FIND OUT MORE ABOUT sarah cooper

FROM HER RECORDS

• Single 28 (1ch) domestic servant

• From Balsall Heath

• Patient No 4684/ 4890/ 4933, female

• Abode: Balsall Heath / 130 Sherbourne Heath

• Admission date 1884-09-29; Discharged Date: 1885-06-01

 This is her first attack of 1 weeks duration the supposed cause being confinement and disappointment in marriage.  She is suicidal and dangerous to others but not epileptic. 

Her certificate states that she says she died to save all mankind, has been in heaven & that she is God’s solicitor & sits at his right hand giving him instructions on all matters relating to the government of the universe and other things of the same kind. 

Patent was confined on the 13 inst of a male child, presumably the 8th month.  The father of the child refused to marry her. 

The patient is a pale-faced girl in fairly good state of nutrition.  She has milk in her breasts and a coloured vaginal discharge.  Her heart and lungs are healthy.

She has puerperal mania.  Rants & shouts: mistakes those about her for her friends & has many hallucinations & transitory delusions.  She is difficult to feed & sleeps badly.   

Oct 23

She is very much better and is stronger.  She is not deluded now.  The mania she has had was more like a restless active “delusiveness” than anything else.  

Oct 30

Has become again more restless & noisy and needs now a. single [?] at night & sedatives (Chloral xxx) each night. 

Nov 2

Is now in No 2 ward but is still very noisy, talkative & insubordinate & sleeps but little at nights.  She is fatter and less anaemic. 

Nov 18

Has relapsed and returned to No 5. 

1885

Jan 22

Remains in acute ward.  Has better nights than formerly & during the last week has been more quiet & collected in her manner & conversation. 

March 17

About 3 weeks ago was so well that she was sent to No 2.  Today has gone to the convalescent ward. 

May 4

Allowed to go home “on trial”.  

June 1

Discharged recovered. 

MORE ABOUT SARAH

Sarah was born Sarah Ann Cooper in the middle of 1857 to John and Hannah (nee Bishop) Cooper.  No online christening record was found.  She was the third of four children with an older brother and sister John Henry (1852 - ?) and Hannah Maria (1854 - 1933).  Her younger sibling was Mary Jane (1859 - 1921). 

Sarah’s parents were married on 21 April 1850 at St Philip’s, Birmingham both were living at Cross Street.  John’s father was named as William Cooper, a blacksmith and Hannah’s father was Richard Bishop a shoemaker.   

Prior to her birth Sarah’s parents were recorded in the 1851 census as living at Cross Street (Ct 5, 5H), Birmingham. Her father was a packer, aged 22 [born 1829] and born in Shipston on Stour. Her mother Hannah age 27 [born 1824] and a dressmaker, born in Brailes. 

By 1861 the Cooper family were living at 17 Sun Street, Birmingham (St Thomas); the family consisting of John age 32 a packer, Hannah 36 a dressmaker, and their children John H. (9), Hannah Maria (7), Sarah Ann 3 and Mary Jane (2).   

The family were still at 17 Sun Street in 1871 with son John H (19 now a packer) and daughter Hannah (17, a warehouse girl).   Sarah Ann (13) was recorded with her aunt and uncle John and Ann Brewer and cousin Sarah Ann Brewer (13) who lived at the High Street, Shipston on Stour.  Sarah Ann Brewer’s birth was registered during the second quarter of 1858; her mother’s maiden name was Cooper.  Further investigation showed that Ann Brewer was John Cooper’s sister, marrying John Brewer at King’s Norton in 1856.   

Sarah, and her sister Mary, couldn’t be definitively identified in the 1881 census as they weren’t at home with their parents and there were several women of these names and ages born and living in the Birmingham area to identify the correct ones.  However there is a Sarah Cooper age 17 working as a domestic servant for a merchant of hardware at 352 [Edgbaston Rd?].  There is also a Mary Cooper age 23 also a domestic servant at 73 Bristol Rd, Edgbaston.   

Edgbaston is only a mile away from where their parents were living at *130 Sherbourne Road, Kings Norton.  John (52) continued to be a packer, Hannah was 56 and John H. was 29 also a packer.  Sarah’s sister Hannah Maria was now married to James Solomon Whitworth and living in Sutton Coldfield.   

Sarah’s sister Mary Jane married Thomas Harrison in 1882 at King’s Norton. 

On 29 September 1884 Sarah was admitted to the asylum having had her “first attack of 1 week’s duration the supposed cause being confinement and disappointment in marriage”.  She was diagnosed with acute puerperal mania. 

Sarah’s medical notes state that she “was confined on the 13 inst [September] of a male child, presumably the 8th month.  The father of the child refused to marry her”.  ‘Inst.’ meaning of the current or present month.  She was discharged 1st June 1885 as recovered.   

