmed in the artists home and beamed into ours. Some of us are still doing that. Conferences became virtual, meetings were held on Zoom. We learnt new skills, knitting, crochet, painting, baking. For a lot of us it was a chance to catch up on things we kept putting off because work and busy lives have a tendency to take over our free time.

We have been lucky down here in the far removed countries of Australia and New Zealand. While at times it felt like we were losing control we did not experience the depths of despair seen on our television screens in Europe, Britain, United States and South America.

A year ago I began this blog series intent on making monthly updates, but they have fallen by the way side as life returned to some sense of normality here AND I got a job. Not as much spare time as I’d become used to – but the financial benefits far outweigh that.

So here are some sobering facts as we all either celebrate that we have had one of our two vaccinations, or have had both, or wait for our turn as our countries roll out their vaccination plans.

123,000,000 people globally have been diagnosed with COVID-19,

69,500,000 people have recovered and

2,710,000 have died. 

The worst affected country is

United States of America with 29,800,000 cases and 541,000 deaths, then

Brazil 12,000,000 cases, 10,500,00 recovered and 293,000 deaths

India 11,600,00 cases, 11,100,00 recovered and 160,000 deaths

Russia 4,400,000 cases, 4,010,000 recovered and 93,090 deaths

United Kingdom 4,290,000 cases and 126,000 deaths

France 4,250,000 cases and 92,167 deaths

In our corner of the world

Australia has recorded 29, 192 cases, 25,486 recovered and 909 deaths and

New Zealand 2,453 cases, 2369 recovered and 26 deaths

Mostly new cases in Australia and New Zealand are occurring in Managed Isolation Quarantine facilities amongst citizens returning to the country for overseas. The total number of citizens returning to both countries is nearing 50,000 since the pandemic was declared. Outbreaks in the community are dealt with swiftly by imposing stricter travel restrictions, short focussed lockdowns, more social distancing regulations and wearing masks.

There is a visual timeline which I have referred to many times during the past twelve months which shows the speed and spread of the virus and the changing fortunes of the ten most affected countries. currently it is updated to February 21, 2021, you will need to scroll down the page a bit to find it. It is both mesmerising and horrifying.

The “travel the country”, “holiday at home” messages have been hard to take when such uncertainty prevails in Australia with each state declaring its own path to recovery and its own way of managing outbreaks. We have looked with envy at our Kiwi mates who have freely travelled and holidayed within their country since lockdown 1.0 ended in the middle of the year.

Now though, it feels as if a travel bubble will finally open and we will be able to travel with strict guidelines between both countries. Real international travel though, I fear, will not recommence until at least mid 2022 if not 2023 – and I would expect that being fully vaccinated will be a requirement.

We have new words and phrases embedded in our vocabularies and for the most part we have adapted to our new normal. In some respects while it was confronting to watch it all play out on our screens everyday in real time, in other ways it was helpful to see how every country worked together. How our medical people rose to the challenge to find a vaccine – at least three – in such a short time. How a kindness pandemic spread around the globe at the same time, as we all showed support for each other and respect for our frontline healthcare workers. How we all learnt something new about ourselves and realised the lessons to be learned from history – because pandemics are not new, and this one will not be the last. 

Many of us will have been surprised to learn that Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens wrote about epidemics in Jane Eyre and Bleak House promoting isolation and social distancing as a means to keep other safe. Despite our many misgivings about technology taking over our lives and the difficulty many of us have about disconnecting from our digital devices to have a digital detox, having this technology has enabled us to be much more informed that our ancestors were about previous pandemics. Let’s not forget the lessons we have learned and make an effort to keep them with us and to pass them on to future generations.

Wash Your Hands. Shelter At Home. Wear a Mask. Do it for the ones you love.

The Unfolding Pandemic - August

1 August 2020 – The International Health Regulations Emergency Committee says the COVID-19 outbreak is still a public health emergency of international concern. They urge WHO to provide a nuanced, pragmatic guidance to reduce the risk of response fatigue and counter misinformation and disinformation. Russia announce plans to launch a vaccination campaign in October with a vaccine that has not completed clinical trials.

2 new cases were reported in New Zealand, both imported by travellers returning from overseas.

397 new cases in Victoria bringing the total for the state to 10,931, there were 3 new deaths; 2 are linked to aged care facilities. There are currently 5919 active cases in the state. Seventeen new cases were reported in New South Wales as well.

