Whittaker - Fingringhoe & Layer-de-la-Haye, Wade, Cooper & other families

[helvissa]

Hello all,

I'm researching my Wade ancestors. I'm as far back as Edward Wade (abt 1742 - 1808, died in Fingringhoe) and his wife Elizabeth Cardinal (b abt 1742 - 1803, died in Fingringhoe).

I'm descended from their son, Edward Wade (b abt 1769 Layer-de-la-Haye, died 1837 Fingringhoe), and his wife Sarah Pritchett (b abt 1771, died 1826 Fingringhoe).

There's patterns of naming in this family, so that children are often given the middle name of Cardinal or Pritchett. This goes on for generations. But as well as those two names, there's a third middle name which keeps popping up - Whittaker.

The first Whittaker in the Wade family is Sarah Whittaker Wade (abt 1773 Layer, died 1844, possibly Colchester), daughter of the first Edward and his wife Elizabeth. She gives the Whittaker middle name to one her children.

Edward (born abt 1769) gives the middle name to his son Charles Whittaker Wade (1796-1864).

There are at least 7 other people in my tree, descended from that first marriage between Edward Wade & Elizabeth Cardinal who have the middle name Whittaker.

Now, the thing is, I can't find the name appearing as a surname anywhere in that area. I'm transcribing Fingringhoe for FreeREG and there's just no Whittaker surnames there! I'm hampered in this somewhat as ERO's baptisms for Layer-de-la-Haye don't start until the 1760s, so if Edward Wade 1st and his wife were born in Layer and had a mother with the maiden name Whittaker, that would presumably be the connection.

But.... other families in Fingringhoe use Whittaker as a middle name - the Cooper and Pertwee families for starters. What I'm wondering is:

1. are the Wades, Coopers and Pertwees related somehow and have a common Whittaker ancestor?
2. was there a Whittaker family who were quite prominent and the Wades, Coopers & Pertwees were naming their children after this family? But if so, why did the middle name keep repeating even once no Whittaker families were in the area?
3. A mixture of the above? I think I found a Cooper/Whittaker marriage in Layer at some point, so perhaps they were using Whittaker as a middle name after that, and the Wades used it in honour of that family? (seeing as it's not unknown for people to name their children after Horatio Nelson or the local surgeon!).

So what I really want to know is, does anyone who knows the people in this area know of the Whittaker family?

Or is it just the case that, when I tried to explain this to my boyfriend, his response was "Whittaker? That's a cool middle name!" I'm not sure if an 18th century wheelwright would have called it "cool" but...!

[olleym]

Have you tried Berechurch and Layer Bretton PRs?
I ask as google led me to a 1934 publication on the history of Layer de la Haye and in the 1700's all 3 parishes shared 1 vicar. The book also references people who died in LDLH being buried in Berechurch.

Mark

[helvissa]

Hello,

Yes, I think I must've found the same thing as you about Berechurch and Layer Breton - had a look, and... nothing. :-/

I'm being dense actually... the Whittaker marriage was in Fingringhoe:

28 Sep 1762, John Tiffin, sm of Layer de la Haye, & Sarah Whittaker, sw. By licence. Witnesses: Thos junr & Mary Cooper. (perhaps I should send off for a copy of the marriage licence allegation...).

But, from the mid 1600s when the Fingringhoe registers are available, to the 1850s (which is how far I've got transcribing them), there aren't any baptisms of anyone with the surname Whittaker in Fingringhoe.

Also, when the abovementioned Sarah Whittaker Wade got married in 1798 to John Lingwood, one of the witnesses was John W Cooper - and I'm fairly sure he's John Whittaker Cooper, who turns up elsewhere. He was baptized in Fingringhoe in 1760, son of Thomas & Mary Cooper. It makes him the contemporary of Sarah Whittaker Wade. It does make me wonder if the Coopers and Wades are cousins with the connection being a Whittaker somewhere. It could be that the witnesses of the 1762 Tiffin marriage are the same Thos & Mary Cooper who are John Whittaker Cooper's parents - perhaps making Mary Cooper the sister of Sarah? (But I can't see a candidate for Thos & Mary Cooper's marriage on Findmypast or Freereg yet, or in the LDLH register on Seax... their first child was born in about 1757).

