4 Letters from England, 1837-1847, written by Samuel Cooper Blakely Lane near Cheadle, Staffordshire England, Sept. 22nd 1837
Respected Friend,
At the request of yourself and at the request of Thomas Wright and at the request of my old friend Francis Mears and at the unfortunate request of my Wife and at the request of all my Family, and also at the concurred request of the writer I once more take up my pen to write a letter to Friends in America. As the Letters which have passed between us lately have been each divided into two subjects or in other words have treated both of the things of Religion and the things of the world, it may not be amiss perhaps for me to pursue the same plan in the present letter. And as Religion seems to be of the greatest importance I think I shall begin with that subject first.
It is always pleasing when we write to our Friends to know that we are writing to them on a subject they know something about and the contemplation of which will give them pleasure. This I am encouraged to hope will be the case with you. (I now speak of my Friends in America generally) when addressing you on the subject of Religion from the general tenor of the letters we have received lately from America we have reason to believe you are doing well in Religion, “Glory to God”.
And if you should feel as much animated in reading that part of our letter which relates to Religion as we do in reading yours we have no doubt if we could be with you where you read it we should see the big tear stand in your eye or rolling down your cheek or if we could hear you read it it would be with a faltering tongue and trembling voice such would be your feelings of gratitude produced by the good news you had received. But this is not likely to be the case, our comparatively frozen beliefs lukewarm condition in England is not likely to produce emotions like these when recited across the Atlantic. Not that I think we are behind you in Mercies but then I am not certain whether we improve them so well.
However if I must say a little on the subject of Religion it may be well for me to begin with myself first. I need not tell you that I am a sinner, this you had full proof of before you left England. It is hardly necessary for me to tell you that I am a great sinner. This fact to external observation perhaps may not appear so clear because my conduct when contrasted with many others even in my conduct in days of foolishness and sin was no so notoriously bad and profligate as many. But considering the circumstances in which I was placed the Light and knowledge I had or might have had the many gospel opportunities and privileges I possessed and enjoyed and still that I sinned against that light and knowledge and the corrections of my conscience the appellation must be attached to my character with double force “Great Sinner”.
Would you believe me if I were to tell you that I am a great sinner saved by a great Savior. You perhaps would say we would charitably hope the best and if it were not presumption we would indulge a hope that it is so because it is said that Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost all those that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. I would indulge a hope too that it is so not because I may have obtained a smattering of head knowledge (for what do I know to what I ought to know I am almost ashamed of naming the word) nor because I am called to sustain an office or offices in the church but because I hope Jesus Christ by his grace and Spirit has renewed me in righteousness and true holiness and because I hope I an now made to hate sin to fear the commission of it and that I am endeavoring to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset me. I hope I am making the Word of God the rule by which I regulate my conduct and to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind and strength and my neighbor as myself. I hope in the two great gospel principles which I am aiming at.
With respect to our Family I am not without my consolations on their part. I need not tell you that my Wife has been a Methodist for many years but you will allow with me that if she were a better woman and a better Methodist and a better Christian than she is she would be none the worse for it. However I don’t feel the least disposed for finding fault with her. I am not at all tired of her at present and I know who I am writing to or I durst not have wrote in this way, but to be serious.
It is with pleasure that I have to tell you that Joseph has begun to thing about good things and he does not only think about them but he has begun to seek after them with respect to his observance of the Sabbath Day. A circumstance which always gives me great pleasure to see young persons attend to. He is a member with the Wesleyan Methodists at Wetley Rocks. I hope Francis has good impressions made on his mind he goes with me on a Tuesday evening to our Society Meeting at Wereupton [sic]. I will just give you a list of our member’s names and so conclude this part of my letter. Job Turner, Jane Turner, Samuel Cooper, Elizabeth Cooper, Elizabeth Street, Elizabeth Rollstone, Martha Rollstone, George Forrester, Enoch Sherwin, Mary Sherwin, Matthew Sherwin, Jane Sherwin, Hannah Sherwin, George Hurlstone, Simeon Sharrott, Joseph Wayne, Harrot Forrester, Fanny Forrester, Gervase Forrester, Mary Sharratt, Fanny Leese, Ellen Smith, Hanna Downes, Mary Bainbridge.
We have received three letters from America this year, one from yourself and Sampson but I cannot mention the date as I have not got the letter by me, one from Thomas Wright but I cannot mention the date of that neither as it is at Bucknall at W. Birch’s Relations and one we received last Sunday from Francis Mears. We are glad to hear of you all being well and we have cause to be thankful that we can give you the same pleasing intelligence. Will you please to tell Francis Mears that we have not been able at present to get any information respecting his Wife’s relations nor have we heard anything from them this long time, but we will try to get some information and send it in our next.