2 August 2020 —

3 new cases were reported in managed isolation in New Zealand.

671 new cases and a further 7 deaths in Victoria prompt Premier Daniel Andrews to announce changes to restrictions in Greater Melbourne and regional Victoria. Melbourne will move to Stage 4 restrictions, with a curfew from 8pm-5am. This will stay in place for 6 weeks. Exercise for 1 hour is permitted, other than that people can only leave their home to shop (one person per household), seek medical care, go to work or caregiving. Nobody can travel further than 5 kilometres from their home. Uni and TAFE must be learnt remotely, from Wednesday 5 August weddings can not occur, wearing masks is compulsory, all school learning will be learning from home from 5 August. The same will apply to kinder and early childhood centres from 6 August. Regional Victoria returns to Level 3 restrictions.

3 August 2020 — Confirmed cases globally surpass 18 million. Some studies have estimated the infection fatality rate of COVID-19 at 0.6% which although it doesn’t sound like a lot, is actually quite high. It means just over 1 in 200 people infected will potentially die, but it is hugely skewed by age, with the risk much higher in older people. By comparison the infection fatality rate for the 2009 H1N1 pandemic is believed to be between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in 1,000,000. In addition long term health effects are still not well understood.

2 new cases were reported in managed isolation and for the 17^th day in a row no new cases reported were in the community in New Zealand.

429 new cases and 13 deaths in Victoria.

4 August 2020 – Pan American Health Organisation say half of programmes on diabetes and hypertension are stopped at primary care level, as health workers increasingly cater to COVID-19 patients and many of them become sick, according to a survey on 27 countries in the Americas.

There are 22 active cases in New Zealand in managed isolation. No new cases reported.

439 new cases and a further 11 deaths in Victoria.

5 August 2020 – Confirmed deaths from COVID-19 surpass 700,000 globally.

No new cases reported.

725 new cases and 15 deaths in Victoria.

6 August 2020 – Three days after reaching a global total of 18 million, cases have surpassed 19 million.

No new cases reported in New Zealand.

471 new cases and 8 deaths are reported in Victoria.

7 August 2020 – Cases on the African continent exceed 1 million.

No new cases reported and there are 23 active cases in New Zealand.

450 new cases in Victoria, total for the state is now 13,867. There were 11 new deaths reported. The State Government announces more support for VCE students and further mental health resources for young people struggling with the pandemic. All Victorians arriving in New South Wales from today are required to quarantine at their own expense for 14 days. Air travel from Victoria is restricted to solely arrivals at Sydney Airport.

8 August 2020 – Confirmed cases in the USA surpass 5 million.

No new cases reported.

In Victoria there were 466 new cases and a further 12 deaths, half of which are linked to aged care facilities.

9 August 2020 – New Zealand reports 100 days without community transmissions although there are 23 COVID-19 cases in isolation facilities.

No new cases reported.

394 new cases and 17 deaths in Victoria.

10 August 2020 – Globally cases reach 20 million. Brazil is sustaining a very high level of epidemic, while the curve has shown signs of flattening it is not going down with 50,000-60,000 new cases each day.

No new cases reported. There are now 21 active cases in New Zealand

322 new cases and 19 deaths in Victoria. The total for the State is nearing 15,000 and 228 deaths have been recorded in total.

11 August 2020 – New cases are reported in NZ in a family not linked to overseas travel. Russia grants regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine even though it is yet to enter large scale safety & efficacy trials.

One new case was reported in managed isolation. After 102 days with no community transmission four members of a family in South Auckland tested positive, the source of infection is unknown. Four probable cases are also linked to the family.

Victoria reported 331 new cases and 19 deaths.

12 August 2020 – The US Government secures 100 million doses of Moderna’s candidate vaccine mRNA-1273 which is in late-stage clinical trials.

At noon the greater Auckland region moved back into Level 3 restrictions, initially for three days. The remainder of the country moved to Level 2. The number of active cases in New Zealand has risen to 25. Police checkpoints set up to monitor who is entering an leaving the city.

410 new cases in Victoria. Twenty-one more deaths bringing the total for the state to 267, 16 of the 21 new deaths are linked to clusters in aged care facilities.

13 August 2020 – Russia’s candidate COVID-19 vaccine is not part of the COVAX-Global Vaccines Facility portfolio. Seven African nations will start to administer antibody testing to help understand how many people within their population have had the disease.

