Thomas Cook: Gang Member, Corn Thief, and Drunkard?

I have been promising to do a blogpost on Thomas Cook, my four times great grandfather, and the father of William Cook Senior, and grandfather of William Cook Junior, about whom I have written previous blogposts, William Cook Senior and the Case of the Purloined Ferret, and William Cook 1849-1908, Saskatchewan Pioneer. I have found a handful of newspaper articles in a database of old British newspapers about a Thomas Cook, and I am fairly certain that most of them apply to our Thomas. As some of them are of an inflammatory nature, I do have to say that I have identified that more than a few Thomas Cooks were living in Timberland and the Timberland area in Lincolnshire in the nineteenth century.

Thomas Cook was born in 1797 in Metheringham, Lincolnshire, and was christened on April 10, 1797 in St. Wilfred Church there. He was the eldest child of William Cook and Elizabeth East, about whom I know little as yet. What I do know is that they were married in Metheringham at St. Wilfred Church on April 12, 1796, and all of their five known children were baptised in the same church. Thomas’s siblings were Richard, born 1798, John, born 1800, Rebecca, born 1803, and William, born 1805. It is possible that Thomas’s brother, John Cook, was the father of another Thomas Cook who lived in Timberland at the time of our Thomas and his family, but more of this later. It goes without saying that the common nature of these given names and surname makes research challenging.

Our Thomas Cook married Elizabeth “Betsy” Pearson on February 18, 1822 at Oswald’s Church in Blankney, Lincolnshire, where he was residing. He was twenty-five and she was thirty-four. She had been born to William and Elizabeth Pearson in 1788, also in Metheringham.  By 1823, the family is living in Timberland, where their first child, Rebecca, is born. Her brothers, Thomas and William, are also born there in 1824 and 1827 respectively. I am not aware of any other children born to this family. This may have been due to Betsy’s older age when she started her family. I am also not certain why the family was living in Timberland, but they appeared to be the first of this line to do so. Thomas’s occupation is described as “labourer” on each of the children’s baptism records.

Chronologically the first newspaper article to be considered is the following, dated January 22, 1830, from the Stamford Mercury, the newspaper from which all the articles presented here are taken.

Thomas Cook in Stamford Mercury, January 22, 1830
accessed via Find My Past

I believe that the “accomplice” may well have been our Thomas Cook, as I have yet to identify another Thomas Cook of about his age living in Timberland proper at about this time.  Interestingly, I cannot yet find him and his family in the 1841 Census of England. This may mean that he was not living in Timberland for a period of time sometime between 1827 when their last child to be baptised there, William, was born, and 1851 when the family appears in Timberland on the census. Did he “get out of Dodge” to avoid the repercussions of his testimony—“lying low” in his version of a nineteenth century witness protection program? If he were a corn thief, and his son William a ferret thief, this may well be a case of “the apple not falling far from the tree”. Nevertheless, it is common not to find people in the census due to their not having been enumerated, or due to mistranscription. Of course, this is all not so idle speculation, and I hope the connection of this story to him does not have Thomas turning over in his grave.

In Timberland in the 1851 Census, the fifty-four-year-old Thomas is described as an “agricultural labourer”. Living with him are his wife and his son Thomas, who is listed as being twenty-six years old. Living in the town is another Thomas Cook, twenty-two years of age, born in Martin, Lincolnshire, and a “farm labourer”, who is the son of a John Cook. Three years later, on May 19, 1854 the following appears in the Stamford Mercury:

Thomas Cook in the Stamford Mercury, May 19, 1854
accessed via Find My Past

Of course, the Thomas Cook in question could have been any of the three Thomas Cooks, but I tend to think it was more likely Thomas Cook the elder. It seems to me that a fifty-seven-year-old man would more likely be the possessor of a “silver watch”, and it feels more probable that a man of his age would have had an advanced enough drinking problem to find himself embarrassed in such a way. If this is our Thomas, it means that we now have a bit of evidence of possible alcoholism going back another two more generations than we were  previously aware, his grandson William most certainly having had a problem with alcohol.

