Cooper

Alice (according to later evidence) was born in Weedon in Buckinghamshire about 1765, birth surname unknown. She apparently married a Mr COOPER, and had a son called Thomas in nearby Whitchurch about 1793. We first actually find her as a widow of 85, living with Thomas and his own family, on Tottenham Court Road in London in 1851. At the next census, her daughter-in-law, two of her grandchildren and some great-grandchildren are at the same address, so I assume that Alice has died in the interim.

Research notes:
Check out the parish records for Weedon/Whitchurch and surrounds in Bucks, particularly about 1760-1800. Obviously I'm looking for her marriage and husband, and to fill out the details of their family, and then work back to their births and ancestors. I don't have her with Thomas in 1841 so she might have stayed in Bucks until then, or might have been with some other family in London or wherever. See also if I can find her death, about the 1850s and possibly in St Pancras parish.

Thomas was born in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire about 1793. He married Ann (maiden surname unknown). About seven years his junior, Ann had been born in Quainton, in Buckinghamshire near Whitchurch, but they baptised eleven children in St Andrew's Church, Holborn, in London:
Thomas - 31 October 1823 - born 28 October
Leah Ann - 5 August 1825 - born 7 July
Elizabeth - 10 June 1827 (and presumably died within about a year)
Elizabeth - 13 July 1828 - born 1 June (also presumably died aged 3 or younger)
Elenor - 18 November 1829 - born 1 October
Elizabeth - 16 October 1831
James William - 9 June 1833
Henry Peter - 18 January 1835
George Samuel - 4 September 1836
Ann Alice - 3 November 1840 - born 13 October
Sarah Caroline - 1 January 1844 (looks to match with Births Q3 1843 COOPER Sarah Caroline, St Pancras 1 340)

The family lived, and ran a baker's shop, at 173 Tottenham Court Road, next to (possibly across a side-street from) a pub called the Mortimer Arms. At 173 is now a pub called the Fitzrovia Belle, though the building doesn't look 19th-century.
In 1841, Thomas and Ann lived there with children Leah, Elenor, Elizabeth and Ann, plus a teenage girl servant and a teenage boy apprentice. In the same house were an elderly gent and another teenage girl, a dressmaker, though in that census it isn't clear what their relationship with the Coopers was. The boys are notable by their absence - see research notes.
In 1851, James is back, with a job as a solicitor's clerk. Eleanor, Elizabeth and Ann are still at home, now with the youngest Sarah. Elderly grandma Alice has moved in with the family, and listed as visitors are two young adults, a milliner and an architect's clerk, with no obvious family connection. This is listed as one household occupying the whole house.
By 1861, grandma Alice has died, and also Thomas the father of the family - James his son is now listed as head of the household and Ann the mother is given as a widow. She's running the bakery, with the assistance of her youngest daughter Sarah and two hired live-in journeyman bakers. James is now clerk to a silversmith, and also living at the house are his wife (no occupation given) and their two little children.

Research notes:
Find vital events for Thomas and Ann - baptisms probably Bucks, marriage could be there or London, deaths/burials probably London.
Find the boys (Thomas and/or George might have died, but I know James and Henry hadn't) in 1841 census in particular- the younger 3 seem a bit little for boarding school even if they could afford it, so maybe with relatives.
Double-check for any later census appearance of Ann - I haven't got one listed, which I imagine means I looked without success, but I should note the search.

I think I have Henry living as a teenager at 12 Pancras Street, not too far from his parents, in the 1851 census. He's in an interesting house - on this page I've only space to say that there are 12 adults, mostly young, and one small child there, and it looks like there are rooms or even just beds rented to transient people on the margins of work. The senior man of the house was a 30-year-old undertaker's carman and I wonder whether Henry (though having 'no occupation' here) picked up some of the horse-and-carriage trade from him - see below.

Henry married Elizabeth ORTON in St Pancras Old Church in London in 1857. He was 23; she 21 and born in Northampton. He was a cab proprietor (a horse-drawn cab for hire, I take it, and I suppose he owned and operated a single cab) and gave his address as Mortimer Market, which is immediately behind 173 Tottenham Court Road - in 1861 there were several cab drivers and coachmen living there so I suppose it was a mews.

Henry and Elizabeth had thirteen children born alive, of whom seven were still alive in 1911. I have names and some indication of date for nine births:
Harry William - baptised 31 July 1859, Old Church St Pancras, born 28 Jun 1859 (looks likely to be Deaths Mar Q 1861 COOPER Henry William, Pancras 1b 25)
Lizzie Leah - baptised 9 December 1860, Old Church St Pancras, born 14 November 1860, 14 Upper Montague Mews, Bloomsbury (Births Q4 1860 COOPER Lizzie Leah, St Giles 1b 337)
Alice Caroline - baptised 14 Sept 1862, Old Church St Pancras, born 26 Aug 1862.
Carrie - born about 1866, Marylebone
Leah Ann - born about 1870, London
Annie Jane - baptised 29 May 1872, St Peters Camden Town, born 29 April 1872
Emma - born about 1874, London
Louise J - born about 1875, London
William H - born about 1878, London

