Ref. S3
All surnames in the Cosser story
See here for an alphabetical list of all surnames in the Cosser pages with links to the relevant text.
Our interest in this family starts a century and a half ago when, 25.4.1867, Isabella Cosser married Thomas Smart (see Ref. S1) at Berwick upon Tweed. She was 29, the groom 30, and she gave her address as Western Lane, Berwick.
Cosser-Hunter Family
Isabella Cosser was the second child and eldest daughter of George Cosser and Elizabeth aka Eliza Hunter (see Ref. S4), the marriage being 24.4.1834 at Alnwick, both being of the parish. George was then 32, i.e. eight years older than Elizabeth. George and Elizabeth had a son Thomas then four girls, details being given at Appendix 1. Isabella’s marriage entry has George as a merchant but by then he was 65 and, we think, at least partly retired. In fact we believe that earlier in life he graduated from agricultural labourer to farm steward. George, Elizabeth and the family moved from time to time, no doubt as a result of taking on the running of a different farm. Up to about 1840 they were at Shiel Dykes (modern spelling) part of Alnwick parish but some eight miles from the town, in a SSE direction. A Chrisp family researcher has told us that the Chrisps were at Shiel Dykes for many years but, due to death, a vacancy occurred there in the mid-1830s. Of the first three Cosser children, Isabella and Margaret both said they were born there. The birth or baptism of the eldest, Thomas, born 1835/36, has not been seen but it is possible they had moved into Shiel Dykes by the time he was born. By the 1841 Census the Cossers had already moved on, i.e. to Stamford, Embleton, still being there when Elizabeth was born (1845/6). By 1851 they were at Glororum, about two miles south west of Bamburgh and ten years later at Belford Hall Farm, Belford (Isabella, incidentally, being employed as a 23 year old cook at the Hall itself, where the Rev John Dixon Clarke, JP DL, a 49 year old widower had been installed for at least ten years.) In 1871 George Cosser said he was a retired farm steward, he and Elizabeth being then at Middleton Village. Family folklore has her keeping the village post office there in later life. George died at North Bank, Belford, 27.6.1875, aged 73 and his widow at Wooler 2.2.1891, aged 80. They lie in Belford churchyard with Isabella Hunter, Eliza’s sister.
George Cosser’s siblings
In 1851 George Cosser said he was born (around 1802) at Chatton. Later he particularised it to Hazelrigg, in that parish. His death certificate age agreed with this. However, we have found no record of his birth or baptism, so we have approached things through his siblings. We noticed that “our” George Cosser was a witness at the wedding of one Thomas Cosser who married Jane Smeatom at Alnwick 8.3.1829, i.e. about five years before our George’s own wedding there. According to the 1851 Census, Thomas Cosser was also born at Chatton in 1800 or 1801, i.e. a year or two before George. Another witness was a Jane Cosser, who we think was the lady who got married (to James Young) a little over two months later at Bamburgh. She eventually was the informant on the death of a George Cosser who died aged 77 16.1.1850 at Lucker. At the 1841 Census at Lucker there was a suitably aged couple George and Margaret Cosser, both born in the county, he an Ag. Lab, so we have the nucleus of a family to work on.
At the 1851 Census we have a Margaret Cosser, widow, aged 77 and born in Belford, who, when she died, was declared to be the widow of George Cosser, a husbandman. She was in the home of her daughter Margaret Lawson at Greens Field, Alnwick, and next door were Ann Newton and husband Robert (a farm steward) with their family. Ann declared herself to have been born at Hazelrigg, Chatton around 1805 – just like our George Cosser around 1802 – and it was she who was the informant when Margaret Cosser died at Green Fields 8.10.1853, aged 80. The obvious question is why Margaret Lawson was not the informant. At some point the Lawsons moved to Hotspur Place, Alnwick and it may be that by the time her mother died, Margaret Lawson was no longer looking after her at Greens Fields and that role had been taken on by Ann Newton. However neighbourly that may have been, we think that official informants were nearly always relatives of the deceased and so we are drawn to the conclusion that Ann was another daughter of George and Margaret. Unfortunately we have not seen anything of Ann’s birth or baptism, nor for the Newton’s marriage but she fits into the emerging pattern pretty well. So at this stage of the argument we have George and Margaret Cosser having five children Margaret c.1798, Thomas c.1801, George c.1802, Ann c.1805 and Jane c.1806, the middle three all born in Chatton.