The next newspaper article, again from the Stamford Mercury, and dated May 23, 1856, indicates that Thomas and his son Thomas both were having their homes sold at auction:

Thomas Cook in the Stamford Mercury, May 23, 1856
accessed via Find My Past

As both Thomas Cook Senior and Junior are mentioned in this notice, it is therefore almost certain that these are our Thomases, and it is most informative to know exactly where they were living and to have a description of their dwelling. It is interesting to note that they were living behind the Jolly Drayman, the same establishment where the William Cooks Senior and Junior distinguished themselves with their antics. (Note also that "John Vickers", the plaintiff in the case of the Purloined Ferret, is also living in the same complex of homes, which speaks to William Cook's access to his ferret). 

The very same year, but on December 5^th, the following appears in the Stamford Mercury:

Thomas Cook in the Stamford Mercury, December 5, 1856
accessed via Find My Past

This seems to indicate that our Thomas possibly, even briefly, was the proprietor of a public house, The New Inn, and then it was put up for sale. Perhaps when his previous home was sold he needed to live elsewhere, and then took up residence at The New Inn, which was newly constructed.  It, too, was to be sold, and may have occasioned him needing to move again. (I have not been able to rule out that one of the other two Thomas Cooks was the operator of the Inn). In addition,  I have not been able to ascertain if The New Inn stands today, and the current name and address of it. That he did not continue to be the proprietor for any great length of time, if he were the proprietor, is revealed in the 1861 Census, where he is an “agricultural labourer” and lives “in town” with his wife and grandson, Samuel, and next door to his son, Thomas. This would situate him in a similar setting to where he was in 1856, when he lived behind the Jolly Drayman, close to Thomas Junior. It may also mean that he never moved when his home was sold.

Thomas died in January 1862 and was buried on January 21^st at St. Andrew’s Church in Timberland. His wife Betsy died three months later in April 1862, and was buried at St. Andrew’s on April 14^th. He was sixty-five and she was seventy-four at the time of their deaths.

Which brings me to the question of their daughter, Rebecca.  One of the advantages of doing the research for these blogposts is that I find out new and unexpected information about the people about which I am writing, and their family members. Prior to writing this blogpost, I had no further information about Rebecca, as I could not find any marriage or death data on her. Taking note that Thomas Senior and Betsy were living with their eight-year-old grandson Samuel Cook in 1861, I looked to see if Thomas Junior or his brother William had a son by that name. They did not. Finding no evidence that Thomas Senior ever had other sons, I looked into the possibility that Samuel was the son of Rebecca, born out of wedlock. I found a baptism record for Samuel Cook/Holmes, who was the son of Rebecca Cook, “single woman”, and Samuel Holmes, dated December 5, 1852, at St. Andrew’s Church in Timberland. The civil birth registration lists him as “Samuel Holmes Cook”. The only other record for Samuel I have been able to find is that on the 1871 census he is seventeen years old, and is a “servant” living in Ropsley, Lincolnshire, the residence of his father, Samuel Toynbee Holmes, who is now married with a family. I believe that Rebecca died between the birth of her son in 1852, and 1861, when he is living with his grandparents. I can find no other census or marriage data for her beyond this, (although I did find her in the 1851 census as a “house servant” in Timberland). I believe that she may be the Rebecca Cook who died in the district of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, where Timberland was situated, in 1855. She may have been beloved in her family as both of her brothers named daughters after her, i.e. Thomas had a daughter Rebecca born in 1858, and William had a daughter Ann Rebecca born in 1850. Rebecca’s may be another sad story on my tree of a woman In Victorian England. More to come from the pages of the British press.