Farrel Haltius is married to Richard Jaquis. Mary Dickisson is married to a person named Hulme and they live now somewhere toward the Mear. George Mear seems well pleased with your prospects he said on reading Francis’ letter that he had a place and stock nearly equal to his which he was paying 20 £ a year for beside taxes, and that he could sell his produce for nearly as much money. George is now busy cutting his corn. We have had a week or two of wet weather but it is very fine now. Last spring was very late and unfavorable and very poor crops were generally expected but the summer has been a fine one and the crops good. According to the prices of different things sold in America which Francis states in his letter it is nearly as good as what they are in England. Tell Francis that Robert Cooper is dead and also that his Brother George has received 20 £ of a legacy left by Mr. Hughes to his wife and that there is 10 £ in reversion for his daughter. I am not certain whether ever I told you that Francis Emery and Ravenscroft went into partnership in the potting business. They were in business about two or three years and they had failed and it is said that Emery has lost eleven hundred pounds. Ravenscroft had nothing to lose and it is supposed that Emery has not lost so much but there is a great deal of debt contracted the last I heard of them they were both in prison. Emery had been proved forsworn an account of concealing a part of his property from his creditors. Ravenscroft had been drawing a billon some person without …….[torn paper] How long Emery will have to stay in Prison I cannot tell but the last I heard of him he had not lost one bit of his confidence and spirit. I have heard that Ravenscroft has come out of prison. People generally seem to ……[torn paper] Ravenscroft more than Emery. Hulse Barlow and Jaquis also failed in business and I have heard that they are now making an offer to their creditors of twenty shillings on the pound. What sort of a consideration will be I cannot tell. Suspicious seems to be quite unfavorable.
There has of late been a great stagnation in the Potting business and indeed in almost all other business on account of the America Trade. I almost think that you Americans have been rather out-witting some of our English folks. I understand the Americans have been getting all our gold and silver coin in the profession as much as they could and paying us in return with their paper money. Our people have found it out when it is too late and now they have stopped their [hand?] and it has caused a great stagnation in business. I think things are coming round again.
Mr. Bradburry of the Red House is dead. George and Hannah Mear have another daughter which came about three weeks back. Give all our kind respects to all our friends in America. We cannot name them particularly as there is not room. My wife gives her kindest respects to your wife. She wants to write a piece for her to your wife but I have not room. You must accept the will for the deed. We saw W. Birch’s sister last Saturday. She desires to be remembered to him. His Father and Mother are well and she is better than she was.
Samuel Cooper, Oct. 1, 1837
Addressed to Mr. John Ibbs, Sandy Lake, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, America
To be left at Henderson Post Office)
postmarked October, 1837[punctuation and paragraphs added to make easier reading, very little done in the original letter]
(the 1840 Letter, still folded length-wise & bottom section folded up. In this folder form the dimensions are approximately 8x10 inches. The other Samuel Cooper letters were on the same type of paper and same small handwriting, most in similar condition.)
Blakely Lane, March 2nd, 1840
Dear Tom,
I am now an invalid and have been disabled for work for this last two or three days and consequently I have now leisure time to write to you. My affliction is not very severe. It is a pain in my side tending I suppose to inflammation. But through the Blessing of God I am better though not well. My Tabernacle is getting rather shattered. I expect that I shall before long be transported. If I can but get transformed and translated before I am transported I don’t know that it will matter a great deal how soon the sentence comes. Glory to God I am not altogether without hope that when this the earthly house of my Tabernacle dissolves I shall have a building of God, an house not made with hands eternal is the heavens I hope I am living for this. I hope I am praying for this. I hope I am believing for this. May God help me to be as right good earnest.
I wonder how my good old friends in America are going on. There is your Father-in-law and Mother-in-law Fowler I suppose they are about the same age as myself. We have lived about half a century in the world. It is almost a wonder that we have been preserved so long. There are your Uncle and Aunt Mears and your Uncle and Aunt Ibbs. We are all of us getting on very fast in years. I wonder whether we are getting on as well in a preparation for eternity. I hope we none of us got so buried in the cares and anxieties of the world as to neglect the concerns of eternity. Then there is yourself and your Wife and Sampson and your Wife’s brothers and sisters and your Uncle Mears’ Sons and Daughters and your Uncle Ibbs children. May of these I hope are in the way to heaven. Do you hate sin? Are you striving with all your might to lay it aside? Do you love God, his people, his ways, his ordinances, his Word?
Next I would propose a question or two to your Wife? Do you enjoy the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost given unto you? Do you feel that you have redemption in the blood of Christ the forgiveness of your sins? I wish I had room to propose questions of a similar nature with the above to all my above mentioned friends individually. But more especially do I wish I had an opportunity of proposing similar questions unto them personally. I should like to be the leader of a Class Meeting at which they were all present. I would not only ask them questions but we would unanimously join in singing Hallelujah to God and the Lamb.
But I must begin to write a little about other people. I dare say you would like to hear something about your Mother, your Brothers and Sisters, about your other relations, about times and circumstances. Your Mother does not enjoy very good health. She is often talking about going into another country and I hope and have reason to believe she is making preparation for it. Your Brother John and his Wife live where they did. He follows butchering and seems to be doing pretty well with it as it respects the affairs of this world. I wish they were doing as well in spiritual things as they are in temporal things. But I am afraid they have no desire after them. They have one child. Your Brother Joseph is doing well I think in religious matters. He is now living at home with us. He is a member of the Wesleyan Society at Wetley Rocks. Your Brother Stephen was over the last Christmas. He has not been over for two years before. He has been working in Yorkshire at a new Railway. I suppose he is working there still. I am afraid he is not walking in Wisdom’s ways. Your Brother Francis still works with me at nail making. He is a member of the Society at Werrupton. Your Sister Elizabeth is at home out of place. I am afraid not a very great comfort to her Mother. Mary Cooper is gone to live at Hanley. Samuel is just beginning to do a little in the shop and Sarah goes to school. Your Uncle George is pretty well and his Family also. Mary Stanton still lives with him as a housekeeper. I have heard nothing lately from them at Medford, Your Uncle Samuel’s daughter Hannah was over at our house last week but one. I heard of no particular alteration in their affairs.
