The Reverend William Henry Cooper of Burleigh Hall

Quite some time ago (2018, actually!) I did some research into the Rev. William Henry Cooper, and I’ve finally managed to resurrect this research and present it to you today. Apologies if a bit of repetition occurs! The relevance of William Henry Cooper to Loughborough is revealed towards the end of this article, but let’s start with the Rev. John Mawbey Cooper, who was at one time (well, for around 50 years, I think!) Rector of Peckleton …

Burleigh Hall, Loughborough

1787 saw the birth of John Mawbey Cooper to the Rev. William Cooper of Burbage and his wife, Martha. Both are listed in Nichols’ ‘History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester’ as a descendant of the Cowper or Cooper family of Sapcote and Stoney Stanton, and John is the son of a niece of Sir Joseph Mawbey. John would later become father to William Henry Cooper.

In 1797 William Henry’s mother, Christian Staresmore Marvin, was born. She was the daughter of William Marvin, of Frowlesworth.

John Mawbey Cooper matriculated at Queen’s College Oxford in 1807, and in 1811 he gained his BA from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was ordained deacon. The following year, 1812, John Mawbey was ordained as priest by the Bishop of Salisbury before becoming the Rector of Peckleton in 1814. On gaining his MA from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1815, John Mawbey was appointed Domestic Chaplain to Lord Montfort.

On 5th August 1817, John Mawbey Cooper married Christian Staresmore Marvin. Their son, William Henry Cooper, was born on 6th December, 1820, in Peckleton, Leicestershire. William Henry was baptised the following year, on 1st January, 1821, at Peckleton church by his own father who was the rector there.

On 1st March 1839, William Henry was admitted to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, having attended Eton School, from which he matriculated in Michaelmas term 1839. In 1844-5 William Henry graduated from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. In 1845 he was ordained as a deacon, and in 1846 he was ordained as a priest.

On 14th March 1850 William Henry Cooper married Joanna Troller Smith Cuninghame, daughter of John Smith Cuninghame, of Caprington Castle Ayrshire, in Ayr.

On the 1851 census return William Henry Cooper, was listed as “Clergyman not having use of souls” [1], and was living with his first wife, Jo[h]anna Trotter Cooper and their 3-month-old daughter, Alexina Margaret Christian, who had been baptised on 10 days earlier in Peckleton. The family were living at Croft House, in Croft, a village in south Leicestershire. The family have nine servants: lady’s maid Jane Ellen Howlett; Ann Clarke, a nurse; Martha Hall the cook; Jane Peberdy the laundry maid; Fanny Beck the house maid; Harriet Smith the kitchen maid; Thomas Brigstock the coachman; Richard Lewis the groom, and George Pearson the gardener. The butler, John Radford, and his wife Ann appear to be living in accommodation separate from the main house. However, by 1852, William Henry and his family had moved to Weddington Castle near Nuneaton.

A second daughter, Susanna Martha Ann, was born to William Henry and Johanna, and she was baptised in Peckleton on 15th June 1852. On 11th October 1853, another daughter, Louisa Mary, was baptised at Weddington.

In 1855, John Henry and Johanna have a son, John Mawbey Hogard Cooper who is baptised at Weddington on 29 May of that year.

In the 1860, first edition of the directory compiled by Edward Walford, entitled: “The County Families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal Manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland.” it is stated that William Henry was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall Cambridge (B.C.L. 144) and was ordained a deacon in 1845 and priest in 1846. At the time of the directory entry, he was a Magistrate for the county of Warwickshire, living at Weddington Castle. He was a member of the Windham Club in South West London. William Henry’s father, John Mawbey, was also listed in the directory, and was a magistrate for Leicester and Lincoln.

On the 1861 census, the family, which now includes two further daughters - Susanna aged 9, and Louisa aged 8, and son, John Mawbey Hogard, aged 6, are living at Weddington Hall (Castle?), near Nuneaton (demolished 19th October 1928). Eleven servants are also living in, although there is no entry for the butler. The cook is Elizabeth Allen; Ann Chin is the nurse; there are two laundry maids, Margaret Goure and Mary Middleton; the two house maids are Elizabeth Haynes and Elizabeth Massey; Mary Swift is the lady’s maid; the kitchen maid is Charlotte Jones; James Warner is the footman, and William Caple and Henry Breward are the gardeners. The coachman, Benjamin Head, his wife Ann, and their three children are living ‘next door’ at the Lodge. 

The Coopers of Peckleton appear in an 1864, second edition of the directory compiled by Edward Walford, entitled: “The County Families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal Manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland.”