Sarah’s parents were still living at 130 Sherbourne Road, King’s Norton in the 1891 census.  Interestingly they also had their grandson William Cooper age 6 with them, he was born in Nuneaton.  It is highly likely that he was Sarah’s son.  In Sarah’s patient record it refers to her having recently given birth and William’s age matches this.  To rule out William being a child of one of Sarah’s siblings it can be noted that both of Sarah’s sisters were married before William’s birth and therefore if he were their child his surname would match that of the relevant spouse (Harrison for Mary Jane or Whitworth for Hannah Maria).  Sarah’s brother married in 1883 so again if William was his child his wife’s maiden name (Jones) would have been recorded.   

The birth registration index shows a William Cooper was registered during the December quarter of 1884 at Nuneaton, unfortunately there is no mother’s maiden name recorded in the GRO index, and no digital image is available on the birth registration to clarify any details of his parentage.   

Sarah’s sister Mary Jane (36) now widowed from Thomas Harrison married again on 23 September 1895 at Deritend, Birmingham. Her new husband was Alfred Holmes, and both were living at Adelaide Street. Her brother John Henry and his future wife Caroline Orton were the witnesses.     

Further evidence that William is Sarah’s son was found in the 1901 census where he was living with Sarah’s brother John Henry Cooper.  John and his family were living at Dymoke Street (12 Mount Pleasant), Deritend, Birmingham.  John was 49, a packer for a merchant, born in Birmingham.  He was recorded with his wife Caroline, son John P. age 14, a tin plate worker, daughter Harriet age 7 both of whom were also born in Birmingham and William.  William was 16, a carriage lamp liner.  In this record he is said to have been born in Birmingham and John’s nephew.   

The 1939 register was searched using William’s approximate date of birth taken from Sarah’s medical records namely ‘13 inst’ [September 1884].  There was a William Cooper whose date of birth was 12 September 1884 a sheet metal worker (motor car) living at 71 Heathfield Road, Redditch.  He is married to Olive L. C. (date of birth 13 January 1885) with a son Bernard W born 16 October 1912 who was a departmental manager – Lithographic printing.   

With this information the 1921 census was searched finding that William was living at Heathfield Road, Redditch, he was 36 years and 9 months old, born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, a sheet metal worker, motorcycle tank making and working for B. S. A. Co Ltd, at Lodge Road, Redditch.  He was married to Olive L. C. aged 36 years 5 months and had a son Bernard W. age 8 years 8 months who was born in Redditch. 

Unfortunately, no further definitive information (including a marriage or death) could be found that would then continue Sarah Ann’s story.    

Additional information included to exclude other women named Sarah Ann Cooper

There is a marriage record for Sarah Ann Cooper age 27 and Absolom Poole in 7 July 1890 at Beoley (King’s Norton registration district).  The marriage registration also has Sarah Ann’s father as John Cooper (labourer, deceased).  However, the following pieces of evidence prove this to being a different Sarah Ann Cooper.  Subsequent census records record her place of birth as Redditch with her age giving her a date of birth of approximately 1864.  This corresponds to the age given in the marriage record.  Additionally, a Sarah Cooper was born in 1864 to John and Hannah Cooper at the relevant time strongly suggesting that this is a different person.  Further investigation finds that the mother’s maiden name for all of this John and Hannah’s children is Reynolds.  A marriage between John Cooper and Hannah Reynolds took place on the 12 October 1848 at Aston registration district.  In the census records Hannah Cooper (nee Reynolds) was born in Erdington, Birmingham.  This Sarah Ann Cooper was subsequently eliminated.    

Searching the 1921 census retrieved Sarah Ann Cooper age 63 years and 7 months who is single and living at Almshouses, Birlingham, Pershore, Worcestershire, however she records that she was born in Birlingham.  Searching the christening records shows that there was a Sarah Ann Cooper christened 14 February 1858 at Birlingham to Philip and Jane Cooper, so not likely to be the correct Sarah Ann Cooper. 

Resources

Ancestry

England Census: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921.

England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index 1837-1915

England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index 1837-1915

England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007

England & Wales Select Marriages, 1538-1973

Birmingham England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813 - 1923

Birmingham, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1939

UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1921

Warwickshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1910

Worcestershire, England, Church of England, Deaths and Burials, 1813 - 1997

Worcestershire, England, Church of England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1947

1939 England and Wales Register

Birmingham, England, Birmingham Cemetery and Crematoria Records, 1836-2017

Birmingham, England, Electoral Registers, 1833-1972

Midlands, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965

UK and Ireland, Find a Grave® Index, 1300s-Current

UK, World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923

FindMyPast

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/home

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers

Freebmd

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/  

GRO index

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content

Research by Sandra Weir, 2026

To view Sarah’s patient records, click here.

Go back to find out about more people who were patients at the asylum.