Holy Moly!! A fascinating ancestor!!

Figgs

Figgs

Well-Known Member
Just had a call from a cousin in Florida (Raymond McIntosh) who is part of Ron's Jamaican family and the only one besides his mother doing genealogy. He was bursting at the seams to tell me all the latest info he had on Wilkin Cooper, etc.......and mentioned that his maternal grandmother (Hilda Cooke) descended from a rather wealthy man in Cheshire and to look up the property.

It's the ROOKERY!! GORGEOUS!! I read the write up and it said it was originally built by "William Hilton Cooke".......see quote below. Both Cooke and Hilton are very definitely ancestral names in Ron's British side......which are mainly the Coopers, etc.

quote......
The hall dates from 1816, and was originally a plain late Georgian house in brick known as "The Rookery, Worleston". The first owner was William Hilton Cooke of Chester, who owned a Jamaican sugar plantation.
unquote....

Never knew that one because Raymond (the cousin) is always looking for titles and money in our mutual English background and I am always shooting him down, lol. But anyway.......that is one gorgeous estate and castle (?).

Ron's middle name is Austin, as is his father's.......Raymond insists that the Coopers descend from the Earl of Shaftesbury in Dorset....whose surname is Austin-Cooper. Ron's British side are mainly the Coopers. I don't think so......lol.

We stayed in Dorset for a few days in 2004 and I wanted to go knock on his door.......which horrified the veddy proper (snotty?) hostess, lol. Oh well, dream on, Raymond!! But he is right on the Rookery. I had the family data back to the father of the man who built it (there are 3 generations of William Hilton Cookes).

Just found it interesting and thought I would tell Chimpie he can kiss my left......foot. And bow too, of course. Kind of a reverse birthday thing, Chimp!! :D:D:D

PS...I probably lost half of you in my ramble re Cookes, Coopers and so on. But thought this was kind of neat!! (where's the inheritance??) :(
 
Figgs said:
Just had a call from a cousin in Florida (Raymond McIntosh) who is part of Ron's Jamaican family and the only one besides his mother doing genealogy. He was bursting at the seams to tell me all the latest info he had on Wilkin Cooper, etc.......and mentioned that his maternal grandmother (Hilda Cooke) descended from a rather wealthy man in Cheshire and to look up the property.
Just found it interesting and thought I would tell Chimpie he can kiss my left......foot. And bow too, of course. Kind of a reverse birthday thing, Chimp!! :D:D:D

PS...I probably lost half of you in my ramble re Cookes, Coopers and so on. But thought this was kind of neat!! (where's the inheritance??) :(
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I stayed the distance Heather, yay Raymond :) Enjoy the interesting & somewhat uplifting news Lass. ..not really into wealthy uppers as my lot didn't seem to aspire. If they did, their good luck, I think no more or less of them :D
 
Joan Archer said:
Oh no do I have to pay to speak to you now. :eek::p
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HAH!! Nope.......I guess 15+ years of knowing each other as "commoners" will negate that, lol. What stunned me was I thought it was a "bird sanctuary" plus the fact that Raymond has always looked for nobility in his tree and I don't. However, I won't mention the one I found in mine!! :D
 
Archie's Mum said:
I see that you are officially ‘posh’ now.
David and Victoria got engaged there in 1998. :D
Posh Spice and Posh Figgs.......:rolleyes:
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Hilarious......and she is the one Spice Girl I can't stand!! Like Mel B though. I wonder if this will get me an invite to the upcoming wedding?? :p:D
 
Hi Heather, I'm new to this website/forum and hope you don't mind me replying in your forum. I'm wondering if we're related. My roots are Jamaican but I've never lived there. I've been researching the Rookery Hall history because William Hilton Cooke, Sr. is my G-G-great-grandfather. Here's a portrait of him and his family that apparently hangs at the Rookery.
Code: 
http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_214854/John-Ferneley,-Snr./William-Hetton-Cooke-with-his-Wife-and-Children-at-Worleston-Rookery-Chester

But on my family tree I don't see any of the names you mention: Raymond McIntosh and Hilda Cooke and Wilkin Cooper. My Jamaican cousins always told me that they lived on Coopers Hill but I didn't know we had the name in our tree. It might be who Coopers Hill is named after.

I did my DNA in Ancestry. Care to compare notes on our trees? Best, Debbie
 
Oh Heather (ma'am) seems your run of good fortune just keeps on keeping on. How amazing for you (just what genealogical dreams are made of). Let's hope Mrs Murphy (worst wife possible of the dreaded Murphy's Law man) keeps looking in the opposite direction for a while yet.

So pleased for you.
 
Miss Jamaica UK said:
Hi Heather, I'm new to this website/forum and hope you don't mind me replying in your forum. I'm wondering if we're related. My roots are Jamaican but I've never lived there. I've been researching the Rookery Hall history because William Hilton Cooke, Sr. is my G-G-great-grandfather.