Fifteen testing centres open across Auckland. 13 new cases confirmed with 12 linked to the Auckland family bringing the total for that cluster to 17. The remaining new case is in managed isolation after returning from the Philippines. The total number of cases is now 36.

A further 278 new cases and 8 deaths in Victoria.

14 August 2020 – Global cases surpass 21 million.

Another 13 new cases are confirmed, two in the South Waikato town of Tokoroa, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces that the current alert levels will stay in place for 12 more days. There are 49 cases with one person in hospital.

372 new cases and 14 new deaths in Victoria.

15 August 2020 –.

Prime Minister Ardern released  the Government’s COVID-19 response framework, which would involve localised lock-downs in the event there was another community-wide outbreak of COVID-19.

303 new cases and 4 deaths reported in Victoria.

16 August 2020 –.

There are now 69 actives cases with 49 being linked to the South Auckland cluster.

279 new cases and a further 16 deaths in Victoria

17 August 2020 –.

9 new cases are reported. The Prime minister announces that the General Election will be moved to October 17.

Another 282 new cases and 25 deaths in Victoria. There are now 17,027 cases in the state and 334 people have died.

18 August 2020 – A letter signed by former world leaders, people in the education sector and economist calls for urgent action in response to the global education emergency. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation fear up to 30 million children may never return to school.

Another 13 cases are confirmed. Two cases which had not been linked to the South Auckland cluster through contact tracing have now been identified through genomic sequencing; one connected to the South Auckland cluster and the other to a managed isolation hotel in Auckland.

17 more deaths and 222 new cases

19 August 2020 – Globally more than 22 million cases and the death toll approaches 800,000.

6 new cases reported, 5 are linked to the Auckland cluster and the other imported. Five people are in hospital.

216 new cases and a further 12 deaths in Victoria.

20 August 2020 – A WHO survey of 39 countries in sub-Saharan Africa finds that schools are fully operational in 6 countries, closed in 14 and partially open in 19.

Five more cases reported all linked to the Auckland cluster

240 new Victorian cases and 13 deaths.

21 August 2020 –

9 new cases in the community and 2 imported cases were reported.

179 new cases in Victoria and 9 deaths.

22 August 2020 – Globally cases surpass 23 million and death toll now exceeds 800,000.

Six new cases were reported bringing the total number of active cases to 111.

182 new cases and 13 deaths.

23 August 2020 –

There are now 114 active cases in New Zealand the death toll remains at 22.

208 new cases and a further 17 deaths.

24 August 2020 – University of Hong Kong reports the first case of reinfection in a 33 year old man who previously had a mild case in April, now infected by a different strain.  WHO say It is important not to jump to conclusions and that ongoing studies following patients show that some do show a strong antibody response that stays.

Another 9 new case; 8 linked to the Auckland cluster, bringing the total to 123. The Prime Minister extends the Level 3 lockdown to 11.59pm 30 August. The remainder of the country also to remain at Level 2.

116 new cases and 15 deaths in Victoria. All the deaths are linked to aged care facility outbreaks. There are a total of 18,330 cases in the state and there have been 430 deaths.

25 August 2020 – Long turnaround times in testing are still hindering the response on the African Continent.

7 new cases in New Zealand, all but one are linked to the Auckland cluster. There are 8 people in hospital, three in a critical condition in intensive care units.

There have been 148 new cases in Victoria in the past day and 8 more deaths.

26 August 2020 – A decade of economic growth has been lost in Africa and the recovery will be long and difficult.

Five more cases reported, 2 are linked to the Auckland cluster.

Another 149 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours in Victoria and 24 deaths.

27 August 2020 – Over the past four weeks, on average, there has been a 17% decrease in the number of cases reported for the African continent. UNICEF finds that 463 million children globally have not had access to remote learning opportunities during the pandemic. The number of cases globally surpasses 24 million.

Six more cases are reported in the community and one at the border. There are 126 active cases  of which just 11 are imported and in managed isolation.

There were 113 new cases overnight and 23 deaths in Victoria.

28 August 2020 –

12 new cases (5 in the community) were reported in New Zealand.

There were 113 new cases and 12 deaths in Victoria.

29 August 2020 –

13 new cases (11 in the community) were reported.