At some point, William Henry and family moved to Deeping St James, where William became a church warden. This was also where his parents were living, but sadly, John Mawbey Cooper, William Henry’s father, died on 18th January 1864. His will was proved by Rev. William Henry, at the time being of Long Stratton in Norfolk, and of Deeping St James in the county of Lincoln.

In August 1868, William Henry’s wife, and mother of his four children, Joanna Trotter Cooper died, and was buried at Deeping St James, on 14th August.

On 17th March 1870, William Henry, a Justice of the Peace and landowner, married Mary de Witte, at St James Church in Westminster and at the time of the 1871 census they are living at 17 Adelaide Crescent, Hove, Sussex, with three daughters – Alexina, Susanna, and Louisa - and William’s widowed mother, Christian Staresmore, visitors, Ernest G. R. and Ada Applethwaite, along with 9 servants. Ann Chin seems to have moved with the family, but rather than being listed as a nurse as she was on the 1861 census, on the 1871 census return she is the housekeeper; Elizabeth, possibly Cave and Caroline Pollard are the maids; Sarah H. Chambers and Mary A. Tibell are the house maids; Mary Macdowall is the kitchen maid; Thomas Goure is the butler; Edward Tibell is the coachman, and William Greenwith is the footman.

Sadly, in the latter part of 1873, William Henry and Johanna's son, John Mawbey Hogard Cooper, died at the age of 18. His death was registered in Bourne in Lincolnshire. In early 1874, William Henry’s mother, Christian, died and was buried at Deeping St James on 11 April of that year. Just five years later, William Henry's eldest daughter, Alexina, of Hanover Square, London, died on 6th May 1879, at the age of 28.    

The family are elusive in 1881 and I have been unable to find them on the 1881 census returns.

By 1883, William Henry has moved to Burleigh Hall. In 1883 roofing lead was stolen from Burleigh Hall, the perpetrators George Broad being discharged, but Joseph Warren being sentenced to 21 days’ hard labour. 

In 1887 William Henry’s youngest daughter, Louisa Mary, died on March 10th at Bournemouth, after a long illness. She died without leaving a will, and probate was granted on 6th September 1887, to her father, William Henry, who is described as being of Burleigh Hall, Loughborough, Leicestershire, and late of the Manor House, Deeping St James, Lincolnshire.

William Henry, in 1891 now aged 70, was living at Burleigh Hall with his wife Mary (de Witte) and eight servants. Caroline Pollard was now the housekeeper, having moved with the family from Hove, where she had been one of the maids; Elizabeth day was the cook; Elizabeth Whirledge and Saran Ann Dickinson were the house maids; Caroline Simpson was the kitchen maid; John Heath was the butler, George Astill was the footman, and George Cooper was the under gardener. The head gardener, George Parker, was listed as living at Burleigh Cottage, which appears next to Burleigh Hall on the census return.

On 17th August 1895 William Henry’s second wife, Mary (de Witte) died, after a lingering illness, borne with calm resignation and Christian patience, and being described as a beloved and devoted wife.

In 1899, Sophia Perry Herrick of Beaumanor Park conveyed to William Henry Cooper of Burleigh Hall, in trust for Harry Simpson Gee of Leicester, Edward Handley Warner of Quorn Hall, Hussey Packe of Prestwold Hall, and others, 2 acres of land on Hunger Hill in Woodhouse, and the right of drainage of the adjoining land of Sophia Perry Herrick. The covenants to William Henry Cooper stated that the land would be used as the site for a convalescent home for women and children, and that Gee, Warner, Packe and others would be on the management committee of the home. The convalescent home was created, and was used as such between 1900 and 1966, when it was sold to the Church of England [2]. It continued to be a convalescent home until 1987, and by 1989 had become a residential care home for the elderly. The property is now apartments known as Charnwood House.   

At the time of the 1901 census, aged 80 and widowed, William Henry was living at Burleigh Hall with seven servants, one of whom was described as a “sick nurse”. His occupation was listed as “Clerk in holy orders:  clergyman of Church of England”.  The other servants were Caroline Pollard, the housekeeper, and Elizabeth Day the cook, both of whom had been with the family for some years; Charlotte Ward and Ethel Battle both housemaids; Maria Marston the kitchen maid, and John Heath the butler, who had also been with the family since at least 1891.

On 21st April 1903, William Henry Cooper died, at the time he was living at 45 St. Martins, Stamford. Probate was granted in London on 14th July 1903 to Colonel John Anstruther Smith Cuninghame, Charles Ethelston Parke esquire,  James Lawford, bank manager, and William Duncan, solicitor. Effects amounted to £106,607 12s. 4d..  

