Mary Cooper (abt. 1738 - 1766)

Born about Feb 1738 in Norwich, Norfolk, England

Ancestors

Died 22 Sep 1766 at about age 28 in Norwich, Norfolk, England

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Biography

Mary Cooper was the second daughter of Samuel Cooper and his wife Mary Lovick. She was born in the early months of what now in the Gregorian calendar would be 1738, but in the old Julian calendar was 1737. Mary was baptised at St. Stephen's on 9 February 1737/8:

Feb 9th Mary the daughter of Mr. Sam: Cooper and Mary his wife was Bap: Feb: 9th ^[1]

When Mary was six weeks old, her older sister Catherine died at the age of about 18 months and was buried at St. Stephen's ^[2]

Mary was born into a comfortable middle class family. Both her father Samuel and her maternal grandfather William Lovick were apothecaries. In 1737 William Lovick was first elected to the post of Alderman in the City of Norwich. ^[3]

In 1739 when Mary was two, her brother Samuel was born, named for both his father and his paternal grandfather. ^[4]

And in 1740, a second brother William was born. ^[5]

Both of these brothers survived into adulthood. Samuel became a minister in the Church of England and William became a surgeon at Guys Hospital in London.

Mary did not marry, and was probably still living at her parental home in St Stephen's parish when she died on 22 September 1766 aged 28. She was buried in the church on 26 September.^[6] She has a very fine memorial floor stone in the church, which is of the same type of stone and carving as that of her parents, and also bears the arms of her nephew Sir Ashley Paston Cooper. ^[7]

When her father Samuel wrote his Will in 1778 ^[8] he ended with this request:

I desire my Funeral to be in a Morning privately and to be laid next to my daughter but with Room for my Wife betwitx the Wall and me...

Sources

1. ↑ Parish register of the church of St Stephen, Norwich, Norfolk. Norfolk County record Office. Image on FamilySearch
2. ↑ Parish register of the church of St Stephen, Norwich, Norfolk. Norfolk County record Office. Image on FamilySearch
3. ↑ William Lovick in: Francis Blomefield. "The city of Norwich, chapter 37: Of the city in the time of King George II," in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3, the History of the City and County of Norwich, Part I, (London: W Miller, 1806), 443-454. British History Online, accessed January 30, 2020. Image
4. ↑ Parish register of the church of St Stephen, Norwich, Norfolk. Norfolk County record Office. Image on FamilySearch
5. ↑ Parish register of the church of St Stephen, Norwich, Norfolk. Norfolk County record Office. Image on FamilySearch
6. ↑ Parish register of the church of St Stephen, Norwich, Norfolk. Norfolk County record Office. Image on FamilySearch
7. ↑ Mary Cooper's gravestone on Gravestonephotos.com <a href="http://gravestonephotos.com/public/gravedetails.php?grave=570759<img src="http://gravestonephotos.com/thumbnails/En/Norfolk/Norwich/St Stephen/SSN124.JPG" alt="photo of grave for Mary Cooper">
   Mary Cooper grave monument
   (www.gravestonephotos.com)</a>
8. ↑ Will of Samuel Cooper probated 1785 Source Citation The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1132. Full text on Ancestry. I am transcribing this Will and Codicils to place on Wikitree as a Space page - this is work in progress