The people of England are many of them in a very dissatisfied condition. Work is very scarce, provisions are very high. Many trade people are suffering very seriously. There seems to be a general dissatisfaction amongst trade’s people respecting the present Corn Laws. It is the general opinion of tradesmen in England that the present Corn Laws are a barrier to trade. I have been told that Mr. William Bridgway stated some time ago that he had received an order from America from one gentleman which would last all his hands full employ and I think he is connected with no less than sever manufacture and some of them large ones, until late in the spring, and I believe it was sometime about Christmas when he said so and though this order was countermanded because he could not on account of the present Corn Laws take half flour for his goods. He also stated that if he could have taken one half flour for his goods he might not only have had that order but another as good. but not being able to make an exchange with the Americans betwixt [Pots & Four] his men were obliged to stand still one part of their time while their families are suffering very serious for the want of that bread which you Americans are willing to supply us with.
And it is stated that great quantities of flour which has been brought in bond is obliged to be thrown over board or at least thrown unto the sea very frequently on account of being spoiled whilst at the same time there are members of families in England suffering the lack of it. Thank God our family has not yet been forced to supper the lack of bread. We have hither to had food to eat. It is true we sometimes are obliged to fare coarsely and wear scantily but hitherto our wants have been supplied. Glory to God, bread has been given and water has been sure. I suppose if you were to come back to England you would find a great alteration amongst us than we can describe. There have been so many deaths and so …. change in situation that I suppose it would be almost like coming into a new world. Death has lately been very busy amongst us. He has been taking one and another off I think in the course of two or three months about 20 deaths took place in Wetley Rocks. A fever was very prevalent. He has been almost all wound our hose and even in the next dwelling but thank God he has not visited our house at present. We stand however in jeopardy every hour. Well for us to take the Savior’s exhortation, “Be ye therefore ready also for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh.”
I will now close my present remarks and as Joseph and Francis are at home I will give them an opportunity of writing each of them a piece in this letter. Before I conclude however I would just acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated June 1839. I hope you will write again soon and direct as before.
Samuel Cooper
Dear Tom,
I don’t find that Joseph and Francis are inclined for writing much. I suppose they think they cannot do it so well as they could wish it to be done and therefore they will not try to do it. I do not think it is out of any kind of disrespect either to you or any other person in America which is the cause of their not writing. I believe they are quite pleased with hearing of your prosperity and I believe too that they sincerely respect you. Perhaps they will write after awhile. I will therefore try to finish the letter myself with writing on religious subjects. Perhaps it may be the last time I shall ever have an opportunity of writing to you. If it should be so what subject can I write to you about the dearness of provision, in the scarcity of employment, that we ourselves are poor, relate to you the change in circumstances of some of your former acquaintances, and of the death of others and a great many other things which I conceive would be almost unprofitable. But all these things are put under the control of an all wise providence.
Every good man who believes in the Sacred Scriptures as being a Divine Revelation must believe in the doctrine of an all wise and over ruling providence. They believe it because it is clearly revealed in those scripture which they take as the rule of their faith and practice. And notwithstanding the Infidel may sneer and the skeptics may cavil and doubt, yet the Christian, the man who believes in the Bible, must believe that there is not a sparrow falls to the ground without the notice of his heavenly Father and that the hairs on the heads of the Saints of the Most High are all numbered. The ways of Providence it is true are sometimes very dark and mysterious, and hence some people are for having no providence at all. Everything according to their calculations happens by chance or arrives from secondary causes but the Sacred Scripture are so clear on the point that what ever part of the sacred volume we may consult in almost every part we find the doctrine of a Divine Providence clearly demonstrated.
Take for example the history of Job. Job we are told was a very rich man, the richest in al the east. He was also a very good man, the Almighty himself says of him that he was a perfect and upright man, one that feared God and eschewed evil. But although Job at one time was the richest man in all the east yet in a very little while he was brought to be poor even to a proverb. One part of his property was taken away by the [Labeus?] Another part was destroyed by fire from heaven. A third part was carried away by the children and whilst his seven sons and five daughters were feasting together the house in which they were feasting fell and destroyed them all. The Infidel if he admitted at all the truth of the history would attribute all these things to natural causes. He would say that Job’s enemies were too strong for him, that they came upon him and overpowered him and took away a part of his property. he would also perhaps say that the lightening destroyed another part of it. And that there came a … [torn paper] storm and blew down the house in which Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking and destroyed them all.