Cosser-Weddle Family
Significantly, there is a burial entry 20.8.1804 at Bamburgh for James, aged 10 weeks, son of George Cosser and Margaret Weddel of nearby Adderstone, he being a labourer. If this is our couple then we would expect to find a birth of a Margaret Weddel around 1773 at Belford. The latter was amply confirmed (as Ref. S31 explains) by a baptism 18.6.1773 of Margaret, daughter of Thomas and Margaret Weddle. Furthermore, we found that one of only two suitable George Cosser marriages indexed as being in Northumberland* was to a Margaret Waddle at Cornhill 9.4.1797. Examination of the (original!) Cornhill register drew a blank because it turned out to be an irregular marriage at the nearby Coldstream Bridge toll house, both parties down as living in Chatton. Since the first child, Margaret, mentioned above was born c.1798 we think that clinches it. We accept Waddle as another name variant, by the way. So we believe that Sheena’s 3 x great-grandparents were George Cosser and Margaret nee Weddle. As well as the six children already mentioned, we go along with other researchers in adding William born 20.2.1809 and James 26.10.1811, who were both baptised at Warenford Presbyterian Church, which was near Lucker rather than their birth place of Eglingham. Details of the family are at Appendix 2.
These two baptisms suggests that the family were dissenters and we might assume that the baptisms of the six children we have not found are in one or more lost chapel records. As with the Smart-Landels irregular marriage mention in Ref. S1, we think that dissenters may have been drawn to Coldstream Bridge in preference to the local Anglican church. Another theme that gives us confidence is that quite a few family members were farm stewards or bailiffs who moved on from place to place – something that both George Cossers (senior and junior) did.
*As it happens, quite a number of respected fellow researchers have interested themselves in the Cossers and our conclusions largely fit in with theirs. However, a respected member of that group did not wish to ignore the other George Cosser marriage in Northumberland. This was 6.11.1791 at Eglingham when a George Cosser married a Mary Armstrong. There were baptism entries then at Eglingham for Margaret 30.9.1792 and John 26.6.1796, each for George and Mary Cosser and, in the first case, a residence of Coal Burn. As we believe “our” George Cosser was born 1772, it is possible that he was the 19 year-old groom also in this case and he was widowed in 1796 or 1797 and promptly married Margaret Weddle. That may be so but we have not found an appropriate burial entry for Mary Cosser and we do not think we need to consider any mix-up of Mary for Margaret, as has been suggested. In any event, this does not affect Sheena’s ancestry.
August 2020
Appendix 1 to Ref. S3
George Cosser and Elizabeth Hunter Family
Thomas Cosser (1835/36-1921)
See Appendix 3.
Isabella Cosser (1838-1913)
GRO birth 1838 Q4 Berwick (actually at Shiel Dykes, Alnwick parish). In 1861 Isabella was a 23 year old cook at Belford Hall, not far from her parents, her employer being the Rev John Dixon Clarke, JP DL, a 49 year old widower who had been installed there for at least ten years. Isabella married Thomas Smart 25.4.1867 at Berwick upon Tweed. See main text. The Smart family bible has her age at death (13.11.1913) as 73 but we think that that is wrong. [The GRO Index reference is Glendale Dec 1913 10b 568, if we want to see it.]
Margaret Cosser (1840- ??)
Born Shiel Dykes, Alnwick. Married Pearson Pringle, a carpenter, 1865 Q1 Belford district. They were at Middleton Village, just North of Belford, at the 1871, 1881 and 1891 Censuses. Pearson Pringle died 1908 Q2, aged 73. In 1911 Margaret and her daughter Elizabeth Ann were at High St, Belford. GRO has two possible deaths for Margaret, i.e. 1913 Q3 Alnwick, aged 73, and 1918 Q1 Glendale, aged 79.
We have seen four children, all born at “Belford”, i.e. presumably Middleton:
Elizabeth Ann D. Pringle (b. 1867/68)
Mary Jane Pringle (b. 1871/72)
Robert Rutherford Pringle (b. 1878/79)
Ada Mary Pringle (b. 1881/82)
Elizabeth Jane Cosser (1841- 1921)
Born 2.12.1841 at Stamford, Embleton, per birth certificate. Remained a spinster and in 1881 was with her widowed mother in Sutton, Surrey looking after her brother Thomas’s children. Jane was the informant of her mother’s death in Wooler in February 1891, being still there at the Census in the home of her sister Elizabeth Balmain, “living on her own resources”. She was known to be living in Wooler in 1896 when her nephew George Anthony Smart got married but in 1901 had moved, with Elizabeth, to Alwick. In 1911 she was living alone at 1 Lovaine Buildings, Alnwick and she died at Duke Street, Alnwick, 26.8.1921 aged 79 and buried in Belford churchyard.
