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The Bowles of Canada and their
Roots in Ireland and England The Early History of the Cooper Family |
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This family is very hard to sort out as there seems to have
been many different and unrelated Cooper families in Ireland. This
would be due to the occupation related source of the
name but at least is not as bad as trying to sort out the Smith surname. My interest is in the Cooper family of Newtown
(or New Town) in co. Carlow
who acquired land in Queen's county (now co. Laois) in 1714 and who were
my
Bowles of Ballickmoyler ancestors' landlords. I am interested in
their history before Ballickmoyler as my Bowles may have shared a
history with the Coopers before their own move there. See
The Bowles of Dunleckney.
Dunleckney is a town in southern co. Carlow very close to Newtown where
the Coopers came from and where my Bowles have had an ongoing connection
of their own.
I don't know yet where in England the Coopers came from but they may be related to the Edward Cooper, a Cornet in Lord Colooney's Regiment of Dragoons, who benefited from Cromwell's distribution of land to his supporters in the 1650's and acquired a great estate in co. Sligo. The earliest references that I know of for the Carlow branch of the family are found in the Newgarden Monthly Meeting Minute books maintained at the Friends (i.e. Quakers) Historical Library in Dublin. Thomas Cooper of Newtown, co. Carlow was a member of the Carlow Meeting and is mentioned in the minutes as having been buried at Newgarden, co. Carlow in 1714. Newgarden was just outside Carlow Town to the NE and was the location of the Men's Meeting. His eldest son, William, had died the year before so his son Edward inherited the property at Newtown. Edward and his son, William, are both mentioned in the Society of Friends (Quakers) Monthly Meeting Minutes of New Garden, co. Carlow from 1705. ref.
Edward is also mentioned at Newtown, co. Carlow in John Watson's will of January 1709. text In 1714, Edward purchased the lease to 650 acres in Queen's county (now co. Laois) including the townland of Ballickmoyler, Shragh and Cudagh and soon settled at Shragh. A few years later he built a large house there and renamed Shragh as Cooper's Hill Demesne. The Coopers also had another interest in Queen's county. They were members of a Quaker community in south county Carlow and were closely connected to the Watson family of Kilconner. There are deed memorials from 1723 referring to land called Craignesmuttan in the Barony of Callenagh, Queens county owned by Samuel Watson of Kilconner and Edward Cooper of Shragh. ref. A 1753 memorial mentions Samuel Watson holding of the Bollebaun townland in the Parish of Dysartgalen Barony of Cullenagh Queen's County and bounded on the north side by the lands of William Cooper. ref. That would be Edward's son, William (1709-1760).
(Cooper story under construction) See The Family Tree of the Coopers of Cooper's Hill
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This site was last updated 04/13/08