But the Sacred historian takes us behind the scene. He gives us to see that the finger of God was in the affair. That God permitted Job thus to be in trouble and distress for wise ends and purposes. Not because Job had sinned, no for He says of him that he was a perfect and upright man. it is a very common opinion with men that if any person be the subject of any great calamity it is a judgment from God upon them for some crime they have committed. Now although it must be admitted that the judgments of the Lord are sometimes abroad in the world and that he punishes the wicked and corrects the righteous, yet it was not for any …[torn paper] on the part of Job nor for any crime he had committed which was the cause of his calamities. but the Almighty delivered Job’s property into the hands of Satan and not only his property but his person also with the restriction that he should spare his life…[Love persons?] because the Doctrine of a Divine and Universal Providence is established in the Scriptures run into the contrary extreme. Because a Divine Providence is taught in the Scripture they will argue that a man is equally as safe when exposing himself to the utmost danger as when taking the greatest care of himself. To argue this a man might as well say that he was just as safe when flinging himself down the shaft of a deep pit as when walking along the level surface which is nothing but presumption.
This seems to have been one temptation which the Devil presented to Jesus Christ. He set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto him ‘Cast Thyself down for it is written” but Jesus Christ said It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord they God, that thou shalt not expect him to do more for thee than he has promised. If a man unnecessarily exposes himself to danger God has not promised him protection and to expect the Almighty to protect him when thru needlessly running in danger is presumption. To do this a man might as well throw himself down a steep precipice and pray that God would prevent him from being dashed to pieces or drink a large quantity of poison and then expect that God would preserve him from destruction. Such conduct would be presumptuous. The establishment of a Divine Providence does not take away the accountability of man.
Samuel Cooper
March 21st 1840,
Dear Tom,
This letter was written a fortnight ago but was not sent off at that time. Since the writing of it we have received your kind letter dated January, 1840. It came to hand last Saturday. We sent it to Hulme last Monday to your Uncle and Aunt Rollstone. We have not had an opportunity of getting it back at present. I should like you in your future letter to acknowledge your Father’s relations. They are always very anxious to hear about you and to see your letters. Your Aunt Rollstone talks very strongly about coming to America. I suppose it is hardly likely that she will do so, but I believe she thinks very highly of your country. I think your Uncle William and your Uncle Thomas and your Uncle Joseph and your Aunt Catherine are all pretty well and for any thing I know to the contrary their families too, but I have not room to particularize. We feel very grateful to you and Sampson for the kind offer you have made. I am not prepared at present to give an answer to the question whether we should come into America or not if we had an opportunity but probably our Lads will before long answer the last letter you have sent and then perhaps something may be said about it. I can tell you the conversation which started on our hearth one evening since the receipt of your letter. One said “I think I shall send for Sam. to some over and I will go with him back.” Another said “Aye, do Joe do.” Whether they will send for Sam. to come over or not I cannot tell. I think your Uncle George is for writing before long. Your mother wishes her kindest respects to be given to all her friends in America. Write the first opportunity and direct as before. I am, Dear Tom,
Yours affectionately,
Samuel Cooper[addressed “For Mr. Thomas Wright, Perrine’s Post Office, Sandy Lake, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, America
postmarked New York, July 18][paragraphs and most punctuation added for ease of reading, very little punctuation in the original]
Blakeley Lane, March 24, 1844,Dear Tom [Wright]
We received your king Letter on Sunday March 3rd. We had started on off to Sampson the day before we received yours(April 3rd 1844, Now for another …or two) I should not have written another letter for America so soon after writing that for Sampson if it had not been that I thought it would seem strange to you that we did not notice the receipt of your letter. You talk in your letter about bungling a line or two. I wish several of my American friends would try to bungle as well. I can assure you that your letter was received with great pleasure and it has been read with great interest and I wish when you have an opportunity you would bungle another line or two. Tell Sampson we should like to see some of his bungling work too.
Nevertheless highly as we were pleased with and interested in your bungling letter you must not be offended at me asking you a question or two respecting some parts of it and animadverting a little on some other parts of it. You speak about your Uncle Ibbs not being able to write since he got his hand cut. We have never heard anything before about his hand being cut. Will you please therefore in your next to tell us something more about it, how it was done and whether he is disabled for work. You speak also about your Brother John requesting you to send him a copy of your deed and that you had thought that it was only for the purpose of removing one doubt that he requested it. Will you please to tell us what you think that doubt is. If you do not feel disposed to do it openly you know how to do it secretly.
You also say in your letter, “My Mother made me a promise that I expect her to fulfill. I have examined the text and I hope she will send me the sermon the first opportunity.” There is quite a disagreement amongst us with respect to this promise, this text, and this sermon. Your Mother thinks it is something which I should have done by way of writing one of my discourses but I cannot think that it is anything of that kind. It must be something which your Mother has promised to do. Will you please to put us to rights by explaining the matter a little.
Now for a little animadversion. I feel a little grieved that you should send me such a challenge as you have done that is to name “a real honest steady industrious man that has been to America and fairly tried to get a living by work that is …….back to England and says he cannot do it.” I am a little surprised that this challenge should be sent to me I do not know that I have ever found much fault with America I have always said that those of you my Relations and Acquaintances are doing much better in America than it is probable you would have been doing had you remained in England. It is true I have said that I did not think that America would be very likely for myself and that I did not think I should ever go to America. I could not work at Farming. I could not work at my own trade. I should not like to keep a School and what is a greater reason than all these our money is nearly all gone so that if we would come now we could not.