94 new cases and 18 deaths were reported in Victoria.

30 August 2020 – Confirmed cases surpass 25 million globally. USA, Brazil and India are the most affected countries. Australia is 69^th and New Zealand 147^th. India reports the highest single day increase of any nation so far with 78,751 new cases. In the week ending today more than 1.8 million new cases and 38,000 deaths were reported to the WHO.

2 new cases were reported in the community. The greater Auckland region moved to Alert Level 2.5 at 11.59pm today. A modified version of Level 2 but with stricter limitations on public gatherings, funerals and weddings. Masks were mandatory on public transport throughout the country for passengers aged 12 or older. The rest of the country remains at Level 2.

Victoria recorded 114 new cases overnight and a further 11 deaths.

31 August 2020 – Cases in the US surpass 6,000,000 the highest number in any country. A WHO survey of 105 countries finds that 90% have had disruption to their health services due to the pandemic.

9 new cases were reported, 5 in the community. 9 of the community cases in the past week are members of a church group which has been classed as a subcluster of the main Auckland cluster. Eleven people are in hospital, there are 131 active cases.

There are now 19,080 cases in Victoria, 2620 are active cases. There have been 565 deaths in the state with another 41 deaths recorded overnight and a further 73 new cases.

 

Total cases globally as of August 31, 2020: 25,275,602 and 843,281 deaths

Total cases in Australia: 25,746, 652 deaths, 21,345 recovered

Total cases in New Zealand: 1,738, deaths 22, 1,585 recovered

(figures from WHO)

 

 

Sources:
https://www.devex.com/news/covid-19-a-timeline-of-the-coronavirus-outbreak-96396
https://shorthand.radionz.co.nz/coronavirus-timeline/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_New_Zealand
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-current-situation
https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers
https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus/updates
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2020-nsw-health.aspx
https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19

George Henry Cooper

George Henry Cooper was the youngest son of Samuel Cooper &  Elizabeth Hill. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand in March 1843, eighteen months after the family had arrived in the colony.

Again, not much is known about his early life. It is likely he and his elder brothers attended school in Sydney Street, Thorndon, though records to verify this have not been found, perhaps do not even exist.

In June 1868, George’s brother Fred and brother-in-law Michael Twomey advertised in the Evening Post their plan to dispose of their Ginger Beer, Aerated Water and Cordial Manufactury Business on Molesworth Street by lottery. I believe this was the business they had taken on after the death of another of George’s brothers, Thomas in 1867. Two hundred tickets were to be sold at £1 each. A letter to the editor of the Wellington Independent dated 29 April 1867 and published 30 April signed by George indicates that he too was assisting in the business which had been his brother’s.

It appears that either 25 year old George had the winning ticket or that perhaps the lottery did not work and he simply bought the business. Whichever was the outcome, from 1868 George carried on the business, first at Mulgrave Street and then relocating later that year to Thorndon Quay in what eventually became known as the Hotel Cecil block.

In October 1868 George married Elizabeth Carrick (or Calvert), who worked alongside him in the business and also a small shop adjacent to George’s factory where she sold ha’penny cakes, lollies and of course ginger beer. A letter to the editor entitled “Old Wellington” published in the Evening Post 8 September 1934 in response to a previous reminiscent article helps to place these building on the Thomas Ward maps held at Wellington City Archives. (From the maps it would seem that the start/end points of Thorndon Quay & Lambton Quay may have changed over time.) Also in this block and adjacent to Elizabeth’s store was a general store identified as Osbourne’s. The writer also states that prior to being run by the Osbournes the general store had been Stagg’s. This was an exciting revelation as that meant that Frederick Stagg – cousin to all these Cooper boys was living right amongst the family in Wellington.

In 1869, when his mother died George was reputedly in Kaikoura as mentioned in a notice (not yet verified) in the Kaikoura Herald recording the death in Wellington of “mother of John and George Cooper. I’m not sure why George would be in Kaikoura, unless simply visiting his brother. He can’t have been living there as his business was established in Wellington by then.

George and Elizabeth had no children of their own. I have often wondered if they cared for the orphaned children of his brother Thomas. At least one of the children later worked in the bottling and cordial industry and may have had their start working for their uncle. However, when George died of a stroke aged 40 in 1883 he left everything to his wife Elizabeth to be hers and hers alone – free from the control of any future husband she may have. After her death the money obtained from the sale of his real and personal estate and effects was to be divided equally between the children of his brothers John (of Kaikoura) and Frederick (of Wellington). The shares of any of those nieces and nephews not reached 21 was to be held in investment until they were old enough. No mention was made of the children of his other siblings, Thomas, Elizabeth or James.