Marlow Line: Joseph Long and Joseph Long Johnson in the Newspapers

To start, a word of explanation—as mentioned in previous blogposts, (e.g. William Marlow 1830 to 1895), the parents of my great grandfather on my paternal grandmother’s side, Joseph Marlow, were William Marlow and Elizabeth Johnson. They lived in North Yorkshire, England, and never came to Canada to my knowledge. Elizabeth Johnson, later Marlow, was the daughter of Joseph Long Johnson (1792-1862) and Elizabeth Watson (1796-1843). Joseph and Elizabeth had in common that they both appear to have been children of unwed mothers, John having the surname of his mother, Sarah Johnson, and Elizabeth the surname of her mother, Ellis Watson. I was stuck in my research on Joseph’s line because I could not find his mother’s forebears, and, of course, there was nothing to identify his father.

As you may be aware, it is very difficult normally to ascertain the fathers of children of unwed mothers in previous centuries, although sometimes there are notations in parish records. The first and middle names of sons can also be clues to the father’s identity in some circumstances. Recently, when I was doing some research in British newspapers, I decided to see what I could find on the Marlow line. I was mainly searching first and last names together, as I noticed that it was rare that middle names were included in nineteenth century newspaper stories. In Joseph Long Johnson’s case, Joseph Johnson proved to be all too common a name, and I could not find any articles about him just using his first and last names. I decided to try searching using all three of his names and—bingo! The following article came up about four times in different newspapers in various parts of England in the year 1840:

Legal notice re: Children of Joseph Long,
Yorkshire Gazette, July 25, 1840
Accessed via Find My Past

The Joseph Long Johnson and Sarah Johnson named in the notice are without a doubt our Joseph and Sarah, as the names place of birth match  exactly. Of course, this also means that the three other children mentioned in the article are Joseph’s half siblings. I did some research on all of them on Ancestry, but did not find as much as I hoped—yet. However, I now had the name of Joseph Long Johnson’s father—Joseph Long—as I, and likely others, had wondered about. Surprisingly, he is a “veterinary surgeon”. How he met the young women he had dalliances with is a matter for speculation, but obviously he did get around the country. At first, I was unable to find any other records pertaining to Joseph Long. I still have no real clue where he was born, except that it may have been where he died. Unfortunately, he lived his entire life before cilvil registration began, and before the census started in Britain.

He is quite an enigma, as “natural” children had no rights of inheritance under British law at the time, as far as I am aware. Why did he choose to have his solicitors seek out his own natural children twenty years after his death for some unnamed benefit? Did he have no other heirs? Why did he risk bringing embarrassment to his family with these revelations? Clearly, Sarah Johnson had no qualms naming her son after his father—is this another clue about the relationships involved? She was not the only mother named in the article to include part of the father’s name in her child’s (e.g. "James Long Pritchard"). Furthermore, did Joseph Long Johnson or any of the other children ever see this notice?

I decided to see if I could find the will mentioned in the article, and, lo and behold, I was able to locate it through the National Archives website and have it sent to me (for a fee). Unfortunately, I am struggling with the writing, and need to take time to try to transcribe it for myself. I promise to update you all in another blogpost once I have made more sense of it. I hope it will reveal more clues to life and identity of the mysterious Joseph Long. So far, I see that that he was also a “farrier”, i.e. a shoer of horses.

I am wondering if any of the Marlow descendants can detect the presence of veterinary surgeon genes in their blood. For example, how many of us have had careers related to horses, other animals, or to medicine? If the article is correct, Joseph Long Johnson did--he was a "groom or jockey". Interestingly, his was the only livelihood mentioned in the piece attached to any of the children.

Images of Mother Simington's Blood Purifier

Mother Simington's Blood Purifier
Bottle Front
(Photo courtesy of Sandy Faul)

I have been meaning to share something with you for a while, and that is some photos of an actual bottle of Mother Simington’s Blood Purifier. I heard from reader Sandy Faul that she had an empty bottle in her possession, and she kindly agreed to provide me with photos and permission to share them on this blog. You will recall from a previous blogpost, dated February 13, 2013, and titled Mother Elizabeth Simington and Her Blood Purifier, that Elizabeth Crawford Simington, the sister of my great great grandmother Jane Crawford Monk, was the producer of a health elixir called Mother Simington’s Blood Purifier, which was sold all over Iowa and nationwide at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth. It had panacea-like properties as there seemed to be nothing that it was not purported to cure.