Why your challenge should be sent to me I cannot tell unless it be that you have heard an unfavorable report concerning me. But as you have given me the challenge I will not turn coward, I will accept it. There is a man with whom I am well acquainted hat lives about two miles from our house and I believe him to be an honest man and a steady man and industrious man. This man some years ago was in America. He worked in America, he was in America about twenty weeks. He came back to England and by his honest industry and steadiness since his return to England he has acquired almost an independency. But you say I must mention his name. I will do so, Thomas Bettaney is his name and I believe him to be honest, industrious, and steady. Observe I am not finding fault with America, I do not know that the man above referred to find any fault with America but you sent me a challenge and I have accepted it and produced my example. The man tried both countries and I suppose he preferred England to America or why did he come back. I suppose I have said enough by way of animadversion
Now for a change of subject, I am pleased to learn from your letter that you are an advocate for the abolition of slavery and I have that you and your friends will continue to set your faces decidedly against slavery until every vestige of it is entirely banished from your land. In a periodical publication for the present month which has fallen into my hand there is the following article. It is headed with the words “United States Freedom,” and then it goes on to state that
“in one of the slave states of this land of liberty a person named John L. Brown has been tried and convicted of the crime of aiding a female slave to escape from the scene of bondage. The convicted criminal has according to the law of the state been sentenced to Death and under this sentence he is now lying. If this man be executed the United States ought forever to be regarded with execration and loathing by the whole civilized world. Public opinion in what is call the Free States will surely have sufficient influence to prevent the perpetration of a deed of such awful and unparalleled atrocity. But even should the sentence not be carried into effect the circumstance of such being the law is of itself an undeniable proof of the wickedness and tyranny of the American Republic. For if the general government has not the power to prevent the States from enacting such laws it only proves that wickedness and tyranny have a stronger dominion than justice and freedom. The address of the judge in passing sentence is enough to horrify Satan himself for its blasphemous hypocrisy. For this man to talk as a Christian and to use the language of Christian exhortation is awfully too profane and burlesque our holy religion. Such events as these make Old England with all her faults dearer to us than ever.”
My dear Tom, I hope the above circumstance will have the tendency of making you and all your acquaintances and friends more than ever to unite your efforts and exertions in striving for the abolition of slavery.
Thursday Morning, 5 o’clock, April 4th, 1844,
My Dear Tom,
I hasten this morning to conclude my letter. Tomorrow is what is commonly called Good Friday. If all is well I suppose that to memory you Uncle George and your Brother John’s wife and myself and perhaps your Brother Joseph shall go to see your Uncle Samuel Mears. He lives at a place called Martins Bank near Talk Hill and as the distance they tell me is about 12 miles I thing by the time I have been there and back I shall have had enough for one day and consequently if I do not finish my letter today I shall not have an opportunity of finishing before Saturday and I want to take it with me to Hawley on Saturday. I sent you word in Sampson’s letter that Joseph is now living at the Abbey with Mrs Steele. He came over in a day or two after we had received your letter. He rather smiled at the consideration that you will find him a summer’s work if you never pay him for it. I think he durst venture upon you if other circumstances would allow. He seems quite anxious to get Stephen in America if he could do it. I think he would have no objections to letting him have money to carry him and his family over if he could do it with safety. When I say safety I do not mean safety as it respects hiving his money back again. This I think he would run the risk of it if he could get him into America but I think he is afraid if he was to let him lave money it might perhaps be appropriated to other purposes and he and his family would still be in England. We have not heard anything from Stephen since I wrote to Sampson.
William Harrison has been ill, I suppose he is getting better. Our Law [sic] is going over there this evening to see how they are going on. He will take your letter with him. Your Brother John goes to Newport market once a fortnight, he was there last Tuesday. we asked him to call at Harrison’s to see how they were going on. We have not seen him since to inquire. We were over at Stone [sic]soon after last Christmas, and we called at your Aunt Mears’ Sisters. They told your Uncle George some particulars which he must send when he wrote to America. I have almost forgot what they were but as he is for writing soon I believe he intends putting them in his letter. Will you tell our Uncle Ibbs that old Mr. Batty the Preacher he had use to hear at Land Delph is dead, He died on the 19 March. I was in company with your Uncle William Wright last Friday at the funeral of John Bromley [sic] of Windy Cot. When you write you and I hope you will ‘bungle’ another out soon, please to direct your letter to be left at Mr. Heaths, Hanley, let your directions be something like the following “For Samuel Cooper Blakeley Lane to the care of Mr Heath, Grocer, Market Square, Hanley, Staffordshire Potteries England” I have named it to Mr Heath about taking them in for me. When they come by Wheadle we get imposed on and we thought it would be better to have them left at Hanley.
