The Jordan Story

Closing

A Steward/Hooper Connection

by Dave Jordan

Background

In the late 1980s, Marjorie Hooper, a fellow member of the East of London Family History Society, contacted me regarding my interests in the Steward family. In her research on the Hoopers and Stewards she had obtained the birth registration for a Charles Hooper Steward born the 27th February 1851. The parents were listed as Joseph John Steward and Elizabeth Steward formerly Holloway. In her search for her Hoopers and Stewards she had come across the Charles Hooper Steward record. It turned out that I recognized the parents of Charles Hooper Steward, Joseph and Elizabeth Steward as my ggg-grandparents. My connection to Charles Hooper Steward is also through his older sister Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward born 27 February 1847. Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward is also my gg-grandmother.

Marjorie Hooper/Steward Line

Marjorie Hooper’s grandmother was Ann Elizabeth Hooper who was married to William James Hooper. Ann Elizabeth Hooper’s maiden name was Steward. For the 1881 Census, William and Ann Hooper lived at 10 Cording Street in Poplar. In 1851, our Charles Steward was born at 12 Chrisp Street, which is very near Cording Street.

Marjorie had obtained Ann Elizabeth Steward's birth registration and it showed that her Ann Elizabeth Steward was born 24 July 1847 at 10 Woolmore Street, Poplar. Ann Elizabeth Steward's father’s name was John Joseph Steward and her mother’s name was Ann Elizabeth Steward, formerly Rainer. John Joseph Steward was a shipwright.

From an index of Steward marriages in Poplar, two possible entries were found of a John Steward marriage. First there was a John Steward who married in Poplar in 1846; and second there was a John Joseph Steward who was married in 1852. It is not clear which is the correct one, but 1846 would appear to be correct based on the birth of Ann Elizabeth Steward in 1847. The answer to this is provided below in the March 30, 2006 e-mail from Diane Cusiel.

Linking my Stewards and Majorie's Stewards

In the early years of the millenium, the following hypothesis was offered to try to tie these two Steward lines together and to also provide a direction for the research. However, it was not to be but you may find it instructive to go through it anyway.

First, I assumed that Marjorie Hooper’s John Joseph Steward and my Joseph John Steward were brothers, both born about 1825. Next I assumed that her John Joseph Steward married Ann Elizabeth Rainer about 1846. While my Joseph John Steward married Elizabeth Holloway in June 1848. If this were true, then her Ann Elizabeth Steward born about 1848 would be a first cousin to my Elizabeth Priscilla Holloway Steward and to my Charles Hooper Steward.

I further assumed that the father of the two brothers, John Joseph and Joseph John was named John Steward and that this John Steward was the same listed in the 1821 census for Poplar at 4 East India Road (see Origins of our Steward Family). Our Joseph Steward’s marriage registration indicates that his father’s name was John Isaac Steward, a shipwright. Thus if Marjorie Hooper’s John Joseph Steward’s marriage registration also indicated that his father was John Isaac Steward, there would be a link between our families. No progress on this hypothesis occurred until a 2006 e-mail arrived from Diane Cusiel, shown below, the net result of which is that there appears to be no close relation as hypothesized.

Hooper Linkage

My Charles Hooper Steward linkage with the name Hooper is even more puzzling. Marjorie’s Ann Elizabeth Steward born in 1847 married William James Hooper, but in 1870. However Charles Hooper Steward was born in 1851 when she was only four. So how did Charles Hooper Steward get the name Hooper?

Data obtained from the 1851 Census indicates that the Joseph and Elizabeth Steward Family lived at the same address as a Hooper family, 12 Chrisp Street. This was the Charles and Emma A. Hooper family. Perhaps the Hoopers were his baptismal sponsors and/or Emma A. Hooper was his aunt, although, it is also possible the Hoopers were just very good friends. In either case, relative or friends, it appears Charles Hooper Steward (1851) was named after the Charles Hooper who resided at the same address as his parents.

Diane Cusiel's March 30, 2006 E-Mail

In March 2006, Diane Cusiel, Ann Elizabeth Steward's g-granddaughter provided this background on the history of Ann Elizabeth Steward Hooper and the non-relationship to Charles Hooper Steward.

March 30, 2006 e-mail

Hello Dave,

I have just read about the Steward/Hooper connection on your family history website, and felt I just had to write to you.

John Joseph Steward was my gr gr grandfather, and he was born about 1824 in Gravesend, Kent. His parents were Richard Bray Steward (abt 1802-1874) and Ann Taylor. John Joseph married Ann Elizabeth Rainer in 1846 in Milton, Kent, and your information is quite correct about the birth of their daughter, Ann Elizabeth Steward on 24 July 1847 at 10 Woolmore Street, Poplar. But sadly the mother, Ann Elizabeth Rainer died in the March quarter of 1848, aged about 22. She died in Poplar, but I have the 1851 census which shows John Joseph and three year old daughter Ann Elizabeth living in Gravesend [Kent] with his parents Richard and Ann, and also their [Richard Bray Steward and Ann Taylor's] daughter Ann Elizabeth Steward, born about 1836 (just to confuse everyone!)