Mother Simington's Blood Purifier
Side View
(Photo courtesy of Sandy Faul)

Sandy states that she obtained the bottle from The Milford Pharmacy and Gift Store in Milford, Iowa. It had come into the store’s possession after being found in the wall of a house in Milford which was being demolished. The bottle is described as: seven inches high, with four square sides, with two sides printed in English, and two in Danish, and was manufactured in Milford, Iowa by the Mother Simington Company. (Apparently there was a wave of Danish immigration to Iowa in the 1870’s). She provided me with photos of three of the sides, as the paper on all of the sides had started to “peel away from age”. Sandy also forwarded me a section from History of Clay County by Dian Gustafson, in which is it claimed that some of the ingredients of the elixir were “sorghum and molasses”. Gustafson also reports that Elizabeth had run the “first boarding house in Sanborn after her husband’s death”, which was in 1899, and that she “catered to the first users of the new railroad when it came through”.

Mother Simington's Blood Purifier
Back view
(Photo courtesy of Sandy Faul)

Many thanks to Sandy for the photos, data from her own research, and permission to share these with you. I so appreciate hearing from readers of this blog, and all they share with me.

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers and to those who share some Canadian heritage.

Johannes Carl Muenck, a.k.a. "John Monk", in Hammond, New York

I just thought I’d add one more family history road trip related post. On the first day of our trip, I noticed as we were driving through upstate New York that we were passing through the town of Hammond, where I recalled that my four times great grandfather Johannes Carl Muenck, known at that time as John Monk, had lived. It appears that John Monk, who fought in the Revolutionary War on the American side, was likely one and the same as Johannes Carl Muenck, a German who had originally come to America as a “Hessian” soldier to fight on the side of the British. He apparently switched sides, which seemed to happen with some regularity once the German soliders were apprised of real intentions of the British, i.e. not to help the colonists, but to suppress their revolution. As I have said before, the Monk family on my tree is quite complex, and I hope to devote more time to researching and unravelling it.

On the way back home, as we were again passing through Hammond, my sister noticed the Hammond Historical Society, and that it was open. We had often encountered museums and sites which were closed on the days we visited, so we felt we should take this opportunity and make one last visit. We were warmly greeted by Donna Demick, the Town Historian, who gave us a tour of the museum and the Civil War era stone house. (See http://www.thehammondmuseum.org). I took some time to ascertain when John Monk had lived in Hammond, utilizing the Ancestry app on my iPad, and it appeared that it was at most two years, i.e. from 1825 when he appeared on the New York State Census as living in Oppenheim, New York, and 1827, the year he moved from Hammond to Watertown, New York. Donna checked but could find no record of John, particularly as he had only lived there briefly, and was not born and didn’t die there. The only record I had was from a letter in his Revolutionary War Pension file stating that he had moved from Hammond in 1827. This turned out to be the year the town was incorporated.

Hammond Stone House Interior
(photographed by Sherry)

Loom in Stone House Attick
(photographed by Sherry)

Exterior of Stone House
(Photographed by Sherry)

It was nevertheless a pleasure to visit the museum and the stone house, as we were able to see a typical Civil War era house in Northern New York, where so many of our ancestors lived at that time. We were also shown household articles, books, photos, toys, and clothing of various eras. Donna allowed us, including my two-year-old niece, to touch these items and to explore to our hearts’ content. She even modelled some of the old clothes for us. Thank you, Donna, for sharing your hospitality and joy in your town’s past. Again, I am feeling so indebted to historical societies everywhere for their diligence in preserving and sharing the world’s heritage, which is so easily lost.

Encounter with Richard Warren and Hester Cooke at the Plimouth Plantation

Our family history roadtrip took us to Plymouth, Massachusetts where we visited Plimouth Plantation, which contains a close to authentic replica of the town of Plymouth circa 1627. (See www.plimoth.org). As you wander around the village you meet actors portraying particular individuals who were residents that year. Of the handful of actors we saw, two were portraying our ancestors: my ninth great grandparents, Richard Warren, and Hester Cooke, born Hester Mahieu, who was the wife of Francis Cooke. I was hoping something like this would happen, but did not expect this.