I have felt a little surprised that you say nothing about Mr Jaquis in your letter. I suppose he is with you yet. You speak in your letter about so many letters coming betwixt your neighborhood and ours that one wrote by you would only be an intrusion. I have only seen one letter that has been sent from your neighborhood excepting those that come directly from our own friends and acquaintances. I have heard of some which have been sent by Mr. Jaquis and of one which has come recently to hand from Mr. Nicklin but I have not heard of any particulars in any of them. But Mr. Jaquis spoke something in the letter which I saw of joining some other body he hardly approved of the nonsense of the Round Tops. I did not understand him to mean that he was going by himself but that you were all going with him. I do not think myself that religion consists in the particular form of a coat or the shape of a hat it is not meat and drink (and clothing) but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, still it is right that we should pay attention to the Apostles injunction “Be not conformed to this world.”
I am glad to hear of my respected friend R. Fowler getting on so well both in temporal and spiritual concerns. I should like to see you all but I suppose I never shall. But if I should have the opportunity of giving you my advise any more let my last request be that you unite your exertions in the Abolition of Slavery.
Thursday morning, 7 o’clock,
Samuel CooperSaturday morning, April 6th, 1844
Yesterday your Brother John and his wife and your Uncle George and myself went at your Uncle Samuel. It was about 11 o’clock last night when your Uncle George and myself got home. John and his wife stayed all night. We went to the top of a high hill near your Uncles where we had the finest prospect that ever I saw before. Your Uncle and his family are pretty well. Your mother has put a note inside for your wife. I should like to have filled this paper but my time is so limited. Our Mary is now in haste to start to Hanley so I am obliged to conclude.
God Bless you,
Prepare for Heaven,
S. Cooper
Letter addressed to: Mr. Tho. Wright, Perrines Post Office, Sandy Lake Twp., Mercer Co., Pennsylvania, America
postmarked April 18, 1844
[The paragraphing and punctuation were inserted for easier reading. There was no paragraphing and little punctuation in the original letter]
Blakely Lane, March 24, 1847,
Dear Tom,
I commenced writing to you about 6 or 7 weeks ago but never finished my letter until one day last week. I had a large sheet of paper and I filled it full but when I took it to the post office last Saturday it was over weight and if I had sent it I must have paid double postage for it which would have bee 2 shillings so I thought I would bring it home and write another and thereby save a shilling. This being a day appointed by the Queen in which is to be held a publick fast in all her dominion in consequence of which there is a general cessation from labor, I do not know that I can employ any time much better but I will try to sent you the substance of it and if you will come over you shall if you like see the original. It appears that you and I were writing to each other about the same time when we wrote before. I have expected to receive another letter from you before this as it is now about 12 months since I received your other letter. I want to hear something how you are in America.
We are some of us badly off in England and much worse I understand they are in some parts of Ireland and Scotland. Potatoes in England are selling from 1/10 to 2/shilling for 20 lbs and your Brother Stephen sent me word in a letter I had from him last Saturday that they were as high as 6/shilling per peck where he is at in Scotland. Wheat in England is from 10 to 12/shillings per strike and oats are from 6 to 7/shillings per strike. Seed oats are worth toward 7/shilling, bacon is worth from 8 to 9 per lb. and cheese from 7 to 8. Work is very flat and in England working people have quite enough to do to get a little something to eat. In Ireland and Scotland they are much worse. It is true we have a Railway now in the making through Potteries which is calculated to cost upwards of three millions of money which finds employment for a great number of men but mostly I think they are men who come from other parts of the country.
Will you please to send us word of how provisions are in America, what sort of crops you had last summer. We have heard that crops in America last year were very good but that owing to a failure in crops in France the Americans have found another market for their produce. The English Corn Law was repealed the last session of Parliament and the duty on foreign corn is to go off nearly if not altogether in 3 years from the time the law was repealed which is little more than 2 years from the present time. But owing to the great failure in potatoes and oats in Ireland last year instead of England being supplied with oats from Ireland as heretofore they are sending corn from England to Ireland and great numbers of the poor people in Ireland have actually perished through starvation and as I have just above observed our English government have thought it right to appoint a day of fasting and humiliation before Almighty God in consequence of the distress which now pervades our country. I hope our Legislators and government and great and rich men, yea and poor men too, will not be hypocritical in their fast. I hope they will not fast for debate and strife and to smite with the fist of wickedness but I hope they will evidence the sincerity of their penitence by relieving the oppressed by giving bread to the hungry and clothing to the naked and by relieving as far as they can the necessities of the suffering poor (Isiah’s 8 Chap)
I mentioned to you about receiving a letter from our brother Stephen. He is now near Perth in Scotland, he is time keeper on a railway in that country. He has 27/sh. per week. He has not yet removed his family. They are still near Leeds in Yorkshire. I hardly think he intends taking his family into Scotland according to what he says in his last letter, he is not very fond of the country. His address is ‘For Stephen Wright at Mrs. Richies, Friarton, near Perth, Scotland.” If you have not written before you receive this letter please to write s soon as you can. Give our kindest respects to Wife and Family.
