5
Alan March’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back many generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from Alan’s as (1)
EDWARD COPPER and SARAH BYSH (7)
EDWARD COPPER. The date of his marriage in the Surrey village of Godston, and the fact that he brought up his family in Bletchingley, makes this the most likely baptism.
Baptism. St John the Evangelist, Coulsdon, Surrey.
1761 Sep 19 Edward Copper the son of Richard and Eliz Copper.
Coulsdon is a town 6 miles north of Bletchingley.
There is no sign of this child dying in infancy, and the Godstone marriage is the most likely one for him.
Edward was the third of four children, and the youngest of three sons, but one of his brothers had died before Edward was born. His mother was Elizabeth Percival (sometimes spelt Perciful).
The Copper surname is sometimes spelt Coppard.
Edward was ten when his father died. Two years later, his mother remarried, to the bachelor William Poole. We have found no half-siblings from this marriage.
Edward was a resident of Godstone, 6 miles south of Coulsdon, at the time of his wedding.
SARAH BYSH. We know from her marriage that Sarah was from Horne, a village 3 m south of Godstone, where she married. There is only one baptism that matches that,
Baptism. Horne.
1775 Jun 11 Sara daughter of Thomas and Ellenor Bish.
Her mother was a widow when she married Thomas Bysshe. She was most likely Eleanor Byfield, who had married James Apps in Tonbridge Wells in 1759. Tonbridge Wells is 16 m east of Horne, but James Apps died in 1771, making a remarriage in 1774 likely.
Sarah came from a long line of yeoman farmers, but her father was a younger son, and there is reason to think that he slipped down the social scale. It is unlikely that Sarah grew up on a farm.
Sarah was 18 at the time of her wedding, unusually young. She appears to have been pregnant at the time, which was probably the reason for the early wedding.
Marriage. Godstone.
1794 Jan 5 Edward Copper of this parish and Sarah Bysh of the parish of Horne.
Both make their mark X.
The witnesses were Robt Clement, Robt Russel and Jas Moor
They set up home 2 m SW of Godstone, in Bletchingley.
Five months after the wedding, Elizabeth was born.
Baptisms. St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley.
1794 Jun 22 Elizabeth.
She was followed by a sister.
1799 born Jun 7, bapt Jul 7 Sarah
We have found only these two children.
The village of Bletchingley stands on a ridge, on the road from Godstone to Redhill. It is overlooked by the Iron Age hillfort of White Hill.
1814 saw the enclosure of the common land in Bletchingley, cutting back on the prosperity of the lower-paid villagers.
Sarah’s birth date matches the following burial.
Burial. St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley
1831 Mar 13 Sarah Coppard, age 55.
Edward lived on for another 20 years,
Burial. St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley
1851 Jan 1 Edward Coppard, aged 72.
The age is one year out, but this was no unusual with older people.
NEXT GENERATION: 6. LADD-C0PPER
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 8. COPPER-PERCIVAL