What happened to Nancy Hooper?

When you're researching people who lived prior to the start of civil registration in 1837, you have to rely primarily on church records of baptisms, marriages, and burials. And there was no full census until 1841, so you don't see whole families together.

Nancy Hooper lived in this period, born in 1792 in Balham. She was the sister of our 3 x Great Grandfather Henry Hooper baptised in the same church as him, Holy Trinity, Clapham. The only record we have found that we know is definitely her is the baptism record.

After that we haven't found any records that we can say definitely relate to her, so what happened? No burial record has come to light so we are assuming that she didn't die as a child. But we have found two marriage records, either of which could be her because of the places the marriages took place.  In this narrative I thought it would be interesting to examine these two alternative scenarios to see if we can come to an informed opinion of what happened to Nancy.

Marriage to James Scott Salisbury

The first marriage record to be considered is between Nancy Hooper and James Scott Salisbury in Southwark 1808. This is in the right area, Balham is close to Southwark. The date of the marriage would mean that Nancy is barely 16 years old, so it's possibly her, but not very likely.

A more detailed look at the marriage reveals that it was by licence. Marriages by licence were usually because the partners didn't want to wait for banns to read, over three successive weeks. Most licences still exist and they often contain more information than is usual for marriage records at this time. The licence for this marriage shows that James Scott Salisbury is a mariner. And we can see that he is from the parish of St Mary Archer in Exeter.

So what's happening here is probably that his vessel is docked on the Thames and he has only a limited amount of time before it sails. Hence the marriage has to take place quickly. It leaves a big question unanswered - if he is from Exeter, how did he meet Nancy? We'll leave that aside for a moment.

We learn from later baptism and census records that Nancy and James had eight children and moved to Devon to live. Their first child was born in Bermondsey, but their subsequent seven children were all born in Topsham, Devon. But it's in the census records that we see further evidence that suggests that this is not our Nancy. In the census she gives her place of birth as Topsham. And when she dies in 1867 her age fits with a Nancy Hooper who was born in Topsham in 1786. So it looks as if the marriage in 1808 in Southwark was to the Nancy Hooper from Topsham aged then about 22. Which seems much more likely than it being our Nancy. James must have known her in Devon, and she possibly moved to the London area for work, and they kept in touch. So we can ignore this marriage.

This marriage is also by licence, but in this case we haven't got a copy. They have a daughter Alice Angelina born in 1821, but no more children have come to light. This Nancy died in 1826 - her age at the death was 37, our Nancy would have been 34. It's very common for age given at death to be a rough estimate, but it still means that whilst this marriage looks promising, we can't conclusively say that this is our Nancy.

Their daughter Alice Angelina later went on the marry in 1848 but left no clues as to the origins of her mother Nancy.

Conclusion

The evidence suggests that the marriage to William Walford could well be her but as yet there is no positive proof of that. The sort of thing that would clinch it is a record where she or one of her children is with another of our family members. Quite often you find a census record where a child is with an aunt or uncle, or grandparents. But not yet in this case. All we can say is that it is possibly her but more evidence is needed to prove it.

It is of course possible that neither of these marriages is her, which still leaves her fate unknown.