Yours respectfully,
S. CooperMarch 24/47
Dear Sampson,
I now address myself to you and your family and I hope this letter will find you and them well. We are most of us I think in pretty good health. Mother is not so very well but I think no worse than usual. At the beginning of the winter she met with a bad fall by which she was badly hurt. She was one day coming out of the kitchen with a cream joul in her hands and there was a bench which stood in the way against the foot of which she caught her foot and it threw her down on her face on the floor, and her face was sadly bruised and her body severely shaken from which fall she is not fully recovered at present though she is got that she can go from home when the weather is fine.
There was your mother and myself and your Uncle George Mears and Thomas Hunt and Mrs. Hunt and Mrs. Whiston and Mrs. Sargeant of Caverswall and Mrs Heath of Hulme were all for tea at George Brassington’s of Caverswall last Monday but one. I tried to talk to the people as well as I could in the Chapel in the evening. Amongst other persons who were in the congregation there was your Aunt Rollstone and your cousins Mira and Thomas, and either Joseph or Sampson. They are now come to live at the Hobhouse near Caverswall. They have been living at Fair Oaks near market Drayton but are just lately left and come to Caverswall. George Draping [sic] told your Uncle George that when he wrote to America he must send your Aunt Ann Mears word that Mrs. Pennington was dead and that she was buried I think about a week before. I did not know Mrs. Pennington myself but I understand her husband is a local preacher amongst the Wesleyans and I understand your Aunt Mears and her were great acquaintances while your aunt was living in England. As your Uncle George had just before that time sent a letter into America I thought I had better just to name it.
Your Brother John is doing pretty well with his business I think he getting a deal of money. He is living on his own place and follows the butchering business. He has four children. Joseph is yet living with Mrs. Steele of the Abbey. I think he has 20£ wages for the present year. He is not yet married, perhaps the next time I write to you I shall have to say different to that. He’s just come over home today as he is not at work. Mary still lives with us and Sam is working with me in the shop. Sarah has been at home since Christmas but she is now gone to live with Mrs. Martin at a place called Broad Oak near ….. , near [Uttoxeton?]. Mary and Sarah are both members of the Methodist Society and Joseph is a member of the Wesleyan Society at Wetley Rocks. Your Uncle George still lives at Above Park. Your Uncle Stephen is still living at Meaford. Your Uncle Samuel is still living at Martin’s Bank near Talkoth Hill. Your Uncle William Wright is still living at …..[leahtains?] Barn. Your Uncle Thomas is still living at Shepp March. Your Uncle Joseph is living at Cresswell Ford. I think he is leaving this spring and going to Madgedale. Your Aunt Kate is still living at Small Brock. Thomas Hunt and family talk of coming to America whether they ever will come I cannot tell. John Nicklin they say is for coming to America. William Johnson and his wife are both dead, but whether the property which old John Simcock let to William and his wife for their life and which at their death was to go to the children of John Nicklin’s wife can be sold I cannot tell. I quite forgot to name that your Sister Elizabeth is yet [hirip?] with Mr. Richard Jaquis of Langton. We have little Elizabeth yet with us, I think your sister has a very comfortable situation. I think she is a member of the Church with them at Lougton.
Some information has been communicated that you were rather unwell. I hope however by this you are better. We have very fine weather in our country now. Land is in very good condition for getting the seed in we have had a good deal of frost this winter and it has been a long and rather a severe winter but the frost is gone with very little rain and has left the land we think in quite an improved condition. Please to give our kind respects to your wife and family. We do not effect ever to see them in this world so we much content ourselves with writing to them.
S. Cooper
To Francis Mears and Ann Mears, To Richard Fowler and Margaret Fowler, To John Ibbs and Ann Ibbs,
Respected Friends,It is scarcely necessary for me to tell you that it will always give me pleasure to hear of your welfare and prosperity. Of your prosperity in the things of this life I have no doubt whilst you have health and are industrious connected with the blessing of God. You I conceive are in the land of plenty, a land in which with the blessing of heaven a man gets well remunerated for his industry. Nor need I have much fear with respect to your spiritual prosperity. I know that in America as well as in England you have the Christian threefold enemy to fight against. You have Satan, the world, and your own evil heart, but I recollect that these enemies although potent are all conquered.
Jesus Christ hath conquered them both for himself and for his people. He conquered sin for He could say to his enemies . Which of you convinceth me of sin and when the prince of this world cometh he findeth no place in me. He conquered the world for although he was rich yet for our sake he became poor. Although he was Lord of all things because he was the creator of all things yet he could say “ The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.” He conquered Satan for when he….[torn paper]…up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil he always repelled his suffer…[torn paper]…with ‘Thus it is written …” And he not only conquered them for himself but for the people also for he was in all points tempted like as we are yet without …[torn paper]…he therefore knows how to succor them that are tempted.
There is no …[torn paper]…of the follower of Jesus Christ being overcome by their spiritual foes and losing faith in religion while they look to the Captain of their salvation. For although Satan may …[torn paper]…temptation is not sin and Satan cannot overcome the child of God while he resists him, for if we resist the devil he will fly from us. Nor can the world overcome …[torn paper]…Christian whilst he is crucified unto it and the world is crucified unto him. …[torn paper]…The Christian does not love the world nor is sinfully conformed to it and whilst he has his affections set not on things on the earth but on things above the world can not conquer him. Nor can the Christians evil heart overcome…[torn paper]…while he keeps it with all difference and whilst he takes heed lest there be …[torn paper]…evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. I am aware that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and that we are required to mortify the deed of the body that we may live to crucify the flesh with its affections and lists the above remarks therefore …[torn paper]…not intended to lead to carelessness and presumption but to watchfulness and diligence. The …[torn paper] …is very strong in confidence when after he has asked the question Who can separate us from the love of God he says ‘for I am persuaded that neither death nor …, nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present not things to come nor hieghth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’.
