Lucy Cooper

  General Notes:

SOURCES: - "The Pragmatic Pioneers" Page 112
Lucy Cooper's early history is very aptly described in the book The Women of Botany Bay by Portia Robinson.

Lucy Cooper, with her long history of theft, appeared typical of the Newgate women. The day before Christmas 1812, she stole a shift and bed gown from the wife of the publican of the Cowheels public house, for which offence she was fined one shilling and discharged. Two months later she was convicted for stealing from the lodging-house keeper. Did she have some intention of setting up house for herself? She stole and managed to carry away - a bed, a bolster, a pair of sheets, a blanket, a tea kettle, a looking glass and a flat iron, all of which she passed out of her window, unobserved by the lodging-house keeper or his wife. At her trial she said she was a shoe-binder who had rented 'one pair of stairs back rooms furnished at five shillings a week' (sic). Two months after this second offence she was charged with yet another theft from a lodging house, and part of the first Landlord's possessions were found when her room was searched. A pawn ticket, hidden in her room, led to the recovery of the bed at a nearby pawnbroker's. There were no mitigating circumstances and she joined the "Broxbornebury" on her way to Botany Bay.

What is not mentioned is that Lucy, at the time of the above offences, was either in an advanced state of pregnancy, or trying to care for a baby girl, a very significant factor considering her circumstances. Lucy, and her infant daughter Elizabeth, arrived in Sydney Cove on

Page 113
"The Pragmatic Pioneers"

28th July 1814.

In the 1814 Muster, Lucy was a convict servant to a self employed Sydney shoemaker by the name of John Cooper, who it would seem reasonable to suspect was a relative of Lucy and may even be her brother. One must wonder if perhaps she entered upon this crime spree, at least partly with the intention that when convicted, she would be sent to join her relative in Sydney. John Cooper, a Londoner aged fifteen, was convicted at the Old Bailey on 21st May 1798, of stealing a, pocket handkerchief from the person of David Hill and arrived on the "Coromandel" in 1802. The child Elizabeth, stayed with John Cooper after Lucy left to live with John Tindall, she was still with him and aged sixteen in the 1828 Census.

By the time of the 1822 Muster, Lucy had served her sentence of seven years and had John Tindall as her convict servant. They were living at Windsor with their four children. In the 1828 Census, John Tindall was living at Richmond, gave his age as fifty, had nine acres cleared and cultivated and two head of cattle. Lucy was listed as his wife, however the children do not appear as they did in the 1822 and 1825 Musters.

John and Lucy finally decide to marry on 4th November 1839, according to an entry in the Windsor Presbyterian Register. Lucy died on 24th March 1848 and John on 16th March 1856. Both were buried in the St. Peters Richmond Burial Ground.

John and Lucy had five children. Lucy, who was to marry Alfred Brown, is the only one with a record of baptism; she was born at Sydney on 17th May 1817. Charlotte was born about 1819; John who was to marry Sarah Matilda Gosper, about 1821; Susannah about 1821; and George about 1823.


SOURCES.
The research of Gwen Silvey, Rhonda Shallala(theother John Tindall), Nola Ford, Keith Evans, Stan Freestone, Nike
Freestone.
"The Women of Botany Bay" Portia Robinson 1988,
"The Last of the Logan" Robert Coffin (New York) 1941

SOURCES. Internet Australia's First Fleet: - By Barbara Turner 1992, From the "London Gazette October 1788"
http://www.pcug.org.au/~pdownes/dps/1stflt.htm : -
"Broxbornebury" (arrived on the 28/7/1814, sailed from England on the 22/2/1814).

  Noted events in her life were:

• Convict: She stole a shift and bed gown Appeared Typical Of The Newgate, 24 Dec 1812.

• Arrived on the Ship: “Broxbornebury”, 28 Jul 1814, Sydney Cove, NSW Australia.

Lucy married John Tindall The First on 4 Nov 1839 in Presbyterian Register, Windsor, NSW Australia. (John Tindall The First was born in 1778 in York, North Yorkshire England, died on 16 Mar 1856 in Richmond, NSW Australia and was buried in 1856 in St Peters C of E, Richmond, NSW Australia.)