Henry George Cope was the eldest surviving son of William Cope, founder of the coffee house at 35 Commercial Rd, Lambeth. He was born in 1831 at 63 Cornwall Rd but he moved over the river to live in Chapel St, Somerstown just before his marriage in 1852. It must have been after Henry left, perhaps about 1855, that William himself moved, but a very short distance round the corner from Cornwall Rd into Commercial Rd, presumably to larger premises.
Family of Henry Cope & Sarah Arrowsmith
Whether Henry met Sarah Alecia Arrowsmith before he moved or after is not known but he was living in Somerstown when they married. Sarah Alecia Arrowsmith (known as 'Sal') had come from Chatham to Somerstown and was living in Skinner St. They were both still 'juniors', that is, not yet 21 years old and they began their married life at 4 George Court, a narrow ginnel just off the Strand. Sal's brother, Frank, lived with them and this where Henry George junior was born, November 20th 1859. There were 2 other lodgers as well, a plumber, Alfred Bowker and a warehouseman called William Puddicombe who came from Exeter.
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Henry senior was a carpenter and joiner and is also listed as a greengrocer in 1862, when living in 2 Bedfordbury, just north of Trafalgar Square. These houses - with shops on the ground floor even then - were typically occupied by two or three families. The Copes remained in Bedfordbury till at least 1872, appearing in a directory there till 1873, having moved no further than next door, perhaps to a larger apartment, as their six children were born. Bedfordbury in 1985 |
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Children of Henry Cope and Sarah Arrowsmith
- Henry George (Harry) b. 20 Nov 1859 at 4 George Court, chr. 14 Sep 1860,
m. Alice Pemberton, d. 24 Sep 1831 - Elizabeth Caroline b. 28 Oct 1862, chr. 16 Nov 1862, m. Edward Knight
- Thomas W. b. 1864, chr. 1868
- Francis William Phipps (Frank), b.1865, m.Ada Cummings, d. in Boer War, South Africa
- Ada Beatrice, b. 9 Oct 1867, chr. 3 Nov 1867, m. Thomas Barnes, d. 8 Apr 1957
- William Samuel, b.1870, d.1902 in Boer War, South Africa
All the children except Ada were baptised at St Martin in the Fields, on the corner of Trafalgar Square. Ada was taken further afield to St James', Westminster, for what reason is not known. Frank was named after his uncle, Frank Arrowsmith, his mother's brother, who had lived with the Copes until he emigrated to Alberta, Canada. William was called after his grandfather, with Phipps because it was his grandmother's maiden name. Frank junior is said to have had a son also called Frank.
No trace has so far been found of Frank Arrowsmith in Alberta. He would have been a real pioneer. There are scarcely any records of births, marriages, deaths or even land ownership for this period in Alberta. It would have been a dramatic change from a London warehouse to be facing bears or perhaps Indians but he could have been tempted by various land grants being made to settlers about then. Ada remembered her mother, "in her brown silk dress," writing to her brother Frank on Sundays, probably after the move back to Lambeth.
Thomas was said by his niece Lilian to have once swum right across the Thames. Perhaps by then it was rather cleaner! Lilian and also Ethel, her cousin, both reported independently that young William was killed in the Boer War. No official evidence for this has been found but records of casualties in the Boer War are patchy and the story is almost certainly true.
Ada was the only one of the family not to have red hair.
The story of the next generation in continued in Coffee Shop (3) and Lizzie, the story of Elizabeth Caroline, a 'formidable lady', who moved from rags to riches - and back - and met many famous people.