If we are self confident and presumptuous and we suffer this self confidence to lead us to unwatchfulness in an unguarded hour when we are not aware we may be overcome by our spiritual foes and then we are brought into an awful stat of misery and dejection but even if this should unhappily be the case we are not altogether left without encouragement and hope for if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. but it is our privilege and duty too to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am aware that it is said if riches increase set not thine heart upon them. Riches I apprehend implies the possessions of this worlds goods so that we are rich although we may not have much money, but if we are rich in possessions we should also be rich in good works. Charge them that are rich that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but that they be ready to distribute willing to communicate , but even riches themselves if properly applied may furnish us with additional opportunities for usefulness and it is only the love of those riches which is the root of all evil. Seek us how ever seek to be rich in faith that we may be heirs of the kingdom.
S. Cooper.
Please to direct your future letters for Samuel Cooper, Blakeley Lane, near Wetley Rocks, near Leek, Staffordshire, England.
We have a post office now at Wetley Rocks.[punctuation and paragraph spacing added for ease of reading, the original had little punctuation]
1851 Letter from Elizabeth (Wright) Cooper, with note from Mary Cooper
Blakeley Lane, April 9, 1851
Dear Tom,
We received your kind letter two or three weeks back accompanied with a newspaper for which we are very much obliged to you. We cannot tell the date of your letter not having it by us. It was sent to Cobridge together with the newspaper to your Sister Elizabeth, and I think they are neither of them got back to Blakeley Lane at present. Elizabeth is living at Cobridge with Mr Turnival. I think she has a very comfortable situation. Mr. Turnival is I think a very kind Master.
With respect to the subject to which the note in your letter referred, I would just observe that the person you named in the note went back to America in a few days after we received the letter but without ever coming over into our neighborhood. I think your Uncle George saw him a little while before he set off for America and I think somewhere about the time we received your letter I think to that he told your Uncle that he intended to come over into our neighborhood but he never did. Nevertheless we are as much obliged to you for your good intentions as though we had actually received the benefit of those good intentions.
I felt a little confused when I read over your letter that I did not find any mention made of the last letter I sent to Sampson. I wrote one to him I should say sometime about the last Christmas or perhaps in January and when I did not see any mention made of it in your letter I thought it either must have never been delivered or that Sampson had never told you about it. We are sorry to hear of your hurt but are glad to hear that you are getting better and especially that it has been sanctified to your good. “All things shall work together for good to them that love God.” Under existing circumstances I am quite unprepared for writing to you a long letter but perhaps the next time I write I may fill you a long sheet brim full.
I sent word in Sampson’s letter about your Uncle Stephen’s death. Your brother John and several others in the neighborhood of Blakeley Lane have been having a law suit with a man by the name of Dudson who has recently bought that place where old Mr. Mill lived. The law suit has been about the road leading to the Cold Brook well. Dudson put a gate at the entrance into the road leading to the well and locked it up. Our Sam and Joseph Wetton broke open the gate and made a forceable entry. Dudson commenced an action against them. Your brother John has been at the head of the defendants and they have beaten Dudson. It is said that it is already cost Dudson about 200 £, how much it will have cost him …..[torn paper]…he has paid the defendants charges. It was tried at Strafford the last Assizes.
Give my kind respects to your Wife and my grandchildren and to Sampson and his wife and my grandchildren there, and to my Brother and Sisters and brother-in –laws and Sister-in-law and to all relations so far as you have an opportunity.
Elizabeth Cooper
[and on a small slip of paper, an added note that follows:]
Dear Sister,
Mother seems very anxious for me to write a few lines to you. She seems to blame me very much that I did not write sooner. I did write a few lines in the last we sent to brother Thomas but I suppose your letter would be started before that was. Mother says it is a source of great consolation to her to hear that her children are walking in the fear of God and all though death has been making inroads in our family yet the hopes to meet you who all that are near and dear to her by the time of nature in another and a better world. Perhaps I may write again before long.
We sent a letter a few weeks back which it appears you had not received when you wrote yours and in which we expressed our thankfulness for the kindness manifest in the intended gift but at the same time informing you that the person who was to have left that gift was gone back and had never called. We are much obliged to you for your kindness in writing to carry out the intentions of ------- and whether we ever have the benefit of it or not we are glad that you are so circumstanced as to have it in your power to do it if an opportunity offers itself.
M. Cooper
[Mary Cooper]addressed to Mr. Thomas Wright, Perrine’s Post Office, Sandy Lake Township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, America
postmarked AP16, 1851, New Castle-Staff, also stamped AP16, 1851, Liverpool, and stamped “5 cents”, there were several other unreadable postmarks
