Person:Elizabeth Copps (1)

Childhood

Elizabeth Copps was baptised on 3rd August 1777 in the small village of Letchworth, Hertfordshire. She was the eldest child of a James Copps and his wife Mary Dearman, who had married 20 months earlier in Letchworth.

When Elizabeth was still very small, her parents left Letchworth, moving a couple of miles east to Weston, where they had another six children.

Adulthood

On Christmas Eve 1798, aged 21, Elizabeth married a labourer named John Pratt. They married at Willian, the parish in between Elizabeth's native Letchworth and her childhood home of Weston. At the time of her marriage, Elizabeth's parents were presumably still living in Weston - their youngest son was baptised there in the same year that Elizabeth married.

Elizabeth and John stayed in Willian after their marriage. His origins are unknown; he was described as 'of South Mimms' at the time of their marriage, but that only indicates where he was living at the time of their marriage in 1798. South Mimms is about 15 miles south of Willian, although both parishes lie on the Great North Road.

Elizabeth and John had eleven children at Willian, but four of them (including a pair of twins) died young.

In 1826 John died, being buried on 29th September at Willian. Elizabeth was left with several children still dependent on her - her eldest son James had married, but the other six surviving children were presumably still living at home with her. The youngest child, William, was only five when John died.

Back in Weston, Elizabeth's father died in 1829 and her mother died in 1833.

Nearly eight years after John's death, Elizabeth remarried, when she was 56 years old. Her second husband was a farmer, shopkeeper and publican named William Norman, and they married on 9th May 1834 at Willian.

Elizabeth had at least 21 grandchildren born in her lifetime.

Elizabeth died at the age of 61. She was buried at Willian on 22nd June 1839. William survived her by about eight years.

1. ↑ Church of England. Parish Church of Letchworth. Parish registers, 1696-1937. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   Elizabeth Daughter of James and Mary Cops was Baptized August 3 1777

   This baptism has been linked to the Elizabeth Copps who married John Pratt in 1798 on the basis that it is at about the time implied by the age quoted at her burial and in the neighbouring parish to the one in which she married and lived most of her adult life. There is no sign of a Copps family living in Willian around that time, nor is there any sign of the Elizabeth Copps baptised in Letchworth having died young or married anyone else. Moreover, in 1846 a Josiah Copse married in Willian, who was the nephew of the Elizabeth baptised in 1777 (her brother John's son), and one of the witnesses was Elizabeth's youngest son William Pratt, suggesting a connection.

2.   Deaths index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   d. Elizabeth NORMAN, June Quarter 1839, Hitchin Registration District, Volume 6, page 350, aged 61 [1777/8]

3. ↑ Burials register, in Church of England. Willian Parish Registers.

   BURIALS in the Parish of Willian in the County of Hertford in the Year 1839
   No.	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   140	Elizabeth Norman	Willian	June 22	61	G. Williams, Curate