Hester Mahieu Cooke
as portrayed by an actress
at Plimouth Plantation 19 June 2013
(photographed by S. Hart)

Hester informed me that she was a "Walloon", as her family came from the French part of Belgium, Wallony. This is all very interesting, considering that when I was a university student I went to Belgium as part of an international youth program, which was specifically about discovering Wallony. I had no idea at the time that this land was part of my own heritage. Strange how these things happen in the course of a life. Of course, the question of Hester's origins is all fuel for further study.

Richard Warren
as portrayed by an actor at Plimouth Plantation 19 Jun 2013
(photographed by S. Hart)

I met Richard Warren at his house with his daughter Elizabeth. When I introduced myself, and told him that he was my many times great grandfather through his daughter Sarah, who was going to marry Francis Cooke's son John, he was not very happy to hear that his family was going to be connected to the Cookes. He also stated that he did not believe in speculating about the future. He informed me that he was not part of the religious group which had come to Plymouth, as was Cooke, but was from "London" and was "Church of England". He was a bit crotchety altogether, as great grandfathers can be. He was not impressed with the fact that the colonists lacked so much to help them with their daily lives, such as horses, which he stated had been promised to them originally. I look forward to learning more about Richard, and about the Plymouth colony in general. He was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact, which had enshrined separation of Church and State long before the U.S. Constitution.

Later in the day, I visited the Pilgrim Hall Museum, which is the oldest continually operating museum in the United States. (See pilgrimhallmuseum.org).  The one item they had from either the Cookes or the Warrens, was Richard Warren's "napkin", which had been handed down through the family. Apparently they did not use cutlery as such, but would eat with their hands, which they would wipe on cloths draped over their shoulders. I could barely make out a design showing what seemed to be embossed angels.

While shopping in the gift shop of the Museum, I started chatting with one of the employees, who was also descended from Richard Warren and Francis Cooke, and was therefore my actual cousin. She directed me to volume twelve of the series, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, which listed the descendants of Francis Cooke. We were able to follow all the lines of descent, of which I was previously aware, from Cooke all the way to my Revolutionary War ancestor, Jeremiah Hart. There it all was in print in one book. She further informed me that because Jeremiah had a number beside his name, and not just a Roman numeral, that his descendants, for at least another generation, would likely appear in the next edition of the book. Just to clarify, the lineage down to us goes something like this: Francis Cooke, John Cooke (who married Richard Warren's daughter Sarah), Mary Cooke, John Taber, Mary Taber, Jeremiah Hart, Stephen Hart, John Hart, Melvin Hart, George Hart, Harold Hart, and Harold's children and grandchildren. It is interesting to note that this list involves only three surnames: Cooke, Taber and Hart--(four if you include Warren). It is also striking to me that there was a long tradition in this family of carving a life out of the wilderness, up to and including Melvin and George Hart homesteading in Alberta in the early twentieth century.

Grist for the Mill: Harts and Tabers in Little Compton, Rhode Island

From Connecticut yesterday we ventured on to Rhode Island in search of the Harts of our paternal lineage. We knew that starting with Nicholas Hart, the first Hart of our lineage to come to America, the Harts had lived in Rhode Island, first mainly in Portsmouth, and then in Little Compton. Our ancestor and four times great grandfather, Jeremiah Hart, who had fought in the Revolutionary War, had been born in Little Compton in 1746, but left there  in about 1768 with two of his brothers to farm in Hart's Village, Dutchess County, New York, now called Millford. During the war in about 1775, he moved again to Stillwater, Saratoga, New York, where he lived out the rest of his life. Jeremiah's mother was Mary Taber,  great granddaughter of John Cooke, and great great granddaughter of Richard Warren and Francis Cooke, all of whom had been passengers on the Mayflower.

