Deciphering which facts are facts ... and which fiction?

Q Joseph Cooksey (also referred to here as Joseph junior) was baptised on 27 April 1796 at St. Philips, Birmingham, to parents Joseph and Mary. However, I suspect that Mary was an error as his siblings baptised at the same church 17941804 have Elizabeth as their mother. Joseph and Elizabeth were married at St. Philips 19 May 1793. Joseph senior died in 1825 aged 59.

Joseph junior married Ann Martin on 27 April 1817 at St. Philips. In 1826 or 1827 a Joseph Cooksey, born in 1796, was convicted of house breaking at Warwick Assizes and sentenced to life transportation. He sailed on the Marquis of Hastings on 14 April 1827, arriving in Australia on 21 July 1827. Joseph died on 14 April 1828 aged 30 according to the convict death register.

Ann Cooksey née Martin is found in 1841 in Floodgate Street, Birmingham, with children Elizah (15), Henry (14), Mary (12), Thomas (7) and Elizabeth (2) but no husband.

Thomas went on to marry in 1853 and Henry in 1857 and both gave their father as William Cooksey, bricklayer, whom Thomas gave as deceased in 1853.

Thomas gave his address as Floodgate Street. So William Cooksey was the father of Ann’s children, except perhaps for Elizah.

On 20 October 1848 Ann Cooksey, widow, married George Hall, both of Floodgate Street. Previously on 01 October 1842 Ann had given birth to a daughter, Caroline, whilst living in Floodgate Street. The father was given as George Cooksey. I suspect that in fact the father was George Hall and that Ann wished to hide the illegitimate birth and so invented a father by combining the two names.

In 1851 Ann Hall (formerly Cooksey) is found with George Hall and children Thomas (17), Elizabeth (12) and Caroline (8) living in Floodgate Street.

In 1871 Ann Hall, a widow aged 70, was living with daughter Caroline age 30. Ann died in the December quarter of 1872 aged 74.

My problem is who was William Cooksey given as the father in the two marriages? I can find no birth, marriage or death to fit the known facts. Secondly who were the parents of Joseph born about 1766?

Christopher Cooksey

A On 22 July 1822, in St. Martin’s, Birmingham, there is a baptism for an Eliza Cooksey, parents Joseph and Ann. The address is given as Deritend and the father’s occupation is given as a labourer. Eliza was therefore clearly Joseph’s daughter. In 1841 Eliza would have been around nineteen but her age in the 1841 Census would have been rounded down to the nearest five so she is recorded as fifteen.

Career criminal

Joseph seems to have been something of a career criminal. In addition to your three newspaper extracts detailing his court appearances for various offences, there are at least two others, one for stealing a bridle and one for stealing forty tame pigeons. The Warwickshire Advertiser for 29 July 1826 records a death sentence for Joseph Cooksey for a burglary at the house of William Wheat but it would appear that this was then commuted as in Aris’s Birmingham Gazette for Monday 28 August 1826 Joseph is listed as one of several convicts sentenced to transportation for life who are being removed from the County Gaol and sent to Gosport ‘for transportation’. He was presumably held there until he sailed in April 1827.

Unlikely father of henry

Given that Joseph appeared in court on 29 July 1826 before being moved to Gosport the following month, it seems unlikely that he could be the father of Henry, aged fourteen in the 1841 Census which was taken on 06 June. Without knowing Henry’s exact date of birth, though, we can’t be certain. What we can be sure about is that Henry, even if he was the son of Joseph, wouldn’t have had any memory of him and if his mother had begun a relationship with William, a bricklayer, then he would easily have accepted him as his father. As you have discovered, however, there doesn’t seem to be a William Cooksey who could be the father.

The thinking behind the surname

So who was the father of possibly Henry, 14, and of Mary, 12, Thomas, 7, and Elizabeth, 2, who are with their mother Ann in Floodgate Street in 1841? I suspect that he was indeed a bricklayer called William but that his surname was not Cooksey. Ann’s legal surname was still Cooksey after Joseph’s death and I think she was making sure that her children used what would have been, under the circumstances, their legal surname also.

Possibilities worth exploring

I’ve searched the 1841 Census for a bricklayer with the first name William without finding a likely candidate and the fact that there is no William as head of the household with Ann in 1841 suggests that he might have died pre-1841. Indeed, looking at the 1841 ages, the gap between Thomas aged 7 and Elizabeth aged 2 might suggest that Elizabeth had a different father.

There are a few possibilities which might be worth following up:

• Elizabeth, aged two in 1841, would have been born around 1839 so within statutory registration. Even though Ann used the surname Cooksey for all the family in the censuses and the two boys used it when they married, it’s always possible that Elizabeth was actually registered under a different surname at birth, especially as there is no likely registration for an Elizabeth Cooksey. There is, however, a birth registration for an Elizabeth Patterson in the December quarter of 1838 in Birmingham with mother’s maiden surname Martin so this might be worth pursuing. The parents might still appear as married on the birth certificate, even if they were not.

• Eliza, the daughter of Joseph and Ann, was baptised so it’s possible the other children were also baptised. On what she might have seen as an ‘unofficial’ record, maybe the children were baptised under their father’s surname. Interestingly, there is both a Mary Humpage and an Elizabeth Humpage baptised in St Martin’s in 1828 and 1840 respectively, both with parents William and Ann and with William’s occupation as a bricklayer, though this couple seem to have had other children who don’t fit so that might rule them out. Other Birmingham churches which are not online would be worth checking to see whether all the first names appear at the right times with a common surname, especially if the father is a bricklayer.

• A marriage certificate for both Mary and Elizabeth would be worth searching for to see who is given as the father.

I think the same thing happened with Caroline, born in 1842. With her father as George Cooksey on the birth certificate Ann is again making sure that this daughter also has her ‘official’ surname of Cooksey. I don’t think she was actually inventing a father – just adapting the father to suit the circumstances! The fact that her birth certificate records her as Cooksey and her parents appear as married, even though her parents were not, is probably why she is recorded as such in 1851, even though her parents have now married.

Interestingly, Henry’s 1857 birth certificate has one of the witnesses as Elizabeth Hall.

Back to Joseph Cooksey Senior

I can’t see a likely baptism for a 1766 Joseph Cooksey but the only Birmingham parish records online are those for St Martin’s so, if you are able to visit Birmingham’s archives department, it’s a case of trawling through the registers. Alternatively, have a look for relevant publications by the local family history societies. The family might, of course, have come from elsewhere. There is a Joseph Cooksey baptised on 22 October 1769 in Bushbury, Wolverhampton, with parents Joseph and Mary. ME