But on my family tree I don't see any of the names you mention: Raymond McIntosh and Hilda Cooke and Wilkin Cooper. My Jamaican cousins always told me that they lived on Coopers Hill but I didn't know we had the name in our tree. It might be who Coopers Hill is named after.

I did my DNA in Ancestry. Care to compare notes on our trees? Best, Debbie
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Sorry to be so long, Debbie.....yes, you definitely are related to my husband, Ron Figueroa. He grew up in Jamaica in Westmoreland and Kingston, but born in Toronto bc his mother is Canadian. I think I know his tree better than he does, btw. :)

It's a bit convoluted and we are talking several generations here....but Ron's paternal grandmother was Amy Isabel Cooper. Her brother Barrington Charles Cooper was married to Hilda Cooke (b.ca 1891 in Jamaica) and SHE is the direct descendant of William Hilton Cooke!! I met her in 1961 when we were in Kingston and she owned a small hotel there. Or I would call it "a very lovely B&B".

I am trying to get a sense of this via Family Treemaker bc there are 3 generations of William Hilton Cookes. Hilda's father was William Hilton Cooke III, born 18 Jan 1845 but I don't know if it was England or Jamaica. He died 30 May 1909. His grandfather William Cooke built the Rookery. I labelled him as such to differentiate between the generations. He married Sarah Jane Wilson Smith and they had 6 children. I have 3 more generations before this couple....back to a "Randle Cooke".

Oddly enough the Hilton name comes down thru the Cooper family as well. And thanks for the tidbit on Coopers Hill. Is it near Falmouth/Trelawney?? That is where Wilkin Cooper lived in the very early 1800's. He was also from England, but a brick wall so far. Ron descends directly from him. (his Spanish side goes back to 1800 as well).

OH....Raymond is one of Hilda's grandchildren....Wilkin Cooper is grandfather of Barrington Charles Cooper (husband of Hilda). Just to clear up those names.

Are you related to Tommy Cooke who escaped from Cuba in 1961?? I met him then when Castro took over and he went to Miami. A lady named Rosalina and a young lad were with him. That is all the memory I have of that brief meeting bc he had 10 days to disappear or return!!

We have not done a DNA test simply bc I have nothing to question or find. I have the paper documentation back to the 1700's for every line in both our families but actually kind of intrigued to see what would turn up in Ron's.

If you would like to continue this via email, PM me here on the Forum and I will send the addy to you. For obvious reasons we don't put our personal addresses out on here.

Hope I didn't confuse you and do feel free to write me at any time. I have lots of info on the Cookes and Coopers. Such a surprise and so nice to meet up with you!! :D
 
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PS to Debbie re Jamaican website.......I forgot to put in this site that a lot of us worked on and is now in the possession of the University College of London (?) and it is free.

The search engine is awful, but there is a slew of information on it. When you put a name in the search engine (example: William Cooke), it will being up EVERY William and EVERY Cooke, lol. So I tend to put the most unusual part of a name in. I still tear my hair out sometimes, but there is a lot of historical information on there.

http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/index.htm
 
Just some further notes to tidy up a couple of things as my internet crashed for 7 hours and I was in the middle of finding all the birth/death dates and places for the Cookes. Your man who built the Rookery was the only one born in Nantwich, England...I suspect he died in Westmoreland, Jamaica on a plantation called Chester Castle because that place is mentioned in the article on the Rookery....and his namesake son was born there. They had other "great houses"....one called the Hermitage and another called Windsor Forest. My husband has been in the Windsor Forest plantation house many times as he was friends with the Cooke boys. Huge place!!

Another little thing I found when I was looking at the death certificates is that the name was spelled "Hylton" with two of the oldest ones. It carries down with each generation as Hilton. It also might solve a mystery in Ron's Cooper family as well. Which I swore I would figure out some day.

Good grief.....I had no idea I knew that much about Aunt Hilda et al......but I figure I researched all of this info about 15 years ago and today the birth and death certificates are now on the LDS site so I added those. I am sure these truly are your unknown relatives, and it is an interesting saga of William Cooke coming to the Island and the many generations that did so well. Now I have to find Ron's Wilkin Cooper, lol. Same generation in England.

Night.....bedtime in Ontario. :D
 
Philippa said:
Oh Heather (ma'am) seems your run of good fortune just keeps on keeping on. How amazing for you (just what genealogical dreams are made of). Let's hope Mrs Murphy (worst wife possible of the dreaded Murphy's Law man) keeps looking in the opposite direction for a while yet.

So pleased for you.
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Thank you so much, Philippa and friends......I wanted to answer this earlier, but no internet. This has been an amazing trip down memory lane, especially when all of them kept flooding in and I had no idea I knew so much about this family. Mind-blowing!!! And Ron surprised me too with all that he could fill in. He usually says he doesn't remember, lol. :eek: :D
 
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