Elizabeth did remarry, in 1888 to Charles Brodie – another ginger beer manufacturer in Wellington. He seems to have assumed control of George’s business and absorbed it into his own company. Elizabeth died in 1911, her will was dated 14 March 1889 – a year after her marriage to Charles – and left everything to him. He was described in her will as a gasfitter – but at her death his affidavit describes him as a gentleman. A bit of a rise through the ranks of society – I wonder if any of John or Frederick’s children ever did benefit from their uncle’s estate.

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.

James Cooper

James Cooper was Samuel and Elizabeth’s 8^th child and 5^th son. If you’ve been keeping track you will be thinking I can’t count. There were however two other sons born in the 6 years between Elizabeth and James.

William born in early August 1833, baptised 11 August and buried aged 5 weeks on 17 September. Nine months later in June 1834 they welcomed another son who they also named William. He was baptised 3 August 1834 but also sadly died and was buried on 8 February 1837 aged 2 years 8 months.

James was baptised on 10 April 1837. It is possible he was born before William died and so avoided becoming the 3^rd William or maybe his parents decided that two Williams was enough. James' birth was just 5 months before civil registration began in England. 

James was 5 when the family emigrated to New Zealand. Not a lot is known of his early life in Wellington. Even his adult life has been a bit of a mystery, but a DNA match has changed some of that.

I was sceptical at first since he seems to have acquired an additional christian name in adulthood. But there are too many coincidences, and DNA in the right range to be a 3^rd cousin to Dad sharing the same great grandparent couple.

I have done a lot of investigating, building trees, chopping off wrong branches over the last year or so and I’m pretty confident now. I found James’ obituary in the Southland Times. This mentioned that he had arrived in Wellington with his brothers from Somerset in 1840. No mention of his parents who we know also came, and the year was out by one. It also mentioned he and one of his brothers had gone to the Australian goldfields in the 1850s which seemed to tie in with the suggestion that Thomas had gone to Australia too.

The obituary suggests that James returned to Wellington in 1861 and a year later moved south to Invercargill. He set about establishing a horticultural business there, importing seeds and plants. On 18 June 1864 he married Harriet Ware in Hobart, Tasmania. Harriet was born in Hobart and was 22 when they married. James (with his additional name Wade) was described as a merchant and a fruiterer & seedsman of Tay Street in Invercargill.

At the time of his marriage James’ business in Invercargill was situated in Lowther Arcade facing on to Tay Street. The arcade ran through to Esk Street. In 1869 his shop had moved to Dee Street adjacent to the Prince of Wales Hotel and later to the Athenaeum Building on Dee Street which also housed the library and eventually the museum. In addition to his store front he established Waikiwi Nursery on land he had acquired soon after his arrival in the area. It comprised thirteen acres and was situated on either side of the North Road at Waikiwi. James’ obituary describes how he transformed the land planting flowers, shrubs and trees. Numerous business advertisements appear in newspapers available at PapersPast.

Kete Invercargill, Accessed 31/10/2020 

James and Harriett had 10 children in the next 18 years and evidently travelled back and forth to Tasmania as one daughter was born in Hobart in 1877. By the time of James’ death in 1911 they had 27 grandchildren. Eight of their children were girls so that gets a bit tricky to follow when names change at marriage.

In 1888 he sold the nursery and his store to James Lennie. James was a Scot who had trained in the nursery business after leaving school and had been employed at Arden Capell Castle (the seat of the Duchess of Argyll) and at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens among other appointments before travelling to Ireland. He had arrived in New Zealand at Bluff in 1862, At first he was employed by local gentlemen seemingly offering landscaping advice and had three sons who were also involved in his business. I imagine our James sold with a heavy heart; his two sons possibly not being prepared to take over the business. After tracking them on electoral rolls it seems they both became butchers instead.

James along with James Morton were instrumental in the establishment of the Southland Horticultural Society and James was the first President.

I recently purchased his death certificate which confirmed that his father was Samuel, a tailor. So it certainly does seem that James Wade Cooper is our James Cooper.