Henry Cope petitioned for divorce (see files on the National Archives: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7984429 )
He named George Fairchild as co-respondent, which normally means that his wife had committed adultery with George Fairchild. By the law of the time, a husband divorcing his wife had to name a co-respondent (the same was not true in reverse). George may have been liable for costs if his "misconduct" with Rose was proven.
A good source for US records is familysearch. Here are the family (misindexed) in 1900:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M37B-HJZ
It looks to me like all the children as listed as born in Pennsylvania (exact birthplaces are generally not given on the US census).
I think this is Rosa (also with George) arriving into New York in 1886:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVSV-64XY
(no children with them)
Also her death:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VK88-J6L
And that of a child:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDB4-F45
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Oh my goodness. I've found the Divorce papers... I am thrilled/shocked/happy/sad...and most of all, eternally grateful to you Jo for finding this information for me. What a wonderful gift you've given me.
It IS the right family... Rose 'Cranmer' is named in the papers (and the marriage certificate is given), and Cranmer is exactly what I want.
Thrilled, because Rose Cranmer had been un-findable - and no wonder, if she ran off to America with the guy next door...! Happy that I now know what happened to her, and happy that she had more children, and they had children, and the line is continuing, hooray!
Sad, though, that Henry Cope seems to have been cheated on - and so was George Fairchild's wife Harriet (who I see had to go into service for the rest of her life).
There is a family on Ancestry (Private Tree) called Marshall who descend from Rose & George's daughter Louisa Rose Fairchild/Marshall 1891 - 1962, and they know nothing about where Rose Cranmer/Cope/Fairchild came from - and now I will be able to tell them, because I have her history.
Rose (originally Rosetta) and her mother Esther Cranmer had a very difficult time - Esther (Marian Esther Chantler) had married Irish-born Hedley Cranmer, who very swiftly deserted his wife and little Rose in London, going back up North and calling himself a 'widow' (which he was definitely not), so that he could have other relationships (and children) with other women. He was in jail in the 1870s I think, can't recall off-hand what for.
It's good to see that Rose Fairchild named her first daughter Esther, after her mother.
Fascinating to see that the Fairchilds behave like many of the rest of us, in a very human fashion - being economical with information, vague about dates, and sometimes telling outright lies in order to get what they need, i.e. safety, work and shelter in a new and foreign land.
I'm still wondering: the eldest 'Fairchild' child in Pennsylvania seems to have been born in 1886 "in England", not the USA... the divorce was asked for in the same year, 1886...On one Ancestry chart, this George Harold Fairchild appears as 'half-brother' to the subsequent Fairchild children - so (if this is correct), was he George Fairchild's son, or Henry Cope's son? I can't find an 1886 Birth registration for him in England (there seems to be a later baptism for him in Pennsylvania, along with a younger brother). Rose and George are alone (no kids) on the boat to America - so was she pregnant with the boy? Otherwise, wouldn't he have been named on the ship's list, even if he were a baby? Could he have been born on the boat - would this have been considered 'England', because they hadn't yet disembarked? It might have been a reason for their apparently sudden flight from Essex to New York.
