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m. Est 1794
(edit)
m. 21 Jan 1838
Facts and Events
Sarah Bower Cooper was born about 1816 in Bexley, Kent and baptised in the parish church on 13 October 1816. Her father was carpenter Thomas Cooper. Her mother Sarah's maiden name is currently unknown - based on Sarah Jr.'s middle name it was possibly Bower however no marriage record has yet been found for a Thomas Cooper marrying a Sarah Bower. A search for families with names similar to Bower living in the area of has not yet yielded any clues. Sarah Bower Cooper had at least four older siblings baptised in Bexley: Elizabeth (1796), Thomas (1810), William (1812) and John (1814). The gap between Elizabeth and the other siblings possibly indicates this is two different families, or that other children were baptised elsewhere in between, but with such common names and father's occupations not being included in early baptism records it's difficult to be sure baptisms in different locations belong to the same family. It's possible the whole Cooper family moved to Hammersmith before 1838 where Sarah's brother William witnessed Sarah's marriage, and another brother Thomas was living in Hammersmith during the 1841 census. Sarah married Thomas William Kirkham, son of customs house officer Major Kirkham and Sarah Stoneham, at the Hammersmith parish church (St. Paul's) on 21 January 1838. Witnesses to the marriage were William Cooper and Matilda Kirkham (Thomas's sister). The marriage certificate lists Thomas' occupation as "comb maker". Thomas and Sarah's first known child, Thomas Joseph, was born 30 January 1841 and baptised at St. Matthew's Church, Bethnal Green on his first birthday. The small family were living at North Cottage, North Place in Bethnal Green during the 1841 census. North Place was at the west end of Hartley St in the area of Park St. Fifty years later Charles Booth said the cottages on the north side of North Passage as "could not look worse than they do", and in general the area was likely quite poor. The next child that we know of was William, baptised at St. Leonard's Church in Shoreditch on 21 September 1845. The certificate lists Thomas as a porter and their address as Leonard Street. They were still living there and Thomas was again working as a combmaker when their first daughter Sarah was baptised at St. Leonard's in 1848. Sarah was followed by Mary Ann, born in Bethnal Green in 1850. On the 1851 census the family of Thomas, Sarah and their four young children were living at 3 Nelson Street in Bethnal Green. Thomas was now listed as a marine store dealer but he was again listed as a combmaker later in 1851 when his daughter Mary Ann was baptised at St. George in the East church. The area of Bethnal Green they were living in was noted in 1848 to have a "total absence of gardens... The houses then built were chiefly to accommodate the weavers, and the practice followed was, to build a street of several stories, not, as is the present custom, to plant on the damp, undrained soil, two rooms on a ground floor. In this district, a very great number of the houses are built on a level from 18-inches to 2-feet below that of the path-way. Dust and dirt, therefore, readily become deposited in the houses, and there is much difficulty in cleansing them. In the summer season, moreover, they are very liable to have the mud washed into them. At all times they are very damp, and become sources of much disease to the inhabitants; rheumatism is extremely prevalent, and forms a large proportion of the cases of sickness. Over-crowding takes place to a great extent in this district. Many of the houses in Nelson-street, which have only four moderate sized rooms, have a family in each floor." By June 1851 the family had again moved, now to 29 Lower Grove Street (likely in the parish of St. George-in-the-East, where daughter Mary Ann was baptised). The 1850s brought more hungry mouths to feed, with daughters Ann Cooper Kirkham born about 1852 and Eliza Mary Kirkham born 29 Feb 1856 at 9 Alfred Row, Bethnal Green (off Derbyshire St). The 1848 report on sanitary conditions said of Alfred Row "the street is very filthy and dirty... the privies still drain into the gutters... Fever and erysipelas are common in this street... the houses being composed of two rooms, one above the other, each occupied by different families. The size of the lower rooms of these houses is 10-feet 1-inch, by 11-feet, (allowing for a recess,) and 6-feet 9-inches in height. In the last house the atmosphere was scarcely to be breathed, even for a moment, with impunity. Four persons sleep in it. Two children had had small-pox, of whom one died; the other was at the height of the eruption." In the 1861 census the Kirkham family were living at 9 Turville Street, Bethnal Green, with Thomas and Sarah working as a general dealer and charwoman respectively, and their 14 year-old sister Sarah working as a nursemaid. They shared the house with 7 other families, totaling 40 people. British History Online describes Turville Street in 1874 as being "in the heart of the slums". Thomas Kirkham had many jobs over his lifetime including comb maker, porter, greengrocer, "traveller" and general dealer - perhaps he struggled to find regular work. Sarah marked Eliza's birth certificate with a cross, indicating that Sarah was unable to write. It is reasonable to assume that the family were very poor and surviving in some of the harshest living conditions of Victorian England. A death record has been found for Sarah Kirkham - there are no other death index records within 20 years of her last known record that match in terms of name and area. It seems likely to be for the right person however it may be useful to see if there are hospital admission or death records that could provide more evidence. This Sarah Kirkham died 26 Oct 1864 at the London Fever Hospital, 1 day after being admitted to hospital, of typhus bronchitis. Typhus was a bacterial infection spread by fleas and lice, particularly among the poor of Victorian London who lived in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Sarah left a young family when she died - her youngest child Eliza was only 8 years old. It's not yet known when Sarah's husband Thomas died. [edit] DNA GenealogyIf you are a descendant of Sarah Cooper and would like to compare autosomal DNA results please contact Jocelyn_K_B (at) yahoo.com for kit numbers Image Gallery
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