Elizabeth Cosser (?1845- 1907)
Born Stamford, Embleton. At the 1871 Census Elizabeth, as a schoolmistress, was living with her retired parents at Middleton Village. We do not know where she was in 1881 but we know that in 1884 Q2 in Epsom (around the time her mother and sister Jane were living in that part of Surrey) she married the 45 year old George William Balmain of a Morpeth farming family. He is said to have become local registrar and School Board officer in Wooler but the marriage was short-lived, as he died there 1890 Q4. At the 1891 Census his widow Elizabeth, aged 45, William aged 5 and Lizzie aged 4, are at High Street, Wooler, she being a daily governess. At the 1901 Census she was recorded as running the Registry Office at Clayport, Alnwick, her sister Jane being there also, as well as William and Lizzie. Elizabeth Balmain died 12.7.1907 at Alnwick and is buried beside her husband in Wooler churchyard.
*There is confirmation of all this in that Sheena’s mother spoke of “Lizzie Cosser”, i.e. Balmain, who had a daughter Lizzie who married a Simpson.
[As a reminder that registration of birth did not become compulsory until 1855, we have searched the GRO Indexes in vain for Margaret 1839/40. Apart from Alnwick PRs, we have looked for her and forThomas (1835/6) and Isabella (1837/8) in numerous non-conformist registers such as Alnwick Clayport Meeting House and Sion Wesleyan, Ellingham, and Glanton Presbyterian. Shiel Dyke appears within reach of Felton and Edlingham – it may be useful to see what they have.]
Appendix 2 to Ref. S3
George Cosser and Margaret Weddle Family
George Cosser married Margaret “Waddle” in an irregular marriage at Coldstream Bridge toll house 9.4.1797.
We believe they had children as follows:
Margaret (1798 – 1865) Born Bamburgh. Married William Lawson 10.5.1818 at Eglingham and had 7 children. 1861 lodging house keeper at Hotspur Place, Alnwick and died there 1865.
Thomas (1801 – ??) Born Chatton. Married Jane Smeaton or Smittim 8.3.1829 at Alnwick. 4 children
George (1802-1875) Born Hazelrigg, Chatton. See main text and Appendix 1.
James (1804-1804) Born June 1804. Buried Bamburgh 20.8.1804, 10 weeks old, the entry making it clear that the mother was Margaret Weddle and the place of residence Adderstone in the Lucker area.
Ann (1805 – 1856) Born Hazelrigg, Chatton. Married Robert Newton (1801 – 1867), farm steward, not known where or when. Had 5 children.
Jane (1806 – ??) Born Barmoor, Lowick. Married James Young at Bamburgh 17.5.1829 and had 8 children. In 1851 they were at Chester le Street, Durham, where James was a land agent.
William (1809 – ??) Born 20.2.1809 Eglingham (but baptised at Warenford Presbyterian Church). His short-lived marriage to Ann Rogerson produced one daughter and his second, to Jane Avery, produced another daughter and four sons. He was a farmer in various locations, finally retiring to Chirnside Mill Farm, Berwickshire, Scotland, with Jane eventually dying in Staffordshire in 1902.
James (1811 – 1896) Born 26.11.1811 Eglingham (but baptised at Warenford Presbyterian Church). A blacksmith, said by another researcher to have married Isabella Arnot (1811 – 1890). 9 children born in a variety of places.
George Cosser died at Lucker 16.1.1850 of gravel, aged 77 and Margaret died at Greens Field, Alnwick 7.10.1853 of “old age”, i.e. 80.