My sister and I were struck by the beauty and charm of the Little Compton area as we drove through it, not expecting to gain much more than a feel for the landscape. The lovely farms and houses, some appearing to be from the colonial era caught our attention. My sister noticed the Wilbor House, home of the Little Compton Historical Society as we drove along. (See www.littlecompton.org). We stopped in and found that it was only going to be open to the public for fifteen more minutes. We introduced ourselves, and the Society members recognized our surname. They informed us that the Hart family still lived in the area, and that the Harts had always lived in the village of Adamsville, which was formerly part of Little Compton. They kindly gave us directions there (and from there to Plymouth, our next destination).

Wilbor House
(photographer: Sherry)

Adamsville appeared to a little colonial town frozen in time. We parked in front of Gray's Grist Mill, claimed both by the towns of Adamsville, Rhode Island and Westport, Massachusetts. There was a sign stating that it was the oldest continually operating grist mill in the area, and that it dated back to 1675, when it was owned by Phillip Taber. We are descended from a Phillip Taber, but I believe that this Phillip was possibly Mary's brother or uncle. I have since discovered that the owner previous to the present one was a John Hart! The mill in its history has produced a variety of products, including cornmeal from an ancient variety of corn, the similiar to that had been eaten by the pilgrims in Plymouth. The cornmeal was the basis of the johnnycake, a long time area staple. (See www.graysgristmill.com).

Gray's Mill (photographer: Sherry)

It was amazing and startling to have come from so far away to find a place so specific to our own family, and to get such a feel for their history in a brief afternoon. We definitely are getting a sense of being "guided". More and more I am developing such a sense of gratitude to the people in historical societies everywhere whose work helps to preserve the past. So much of what I know all over my family tree derives from their work. Thanks to them all.

Gray's Mill Interior (photographer: Sherry)

Harts and Wrights in Farmington and Wethersfield

As our family history road trip continues, my sister, my niece and I are staying in Farmington, Connecticut. After my sister booked us two nights here as a base for our travels in Connecticut, I realized that we would be staying in a town which our eight times great grandfather, Deacon Stephen Hart, helped to found. Although we get our surname from another line of Harts, we are still as directly descended from Stephen as we are from Nicholas, the infamous one. As it turns out, Princess Diana and the boys are also directly descended from Stephen on one of her mother's American lines. (Just saying). Stephen also lived in Hartford, Connecticut, and it is said that Hartford is named after him, as there was a ford in the river called "Hart's Ford" which derived its name from him. We were able to locate the site of the Hart Grist Mill yesterday down the road from us in Farmington.

Site of the Hart Gristmill, Farmington, CT (photographer: Sherry)

We visited the beautiful and picturesque town of Old Wethersfield  (wethersfieldct.com/visitor-information) yesterday, and although some of the historical sites were closed, we were able to wander around and make some wonderful discoveries. It was especially eye-opening for me to visit the Wethersfield Historical Society (www.wethhist.org) and see books on the shelves with the names of so many early Wethersfield families from which we are directly descended, including Wright, Deming, Foote, Welles, and Hurlbut. Charles Wright, my four times great grandfather, mentioned in my previous blogpost, was born in Wethersfield, but his family moved to Goshen, Connecticut, when he a child, before the birth of his brother Freedom. I was struck by what an important place Wethersfield was on my family tree, how the history of the town was so entwined with our own family history, and yet how exotic all this was to me. We really did not know about any of this until a couple of years ago. Oddly enough, my sister and I both mentioned that we felt at "home" and at "peace" here. I hope to write more about my Wethersfield ancestors in future blogposts.

One of our discoveries was a memorial to our nine times great grandfather Nathaniel Foote at the far end of the village green pictured here:

Nathaniel Foote Memorial, Wethersfield, CT (Photographer: Sherry)

We also visited the cove where our eight times great grand uncle Thomas Deming built the first ship ever built in Connecticut, the Tryall, in 1649:

The Cove at Wethersfield, CT \(photographer:: Sherry)

Today, we wend our way toward Plymouth, Massachusetts, in search of our Mayflower heritage. We hope to stop in at Little Compton, Rhode Island, on the way, where the descendants of Nicholas Hart lived for so long.