At the time of his death he had shares in the Great Western Railway, which upon his death were transferred to: Col. John Anstruther Smith Cuninghame; Charles Ethelston Parkes; James Lawford and William Duncan. These 88,047 shares were valued at £6050.00.

The notice of his death which appeared in the ‘Stamford Mercury’ of 24th April 1903, notes his father, Rev. John Mawbev Cooper was Rector at Peckleton for nearly 50 years. William Henry formerly resided at his own property, Manor House in Deeping St James, before moving to Burleigh Hall, Loughborough where he lived for 18 years. He had only been living in Stamford for 18 months before his death. The notice goes on to say his “generosity was extended in large measure to the parish of Deeping St James. He invested sums of money to augment the living, defrayed the cost of re-hanging the bells and adding new ones, and the making of a new roof for the south aisle. He also gave a stained glass window and contributed to other works. The family vault is in the church at Deeping, where are interred his father, mother, two wives and children, one daughter alone surviving who is obliged in consequence of delicate health, to live in the South of England. Deceased was a munificent donor to the Convalescent Home for Children at Woodhouse Eaves near Loughborough, which is a great boon to the county of Leicester, His contribution to the home was given in memory of his late wife.”

A full account of his will which appeared in the ‘[London] Morning Post’ of 17th July 1903, lists all his bequests. The value of his estate was £106,607.00. Money was left to many religious institutions, including the Church Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Peterborough Cathedral Restoration Fund, as well as to many health institutions and the National Lifeboat Institute. Those of most interest to Loughborough are: Leicester Royal Infirmary - £500; Loughborough Dispensary and Infirmary £300; Charnwood Forest Convalescent Home, near Loughborough £200, and Dr Arthur Eddowes £1000 [3].

Interestingly, the account also mentions the Cooper Convalescent Home at Woodhouse Eaves (later perhaps known as the Cooper Memorial Children’s Convalescent Home), who were given £1000 (and more upon the death of his daughter). Sums of money were also left to various other institutions, with instruction that beds be named after William Henry himself, Mary de Witte Cooper (his wife) and Alexina Cooper (his daughter). His daughter, Susanna Martha Anne Cooper was given an annuity of £800, and what remained of the estate was left to Charles Ethelston Parke of Henbury House, Wimbourne.

William Henry Cooper set up a charity in his name, The Charity of the Reverend William Henry Cooper, with the objectives of “paying the expense of keeping clean and in proper repair the memorial windows and brasses and monuments to his family in the church of Deeping St James, or if only part of the income be required for this purpose for repairs or improvements and maintenance of the church, or otherwise for the benefit of the deserving poor of the parish at the discretion of the trustees or in any other manner as the trustees shall select for the benefit of the church or parish.”

William Henry and Johanna's daughter Susanna, who had been born in 1852, died on 30th December 1908, whilst living on Christchurch Road, Bournemouth. She had never married, and probate was granted on 20th April 1909 to James Lawford who had now retired from banking, and David McIntosh Gibb, a solicitor. Effects amounted to £5,544 1s. 7d..

There are photographs available on the internet which are potentially portraits of William Henry, his wife Mary, her father, Gerard John de Witte, and her mother, Sarah Crutchley, but I've lost the link - sorry!

Some of the stories of other residents of Burleigh Hall have already been published on this blog, others are yet to come. See: 

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-right-honourable-alan-joseph.html

AND

https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-right-hon-alan-joseph-pennington-of.html 

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NOTES

[1] Although William Henry had taken up a curacy, this only lasted a short time, and a clergyman listed as ‘not having cure of souls’ was one who was not actually working as a curate, vicar, or rector.

[2] In 1966, the Charnwood Forest Children’s Convalescent Home was sold to the Church of England, and became known as the Charnwood Nursery for Physically Disabled Children, being run by the Church of England Children’s Society (which was renamed in 1982 to The Children’s Society). In 1976, the property was extended to provide holiday accommodation for disabled children and their parents. In 1987 the home was closed and its activities were moved into a smaller premises in Leicester, and in 1989 the building became a residential care home for the elderly. Today, the house has been converted into residential flats, and renamed Charnwood house. See more info at: https://www.woodhouseparishcouncil.org.uk/recovery-homes.html

[3] This is Dr Arthur Benjamin Jackson Eddowes who in 1908 was living at Theydon, a large house on Ashby Road (which I have yet to locate: See more info at http://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2013/10/spotlight-on.html ), who was brother to Dr John Henry Eddowes who lived at Burleigh Fields House with his unmarried sisters until his death in 1906. 

Originally researched and written August 2018, updated October 2023

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Dyer, Lynne (2023). The Reverend William Henry Cooper of Burleigh Hall. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-reverend-william-henry-cooper-of.html [Accessed 15 October 2023]

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