Oh, if only the Layer de la Haye early registers were available!!!

[helvissa]

Interesting... John W Cooper pops up again in 1821, when he witnesses the marriage of Sarah Whittaker Lingwood in Colchester (she was a daughter of John Lingwood and Sarah Whittaker Wade). Same John or his son? Is he just fond of witnessing the marriages of people who share his middle name?!

[helvissa]

I found out something else....

When Edward 2 (1769-1837) and Sarah Pritchett (1771-1826) marry in 1791, one of their witnesses is Mary Waynman.

I'd started researching the Cooper and Whittaker families and found a Thomas Waynman (1755-1796), whose mother was Sarah Cooper (1717-?). Sarah Cooper's brother, Thomas (1723-1782), married Mary Whittaker (1733-1769), and their son was John Whittaker Cooper.

Thomas marries Mary Marsden in Colchester in 1782 - so it's entirely possible that this is the Mary Waynman who witnesses Edward & Sarah Wade's 1791 marriage. Especially as the handwriting is VERY similar. So in other words, the wife of John Whittaker Cooper's cousin witnesses my ancestors' marriage. Then after Thomas dies in 1769, Mary Marsden marries Thomas Nice in 1797 - and a Sarah Wade is the witness. There's a blob between Sarah and Wade which could be a W. Again - comparing the writing, it could be Sarah née Pritchett who is witnessing.

So... another connection, possibly.

[helvissa]

There is also a connection with the parish of Polstead.

From at least 1776, the first Wade family (Edward Wade (abt 1742 - 1808, died in Fingringhoe) and his wife Elizabeth Cardinal (b abt 1742 - 1803, died in Fingringhoe)) were living in Polstead - we can see this from the baptisms of Thomas (1776) and Samuel (1778). In 1782, my ancestor Edward Wade (son of Edward & Elizabeth) was apprenticed as a carpenter to someone in Stoke, Suffolk - this parish is right next door to Polstead. This presence in Suffolk further explains why Edward 2 ended up married to Sarah Pritchett (in 1791), who was resident in St James, Bury St. Ed's.

John Whittaker Cooper's father, Thomas Cooper, was born in Polstead in abt 1723. When he married Mary Whittaker in Ramsey in 1755, his abode was Polstead. Quite soon after their marriage, they were in Fingringhoe (their first child was baptised there in 1757). In fact, John Whittaker's grandfather, (another Thomas Cooper) lived in Fingringhoe in the 1730s, but was back in Polstead in by 1767 when he wrote his will.

What I can't decide at the moment is if the Wade family is related to the Whittaker family or if the Wade family were employed by them in some way. Edward Wade 1 is a labourer when he marries (according to the licence), and he and his wife mark. They weren't the same rank as the Coopers, who were farmers who owned land. Before moving to Polstead, they were living in  Layer-de-la-Haye, next door to Fingringhoe, so could've known the Cooper/Whittaker lot that way. By 1773 the connection existed because this is the baptism of their daugher Sarah Whittaker Wade. I haven't been able to find out very much about the Whittakers.

I'm now wondering though if the Pritchett family knew the Coopers, through Sarah and Mary witnessing each other's marriages.

Another connection - which could be a coincidence, but there's so many overlapping connections going on here, so who knows - Mary Marsden/Waynman/Nice's brother, John Marsden, lives next door to Charles Stone in Colchester on the 1851 census. Charles Stone is the son of Thomas Lewis Stone & Elizabeth (née Wade). Elizabeth, born in 1771 in Fingringhoe, is the daughter of Edward Wade 1 and his wife Elizabeth!