Appendix 3 to Ref. S3
Thomas Cosser and Mary Ann Wells Family
Born Alnwick ;parish (possibly Shiel Dykes) 1835/36, Thomas Cosser was a civil engineer and general contractor who spent most of his life in Karachi, Scinde Province, British India, now Pakistan. He married Mary Anne Wells (born Ireland 1841/42, daughter of James Wells) at Karachi, Scinde, 22.3.1869. They had six children, four of them born in India, as follows:
Elizabeth Mary Wells Cosser
Born 17.8.1870 baptised 18.9.1870 at Karachi. Whereabouts in 1881 not known but in 1891 in Sutton, Surrey, said to be a 20 years old “scholar”. Married at Church of Scotland, Karachi, 9.2.1903 William Dickenson Young, 34, merchant, son of John Drummond Young, resident of Karachi. They both witnessed her niece Kathleen Mary’s wedding in Karachi 19.11.1929. Unlike her sisters Elizabeth remained at Karachi. William died there of apoplexy 25.10.1942, aged 72, and Elizabeth died at Karachi 1.4.1946 of heart failure, aged 76, her cremation at New Delhi being on 5.4.1946. Elizabeth and William had children:
Thomas Malcolm Drummond Young born Karachi 17.11.1903 baptised 16.1.1904. Engineer, married 5.12.1927 at Bombay Maie Pollard Ratcliffe, 29 year old daughter of Charles Herbert Ratcliffe from Heswall, Cheshire. Thomas’s residence given as G.I.P Hansmad.
Joyce Margery Cosser Young born Karachi 1.8.1910 baptised 1.10.1910. married 18,11.1933 at Church of Scotland, Karachi, John Oliver Jagoe, 29 year old merchant, son of Richard Jagoe and resident at 1 Bath Island Road, Karachi. Joyce’s residence given as Invergordon, Karachi.
Ellen Jane Cosser
Born 26.10.1871 baptised 12.11.1871 at Karachi. Died of diarrhoea 21.8.1875 at Karachi.
George William Hunter Cosser
Born 4.2.1874 at North Bank, Belford, when his mother was visiting from India. In 1881 at Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey, with his younger sisters, in the care of his grandmother and aunt. Not with the family in Sutton in 1891 and no apparent reference to him in India. Passed through New York Passenger Arrivals 6.7.1914, the entry according with his year of birth and stating that he was resident in Toronto. That was where he married 27.6.1919 Charlotte (“Lottie”) Elizabeth Sullivan. The affadavit has him as a 45 year old engineer (and a batchelor) resident in Toronto, while she is down as a 32 year old house worker (and a spinster), likewise resident Lotte Sullivan was born 26.8.1884 at Cardwell, Muskoka, to James Sullivan and Charlotte Robinson.
Her marriage lasted only 20 weeks because George William died in Toronto General Hospital 12.11.19 of “Pyophisiosis” which we think is nowadays termed Pythiosis. This is a disease caused by the plant fungus Pythium getting into the body and would be expected to encountered in tropical lakes and streams. Sometimes dubbed “swamp cancer”, it affects dogs, horses and humans. Whether George William encountered this in the course of his work as an engineer or contracted it while on holiday perhaps we do not know.
We know of no issue of the marriage but we have seen an image of a memorial in the Kirkland Lake Cemetery, Timiskaming District, Ontario with the inscription “In memory of Charlotte E Sullivan Cosser, 1883-1957, wife of George W. Cosser”.
Ellie Cosser
Born 30.10.1875 baptised 25.12.1875 Karachi. In 1881 and 1891 in Sutton, Surrey. Married by banns at Holy Trinity Karachi 2.11.1898 Frederick (“Fritz”) Carl Schmid, merchant of Karachi, son of Johann Jacob Schmid. The 1939 Register has Enid A. L. Snelling (Ellie’s daughter) at 34 Earlsfield, Hythe, Kent, “private means” with Ellie Cosser-Smith “unpaid domestic duties”. Ellie and Fritz had children:
Enid Audrey Lilian Schmid born 1.3.1900 baptised 16.4.1900. Married (banns) 17.2.1921 at Church of Scotland, Karachi, under the surname Cosser-Smith, Cyril Grey Snelling, 24, of the Indian Army Political Department, the son of George Snelling. The Rajkot records have Captain Cyril Grey Snelling, age 33, dying 9.10.1929 at West Hospital, Rajikot, as the Secretary to the Honourable the Agent to the Governor-General in the State of Western India. The 1939 Register has Enid A. L. Snelling at 34 Earlsfield, Hythe, Kent, “private means” with Ellie Cosser-Smith “unpaid domestic duties”.
Kathleen Mary Schmid born 6.12.1901 baptised 1.2.1902. Married 19.11.1929 Peter Morison, 27, Lieutenant in the Cameroons (Scotch rifles) a resident of Nowsherd. The register has a note: “Mrs Cosser-Smith has been her legal guardian. Her father Fritz Karl Schmid was divorced in 1909.”
