The Hooper family of Oxford County, Ontario, Canada

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Richard & Augusta (Lancaster) Hooper


Richard Hooper is the earliest identified ancestor of this line. The primary sources for information on Richard are his death certificate and obituary; Ontario census records; and the records of his children. My connection to Richard is through his daughter Priscilla who names her parents on her 1866 marriage certificate to Ambrose Hayward filed in the Anglican Records in Ontario.
Richard Hooper was born around 1800 in Devonshire, England. He married, probably in England and emigrated with his eldest children about 1844. The family settled first in the Niagara area and then in the Blandford township of Oxford county, Ontario near the towns of Eastwood and Woodstock. Richard Hooper died in Eastwood on Monday, the 23rd of November of 1885 [re: Weekly Sentinel Review, 27 Nov 85, pg 4, col. 4]. His death certificate corroborates the date of death and indicates his birthplace as Devonshire, England [re: #013721, reg. on 01 May 1886]. The obituary suggest that Richard was born in 1800; however, the death certificate places his birth closer to 1803; neither provide an exact birth date. The informant on the death certificate was his neighbor John Overholt.

The records of St. John's Church in Eastwood show the Hooper family were Anglicans and one of the first members of that congregation. Richard's daughter Priscilla's birth certificate locates her birth in town of Niagara, suggesting that the Hooper family first settled in that area by 1846. By 1851, Richard Hooper is found listed in Blandford township with the profession of a farmer and living in what is described as a "log shanty". Within Richard's household is a young child John Boilan, age nine, whose relationship is unclear to the Hoopers, but may prove to be a clue to other Hooper relations in Ontario. In 1861, the family had built a one-story frame house and appear to be living on the same farm as they were in 1851. In 1871, Richard Hooper is again found in Blandford with his wife, his twenty-three year old daughter Augusta and a young girl, Mary A. Hooper, age three and born in California [re: Dist. 14, Sub-dist D, Div. 1, pg. 20, 72/76]. Mary is probably their granddaughter and evidence that some of the Hoopers came to California. In 1881, the Hoopers are still located in Blandford, but within their house are the families of their two sons Richard, who married Isabella Scott an James whose three children appear to have been born in the United States, suggesting that he may have gone to California, but returned by 1881. In 1891, neither Richard nor Augusta are found. Thanks to the help of Herbert Batho, his interviews with an elderly resident of Eastwood indicated that the present owners of the Hooper farm bought the farm in 1918 from a McDonald family. Though the woman did not recognized the Hooper name, she did recall the lot, which now is a junkyard, had been originally called "Hooper's Vineyard".

Augusta, the wife of Richard Hooper left few records behind. Her maiden name is found listed as "Lancaster" on the death certificate of Priscilla Hooper Hayward; however, no obituary, death certificate, or tombstone has been discovered to corroborate this information. A Canadian record does confirm Augusta's maiden name in the marriage certificate of her son Richard Jr. to Isabella Scott in 1873 [re: cert. #008625]. Census records and show that Augusta was born in 1810 in England.

© 1998 mahard@sfcep.corp.ge.com