This beautiful CDV by a lady photographer Mrs E Higgins of Stamford, Lincolnshire was just one of my finds from the postcard fair last Friday. More about the photographer Elizabeth Higgins here on this blog from the website: Stamford Sights and Secret Tours

It was the ‘Festival of Cards’ at Junction 24, North Petherton, a two-day event, a great venue and a super fair.

I don’t usually go to postcard fairs as I love going to Fleamarkets and Antique fairs, but this was great as I was lucky enough to find a few CDVs and Cabinet Cards among the postcards and quite a few super Wedding old photos too to add to my collection, some with names and/or dates too.

It might not look very exciting but this was definitely my favourite buy, as soon as I saw it I loved it and thought what an interesting lady and a great photo and I couldn’t believe my luck when I turned it over to see a name!

Although it only says Miss Cookson, I was amazed that when I searched the 1861 England census with just the surname Cookson, female and lived in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England the first and only name to come up was Martha Cookson, born in 1819 in Stamford, she was unmarried and living in Stamford at no7 Rutland Terrace with a Cook called Mary White and a Housemaid, Eliza Butterfield.

So I Googled the address and was amazed to find the house is still there, isn’t the terrace beautiful, I was astonished to see just where the photo had been taken at the first-floor windows with a railing in front. The railings are still exactly the same! I can’t ever remember identifying a family or person so quickly in this way before.

Of course, now that I had identified Miss Cookson I just had to find out more about her. I started a small tree for her on Ancestry with the 1861 census details and fairly easily began to collect more information about her.

Martha Cookson was born in 1819 in Stamford, Lincolnshire, baptised on the 2 October 1819 at Saint Michael (the Greater)Stamford, her parents were the Reverend Christopher Cookson 1759-1844 and Martha Foster 1776-1853.

Martha had one brother William Thomas Cookson 1822-12 August 1850. He was just 28 when he died although it says 26 on the death certificate below, his cause of death I have seen before was ‘Phthisis’ TB, Tuberculosis, also known as Consumption then. He was admitted into college in 1840 aiming to be a Reverend like his father.

Martha and William‘s father Christopher Cookson was the son of Thomas Cookson (Abt 1717-Abt 1770) a Merchant and Alderman of Leeds.

Christopher Cookson‘s entry in the Cambridge University Alumni: Matric./A Michs. 1777; B.A. 1781. Ord. deacon (Lincoln) Feb. 24, 1782; priest, June 15, 1783. Confrater of Browne’s Hospital, Stamford, Lincs., 1785; Warden, 1808-44. R. of St Michael’s with St Andrew’s and St Stephen’s, Stamford, 1787-1808. V. of Cherry Willingham, 1806-32. R. of Wittering, Northants., 1807-36. Married Martha, dau. of Thomas Foster, clerk, of Dowsby, Lincs., and R. of Tinwell, Rutland, Mar. 23, 1818. Died Sept. 12, 1844.

I was fascinated to come across this wonderful portrait of Thomas Cookson on an auction house website Roy Precious – Antiques & Fine Art in Wiltshire
Wiltshire, it had some interesting information written with the photo of the portrait by Jonathan Richardson 1665-1745 ‘one of seven that had come from Keith Hall, Aberdeenshire, home of the Earls of Kintore. It can only be presumed that there was some marital connection between the families, as why else would a powerful aristocratic Scottish family dating back to the 12th century have eight portraits of an English mercantile middle-class family hanging in their ancestral home?
The sitter, Thomas Cookson, expensively bewigged and wearing the fashionable silk wrap of a gentleman at leisure, looks rather inquiringly at the viewer. He seems at ease, and his build and ruddy complexion indicate a man who enjoyed a good living.’

‘The sitter Thomas Cookson was a member of the Cookson family of Cumberland and Yorkshire; he died in 1773.
Thomas’s father William (who died in 1743) was a wealthy merchant and pewterer in Penrith. He married Susannah Idle in 1701. The Cooksons also owned ironworks and collieries. Thomas’s uncle was the Reverend Joseph Cookson, Vicar of Leeds‘.

But it was this line that made me say wow! “The poet William Wordsworth’s mother was a Cookson” So of course I had to find out exactly if and how William Wordsworth was related to our Martha Cookson, didn’t I?

This afternoon I have looked at lots of different biographies and written records online and I think that Martha was William Wordsworth’s second cousin. I have added William’s family to Martha’s family tree to show the link.

If I’m correct then Thomas Cookson, Martha’s grandfather was the brother of William Wordsworth’s Grandfather William Cookson.

Miss Martha Cookson died on the 4 December 1888 in Stamford, there were reports of the contents of her will in the newspapers, two here:

Here’s the direct link to the small public family tree I have compiled for Martha: Martha Cookson Family Tree

I knew Miss Cookson was an interesting lady…….

Till next time then……