Alice Martha Mabel Cosser
Born 20.2.1878 baptised 13.4.1878 Karachi. In 1881 and 1891 in Sutton, Surrey. Married at Holy Trinity, Karachi, by licence 2.11.1902 Henry Willsher Rogers-Harrison, 34, a broker in Karachi and son of George Windsor Woods Rogers-Harrison. Henry Willsher is recorded at dying 1905 Q2 at Richmond*, Surrey, aged 37. In 1911 his widow was living at 12 Crawford Gardens, Cliftonville, Margate, with 6 year old Joan and her sister Ellie Schmid and the two nieces, said to be “visitors”. Alice died 1945 Q3 in Surrey Mid Eastern District. Alice and Henry had two children:
Dudley Cosser Rogers-Harrison born Karachi 25.9.1903 baptised 6.10.1903. Died and buried 10.10.1903, 15 days old. Cause: Tusinus neonatorum / Tetanus.
Joan Rogers-Harrison born 1904 Q4 Hastings, Sussex. Died 1959 Q2 Folkestone, Kent, aged 54.
*Other researchers have Henry Willsher born 22.12.1867 in Islington and dying 3.5.1905 at Kew Green, Surrey. His father and elser brother were Freemen of the City of London.
Muriel Amy Cosser
Born 30.10.1885 at Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey. Elsewhere in Sutton in 1891. In 1901 at Polmont, Scotland, at boarding school. Married 4.4.1910 at Karachi Ramsay Hannay Young, 32, a merchant of Karachi and son of Drummond Young. They had children:
Mary Cosser Young born Karachi 18.5.1911 baptised 20.6.1911. She was a witness at the Karachi wedding of her cousin Joyce Margery Cosser Young in November 1933.
John Drummond Young born Karachi 10.1.1915 baptised 10.2.1915.
Elizabeth Muriel Young born Karachi 29.2.1916 baptised 4.4.1916.
Virtually all the ceremonies at Karachi were carried out by a Church of Scotland minister and Polmont had strong affiliations to that church, in line with historic non-conformist leanings of the Cossers.
Comment:
Linking up a number of references above, we found only one entry in UK Censuses for Thomas Cosser as an adult and that was in 1891, when he, Mary and their four surviving daughters were at Cavendish Road, Sutton, Surrey. Ten years previously, in 1881, their son George and their then two youngest daughters were being looked after by Thomas’s mother and sister at Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey, with Elizabeth, aged 9, so far unaccounted for (presumably abroad with her parents?). The family were still resident at Cedar Road in 1885 when Muriel Amy was born. However, by the 1901 Census, the only member of the family to be found in Britain was the youngest daughter Muriel Amy, aged 16, who was at a boarding school at Polmont, near Grangemouth, Scotland, her mother having died at Karachi less than a month earlier, i.e. 16.3.1901 of lung congestion fallowing pneumonia.
Family tradition had it that Thomas was present at the Royal Durbar at Delhi for George V and Queen Mary in mid-December 1911. We assume that the whole family had returned to Karachi in the last decade of 19C, i.e. once most of the children had completed their education in Britain. Thomas died at Karachi 22.8.1921, aged 86 (of senile decay). He is commemorated on the tombstone of his maternal aunt Isabella Hunter in Belford churchyard, as are his parents and sister Elizabeth Jane.
The potential of the port of Karachi was identified by the East India Company early in 19C and it was captured from the Taipur rulers of Scinde in February 1839. Thomas was possibly too young to be aware of this but would have been at school when, in February 1843, Sir Charles James Napier won the battle of Miani and thereby conquered Scinde province itself. Punch magazine is said to have published, in May 1844 the story that Napier had reported his success by sending a one word report: “Peccavi“, no doubt confident that the recipients understood the Latin for “I have sinned” – an obvious pun! Who knows? Some schoolmaster or other might have communicated these heroics to Thomas’s class. Certainly from that point on Karachi was rapidly developed, e.g. having the first telegraphic link from the sub-continent to London in 1864 and being connected to the railway system in 1873, by which time Thomas Cosser would be in the thick of things.
One more snippet reached us through one of Millie (Smart) Bridges’ daughters, who recalls that her mother and the four girls who had been born by then coming to England from Canada in 1931 and staying with Grannie (Mary Ellen) Smart in Wooler for some six months. At one point during their stay the children received presents from “the cousins from India”, through their mother Millie, who must have met the said cousins, although the children did not.
Young Family History 