Hi Susan,
Firstly, thank you so much for pointing me in the direction of the clue I missed! I read that George Cookson was 35 years old, not that he was 35 years and upwards, this new idea makes a lot of other things fall into place now. I had been going round in circles wondering why I couldn't find a baptism for him, and setting him up with a possible father who would only have been around 15 at the time of his birth. Now that I realise that there is just the one George Cookson, born around 1726, and who almost certainly was married twice, it makes much more sense. I also have his father as Robert, who also seems to have been married twice, firstly to Elisabeth, and then, in his old age, to Jennet Dixon. So far I've not got any further back than that, but I was wondering if there are any more clues in the two wills you mentioned. Is there any property mentioned in both wills which would confirm the link between Robert and George?
You are correct in you research for George's son Robert, it is him who married Nancy Paulden Hardy in 1819. The mention of Elleray in Westmoreland in relation to Robert had eluded me for many years, as I could find no mention of the place at all. It was only a few months ago that I searched again and Google came up with Elleray Bank, and I checked out the baptisms in the area and discovered one for Robert at just the right time. Since then I've had DNA matches come up with other descendants of George and Jane, so I feel confident in the link now.
For many years I have had a black and white photograph of a painting of four young girls, with a scribbled note that these were "The Cookson sisters - At the back Mrs Pease, then after Mrs Pickford, on the left Mrs Lillie, On the right Mrs Athill, sitting, aged 2/3, Mrs Hutchinson". I had always known that the young girl, Mary Ann Cookson married my 2x great grandfather, William Henry Heap Hutchinson, but it took me a while to find names for her three sisters, Martha, Jane, and Sarah, and their husbands. Sadly, their father, Robert, had died a few months before Mary Ann was born. Robert had run what appears to have been a successful coaching business in Manchester for around 20 years.
I'd be interested to learn where you fit into the Cookson family and work our how we are related, and maybe see if we can work together to take the family back a bit further.
Best wishes, Nicola