In 1860 and 61 they (Henry, Elizabeth and Lizzie) lived at 14 Upper Montague Mews in Bloomsbury (I imagine this was somewhere near Montague Square - there isn't an Upper Montague Mews now, but Montague Mews North is behind Upper Montague Street, so perhaps that is it). Henry was still a cabbie, as you might guess from the address.
In 1871 they were in a flat or room/s at 16 Harrison Street, St Pancras, London. Henry's occupation looks like 'Sherriffs assist' but I'm not aware that Victorian London had sheriffs so I don't know what to make of that. Their four girls born to this date are there with them. By 1881 they had moved out to the suburbs: Elizabeth lived with five of the children (Lizzie, Leah Ann, Emma, Louise J and William H) in a flat or room/s at 78 Milton Road, Hornsey (there is a modern street matching that, which does look about the right age though I can't see from Street View that it goes higher than number 30). Lizzie was listed as a 'feather cleaner etc.' Henry wasn't with them, but I may have found him staying with his sister Elizabeth and her family in Battersea and working as a wharfsman - I guess finding work was why he was staying away from the family? Elizabeth COOPER and the kids had their own visitor staying, Caroline PIPE, 42, born Northampton like Elizabeth and married.
In 1882 a mention of Henry on Lizzie's marriage certificate gives his occupation as commission agent, which indicates some kind of sales or touting job based on commission.
In 1891 they (Henry, Elizabeth, Alice, Leah and William) were at 12 Gainsboro Road in Hornsey. Henry is a self-employed cab driver again as he was in his youth. Alice was working as a house maid and this time Leah in the feather trade. Caroline PIPE is there again, widowed now, plus a boy of 7 also visiting. Carrie is living or at least staying with her sister Lizzie, now married with three young children.
In 1900-03, Henry appears in the electoral register, at 95 Prince George Road, Stoke Newington (near to Hornsey). I think at this time having the right to vote means he would have been paying annual rent of at least 10 pounds, or owned land worth 10 pounds. Anyway, apparently 40 per cent of men didn't qualify, so it puts him around the middle of the wealth scale. I'm not sure whether before and after these dates he didn't make the grade, or just that I haven't found the records.
In 1901, the census shows Henry and Elizabeth at Prince George Road with Carrie (unmarried in her 30s), William and a granddaughter Ethel, aged 10. Henry is now a carpenter. The census return shows that there's another family (young, with just one child) at the same address, and it looks like each house is in two flats. If I remember right only Henry is on the electoral register at the address, so perhaps he's renting the whole house and sub-letting. In 1911, Henry and Elizabeth are both boarding in the same house, 54 Leicester Road, East Finchley (not far from their married daughter Lizzie)- the landlady is a widow about ten years younger than them, and there's also her grown-up daughter and a middle-aged widower in the 8-room house. Henry gives no occupation this time - he's now 76.

It looks very likely that Henry died in the Edmonton district in late 1921, aged 87. Elizabeth is less clear but possibly died in the same district in 1917 aged 81.

Research notes:
GRO index entries for births of children other than Lizzie. Search and note results for missing baptisms. Can I trace the 4 unknown births? There are date gaps between the marriage and Harry William, either side of Carrie, before William H and conceivably also after - Elizabeth was about 42 at his birth. Possibly others depending on exact birth dates.
Missing children - Annie Jane is missing from both the censuses following her birth, so look for a death 1872-81. Perhaps early in the range, if her baptism suggests fear.
Most of the other girls seem to live out in their teenage years - could look in 1881 for Alice C about 18 and Carrie about 14, and in 1891 for Emma about 16 and Louise J about 15. Might also be worth looking for Alice, Leah, Emma and Louise in 1901, and the same plus Carrie and William in 1911 for definitive confirmation that they and Lizzie are the seven survivors.
Look for deaths of Henry and Elizabeth post 1911
Caroline, born approx the same period and place as Elizabeth, married name PIPE, is staying with Elizabeth in consecutive censuses - a relative or just an old friend?
Figure out young Ethel's parentage - William is too young to be her father, but she could be Carrie's or one of the other daughters' - look for her birth about 1890, and at the 1891 and 1911 censuses.
Don't forget to print the 1911 census page
Order the death certificates to be sure of them. By far the best match for Henry in the deaths index is Deaths, Dec Q 1921, COOPER Henry P 87 Edmonton 3a 688. It is the only death after 1910 of a Henry COOPER born 1830-35 either in north London or with a middle initial P, and is exact for age and district. The next best is a plain Henry of 82 registered in Pancras in 1917. There are more possibilities for Elizabeth but I think the top one is probably Deaths Mar Q 1917 COOPER Eliza 81 Edmonton 3a 682. The age isn't perfect so I'm not sure I'm confident enough to order that. There is also Deaths Mar Q 1915 Cooper Elizabeth 73 Edmonton 3a 836, and others in north London not Edmonton. Try to triangulate for any other records she might have appeared in about that time, or especially anywhere a death notice might have appeared. Address from Henry's death would be a start.