The marriage in 1852 in Poplar is the same John Joseph [Steward], and he married somebody called Maria. I have not bought the marriage certificate yet, so her surname remains a mystery to me. However they stayed in the Poplar area, and had six children that I know of – Maria (b 1853), John Joseph (b 1855), Sarah (b 1858), Elizabeth (b 1860), Joseph (b and died 1860), Richard (b 1863).

In the 1861 census, the Steward family lived at 5 Queen Street, Bromley, Middlesex. Just down the road at No.7 lived the Hooper family, and they were still at those addresses in 1871. So Ann Elizabeth Steward married the boy next door, William James Hooper in December 1870. Ann and William were my great grandparents.

I am afraid that I do not know of a connection with [your] Charles Hooper Steward, but he did live very close and also the name is puzzling. So perhaps there is a connection somewhere. Marjorie Hooper is my mother’s cousin, but I don’t think they ever met each other. My mother died in 1998, and I wish I could tell her that I have found Marjorie. We have only been in contact since December 2005, and Marjorie passed on some interesting dates and names that had eluded me. But there were a lot of Hoopers in that area in the mid 1800s, and I am sure they must all be related somehow, so there is still a lot of searching ahead!

I hope you did not mind me writing, but I thought that I should pass on my info, so you can see that your Steward family and mine are probably not connected, what a shame.

Regards,

Diane Cusiel (a Steward/Hooper descendant)

Diane Cusiel's April 15, 2006 E-Mail

Diane's 2nd e-mail provided information on the Charles and Emma A. Steward family that lived at 12 Chrisp Street in Poplar that appears to have lead to my Charles Hooper Steward being given the name Charles Hooper. See above Hooper Linkage.

April 15, 2006 e-mail

Dear Dave,

It does take a bit of time to get your head around these mysteries and tangled lives of our ancestors, and it is ok with me if you wish to amend the Steward/Hooper connection on the website. It was a big surprise to me to find it in the first place, because I was just doing some Google searches one evening, and then there were my great grandparents’ names on your website! Such a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

I do believe that our Steward families connect somewhere further back in time. So many of my ancestors were in the Poplar/Stepney area in the 1800s because of the work opportunities, mainly due to the docks there. There were so many riggers, shipwrights, stevedores, lightermen, and tugboat captains and stokers in my family at that time. They had all migrated from the rural areas because I think that they wanted a better life than the conditions and wages of what an agricultural labourer could earn.

Regarding the Hoopers of Chrisp Street (neighbours of your Steward family), I have found a marriage of Charles Hooper and Emma Agnes Emblem on freebmd – September Q 1841 in Shoreditch. I had thought that Emma might have been a Steward, but her name was obviously Emblem. Then there is a death of Emma A. Hooper in September 1866 in Stepney, aged 44, which would be correct going by her age on the 1851 census. I am also puzzled why Charles Steward had the middle name of Hooper, but as you suggested, there must have been a very close relationship between the two families, which we can only speculate on.

Charles Hooper did not stay a widower for very long, because I found a marriage in March Q 1867 in Stepney to a Harriet Nightingale, and have found them together right up to the 1891 census. I really believe that my Hoopers are connected to Charles, because on that census they have a niece, Louisa, living with them, who actually appeared on the 1881 census with William James and Ann Elizabeth Hooper, but Louisa was a cousin. I apologise if I am confusing you, because I even find it confusing and it is my family! But I think that Charles and my gr gr grandfather James Hooper (born abt 1820) could have possibly been brothers, because of the connection with Louisa. But that is another story, and a lot more research lies ahead.

If you need any more info, just let me know as I can scan Census pages and bmd certificates, so it will be easier to understand.

Best Wishes

Diane Cusiel

Summary

So in summary, it appears there is no close connection between Ann Elizabeth Steward Hooper's Hoopers and Stewards and Charles Hooper Steward's Hoopers and Stewards.

For Charles Hooper Steward his name appears to be derived from the Charles and Emma A. Hooper family who lived at the same address as Joseph and Elizabeth Steward at the time that little Charles was born in February 1851.

And Ann Elizabeth Steward became a Hooper when she married the boy next door, Williams James Hooper in 1870.

Thus based on what we know these appear to be independent Steward and Hooper family lines; however, it is possible given the number of Steward and Hooper families in Poplar living near each other that at some point several generations back these Stewards and Hoopers families may connect. Since I do not know the geographic origin of my Joseph John Steward it might be of use to remember that Diane's John Joseph Steward came out of Gravesend, Kent to Poplar.

Notes

Initial Web Publication Date: 2/6/2003
Modified: 7/11/2004, 4/20/2006
Desktop Master file: Stories_Jordan