Thursday, 31 December 2020

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 17th 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 69th and New Zealand 147th. 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)
 
 
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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.

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Tuesday, 22 December 2020

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 100th 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.

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Saturday, 31 October 2020

James Cooper

James Cooper was Samuel and Elizabeth’s 8th child and 5th 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 3rd 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 3rd 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.


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.

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Tuesday, 20 October 2020

Elizabeth Cooper

Elizabeth Cooper, Betsy, was 10 years old when she and her siblings arrived in Wellington with their parents. She was baptised at St Catherine, Montacute on 17 April 1831.

Six years later, at just 16 she married Daniel Morrison a mariner who was 18 years older than her, just a few months before her elder sister was married. Betsey was the first of Samuel and Elizabeth’s children to marry.

In August 1858, Daniel died from injuries sustained when his ship was wrecked, leaving Elizabeth with their five children aged 2-11. Shortly after his death Daniel Wilson placed notices in the local newspapers asking for donations toward a memorial for Daniel and from September three others placed advertisements for subscriptions to benefit his widow and children who were left “wholly unprovided for”. On 8 November a concert in aid of the widows Morrison and Mackenzie (I don’t know of the connection between these two ladies, perhaps it was just fortuitous timing) was held at the Lyceum Theatre on Lambton Quay with glees, songs and instrumental music. Another researcher some years ago had found information at Alexander Turnbull Library reporting that the monies raised by public subscription enabled the public of Wellington to purchase a house for Elizabeth and her children.

Eleven months after Daniel’s death Elizabeth married Michael Twomey. He too was a mariner, they married at her private residence in Little Ghuznee Street (Now Egmont Street which runs between Ghuznee Street and Dixon Street).

They had a number of children together, possibly 10, although only 5 appear to have survived childhood. To make life interesting, or research tricky, Michael is sometimes recorded as Henry or Michael Henry. This was the case for the birth of one of their sons whose birth was registered by Elizabeth’s elderly mother in 1866.

Just yesterday I found advertisements in the local newspapers for 1868 where an

“old established GINGER-BEER, AERATED WATERS AND CORDIAL MANUFACTURY BUSINESS”

was to be sold by lottery. 200 tickets at £1 each. The business was being carried on by Messrs Cooper and Twomey on Molesworth Street, and the manager was noted as F Cooper. I have not been aware of this at all, but it would seem that this must be the business of Thomas Cooper who had drowned in February/March 1867, and that his younger brother Frederick and brother in law Michael had taken over to keep it afloat and possibly help to support Thomas' orphaned children.

At some time shortly after the sale Michael and Elizabeth left Wellington with their children. They made their way to the West Coast where Michael was involved in mining. It has been suggested that they may have spent some time visiting with Elizabeth’s brother John’s family in Kaikoura. In 1870 Elizabeth’s daughter Elizabeth from her first marriage was married to a local Kaikoura boy. By 1871 Michael and Elizabeth were in Hokitika area where their youngest two sons were born. They moved back to Kaikoura around 1894/95 and Daniel died there in 1897 described as a gardener.

I have often wondered if anyone in the family might have offered assistance to John Cooper’s wife Mary, who left him and took her three youngest children to Australia, creating a new life with Charles Nicholls there. It has been suggested that they sailed from Hokitika around 1876. Maybe it was Elizabeth. She and Mary would have been contemporaries, quite likely knew each other in Wellington before their marriages. They were two years apart in age and both married husbands a lot older than themselves. Perhaps Mary and the children visited or stayed with Michael and Elizabeth before their departure. Perhaps too, Michael’s network of connections from his time as a mariner helped them find passage on a ship bound for Melbourne. I have only just had these pieces of information fall into place in the timeline in my mind today.

Maybe it’s true, it is mostly conjecture, but it does feel like it could add up.

What stories she could have told. Old enough to remember what life in England was like, old enough to remember her grandmother and aunts and uncles. She experienced travel on an immigrant sailing ship, life in the fledgling Wellington settlement, survived both the 1848 and 1855 earthquakes and was part of the gold rush on the West Coast before returning to the pioneer town of Kaikoura for her final years. Elizabeth died 27 May 1906.

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Mary Anne Cooper

Samuel Cooper had two daughters named Mary Anne.

The first was his second child with Charlotte Hann. She was baptised at St Catherine Montacute on 31 January 1820, the day after her mother was buried. This suggests that she was born in January 1820 and that her mother may have died shortly after her birth. So far no record for her death or a marriage has been found. In the 1841 census there is an Ann Cooper living in Montacute of the right age. Could this be her ? All of the other Coopers in the church records and on the census seem to be connected to the one family, but this Ann has a daughter in 1841 and does not appear to have a husband. As yet, I haven’t been able to find her on subsequent census’ to gather more information about her.

So the jury is out.

Maybe she did die in infancy and the Ann on the census is just a red herring.

On 20 August 1828 Samuel and his second wife Elizabeth had their second daughter, Mary Anne, baptised at St Catherine Montacute. It doesn't make a lot of sense, would you give a new child the same name as another living child ? Perhaps. Stranger things have happened.

This Mary Anne was about 13 when the family left England in 1841 for their new life in Wellington, New Zealand. Six years later in 1847 she married Christopher Lockyer. He has lots of appearances in the local newspapers running into trouble with the law, appearing in court for drunkenness, fighting with his brother, being a vagabond, keeping a disorderly house (brothel), spending time in jail in his old age because the Benevolent Home would not have him. But there is never a mention of Mary Anne.

There is a death record for Mary Ann Lockyer in 1931, but the notice in the newspaper (New Zealand Herald, 27 August 1931) identifies her as the wife of Samuel Lockyer, not Christopher…and Christopher had died in 1904. There is also a marriage for a Mary Anne Lockyer and Joseph Sanders in 1849, but when that Mary Anne died her age is out by about 10 years. 

The search continues to unravel this story.

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Monday, 19 October 2020

Charlotte Cooper

Charlotte Cooper was Samuel’s 2nd daughter, but the first for him and his 2nd wife Elizabeth. She was born on 28 April 1824 and baptised 23 May the same year at St Catherine, Montacute, Somerset.

Since we don’t know anything about Elizabeth before her marriage there are no clues about where the name Charlotte might have come from for their daughter. Perhaps it was her mother’s name, or a sister- hopefully it wasn’t chosen by Samuel to memorialise his first wife.

Not a lot is known about Charlotte’s life either as is often the case with daughters.

She was 17 when the family emigrated to New Zealand and I imagine would have been a great help to her mother on the voyage caring for her younger siblings – the youngest just over a year old.

No marriage or death records have been located for her although it has been suggested by some researchers that she may have died about 1857. Three of her siblings named daughters Charlotte around this time – a clue perhaps ?

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