[smudwhisk]

You've probably already found this but Thomas Cooper husband of Mary Whitaker is the son of Thomas and Margaret Cooper.  I don't know as yet what Margaret's maiden name was as don't have their marriage.  Thomas senior I'm pretty sure is the son of another Thomas Cooper and his first wife Elizabeth Mash.  He married again in 1728 to a widow Sarah Clarke and died in 1742 leaving an Archdeaconry of Sudbury Will, mentioning his son Thomas, son Edward and daughter Elizabeth Chrisp.  Interestingly though that Thomas was illiterate and doesn't leave a great amount in his Will, most is left to his son Edward who was the younger of his sons.  If Thomas gentleman of Polstead who died in 1771 is his son then he would appear to have made his own money or possibly married into it.  Other members of the wider Cooper family were financially better off.

There are a lot of Thomas Coopers in the Polstead/Boxford area, I've been struggling to sort them out for years once I get to the 1700s.   My last direct Cooper ancestor was the sister of Thomas Cooper husband of Elizabeth Mash, her husband was one of the executors of his Will and the bondsman apparently for his second marriage in 1728.  I found a reference to this marriage via google as the document is apparently now at Keele University.  I'm pretty sure Thomas senior is the son of Thomas and Elizabeth because of the name Judith.  That Thomas also had a daughter Judith and a sister Judith, his paternal grandmother was Judith Crowe from Colchester.

It may well be that Margaret first wife of Thomas Cooper of Polstead may be the connection but the marriage needs to be found.

[helvissa]

Hello! It's nice to hear from a relative of the Coopers!

Yes, I've got Thomas Cooper, born about 1723 in Polstead, son of Thomas & Margaret. But apparently no marriage for Thomas & Margaret in Polstead.

I saw the 1728 marriage in the marriage licence allegation book on archive.org and thought that Margaret had died and it was Thomas (d. 1771) who had remarried, but that would make sense then if it's actually his father, because in 1729 you have the baptism in Fingringhoe of Judith, daughter of Thomas & Margaret - so Margaret was still about.

Could Margaret be the Margaret Cooper buried in Polsted, 13 Oct 1759? From the poll books, Thomas is in Polstead in 1763 (appearing in the poll books for Fingringhoe in 1734). Equally, it could be his daughter, Margaret.... (I think she popped up in a will and I don't have a marriage for her yet).

That's a very good point that Margaret could be the connection with the Wades... hmmm....

[smudwhisk]

It's always possible Thomas and Margaret married in Essex, the Polstead/Boxford family did have quite a few connections with the county.  I've been through quite a few of the parishes near Polstead and don't appear to have a marriage for them, unless I missed it which is always possible

As for the 1759 burial of a Margaret Cooper in Polstead, it could be Thomas' wife.  There are also two other possibilities, one in 1743 and another in 1753, although the latter was from Stoke, so should could be any of them.  There is also a Joseph and Margaret Cooper in Polstead from the 1710s onwards, but I think she will be the the widow buried in 1765 as her husband appears to have been buried in 1758.  Margaret Cooper the daughter is indeed mentioned in her father's Will written in 1767 so she's not going to be any of the burials prior to that date.

I wonder if Thomas and Margaret were back in Polstead by 1749 because of Judith's marriage in Boxford that year and Ann marrying John Holbrow the same year in Wissington.  If they'd been still living in Fingringhoe, I would have thought it more likely that they would have married there.

I'm not sure why I did read your post because I was unaware of the Cooper connection with Fingringhoe, but I'm glad I did since it's at least helped me sort out some of the numerous Thomas Coopers in the Polstead area.   I'm now pretty sure that Thomas senior was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Mash because Judith Woodruffe daughter of Judith Cooper married William Woodthorpe, whose father's sister was married to Thomas Rudland of Harwich.  Thomas' nephew married one of Ann Cooper's (sister of Thomas who married Elizabeth Mash) granddaughters, which tends to support further my theory because the families obviously all knew each other.  Ann Cooper's son was from Boxford but married a Harwich lass around the time that Thomas and Margaret were in Fingringhoe, which is probably how they met too.

Hopefully, you'll find the answer to the use of the Whitaker name as a middle name.  I do wonder if it is the Whitaker family that is the connection.