Allen Harper the elder

Events

Date of Birth: about 1650.

Place of Birth: unknown.

A note in the margin of his burial record states that Allen was said to be 104 years old.

Date of Burial: 23 June 1754.

Place of Burial: Kinlet, Shropshire.

The burial is recorded in the parish register. His residence is given as Lower Mitton, Worcestershire.

Relationships

Father: unknown.

Mother: unknown.

Spouse: Anne Cooke. Married 16 February 1674/5 in Caynham, Shropshire.

The marriage is recorded in the parish register. An Anne Cock, daughter of Thomas and An, was baptized in Stottesdon in 1648. The surname of this family is consistently spelled "Cock" or "Cocke", and the surname the Anne Cooke of Billingsley married in 1674/5 in Caynham is definitely recorded as "Cooke". I am not sure it is the same individual.

Children:

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)

Allen Harper (baptized 26 September 1675 in Kinlet - buried 16 December 1772 in Kinlet) married Sarah Bishop 7 May 1705 in Kinlet.

Joyce Harper (baptized 3 February 1677/8 in Kinlet - buried 14 December 1705) married Thomas Carpenter 20 November 1703 in Kinlet.

Elizabeth Harper (baptized 27 October 1679 in Kinlet)

William Harper (baptized 10 May 1689 in Kinlet) married Mary Winwood 20 November 1711 in Kinlet.

Evidence

from the Caynham parish register:

[1674] Allen Harper of Kinlet p:sh & Anne Cooke of Billingsly p[ar]ish. Februarij 16.th

from the Kinlet parish register:

[1689] William the son of Allen Harper and Ann his wife was baptized the 10^th day of May 1689

[1754] Allen Harper was buried June the 23^d [Marginal note: “This was old Allen Harper of lower Meeton: he is said to have been 104 years old.”]

National Archives catalogue:

Allen is recorded as a tenant in Lower Mitton in 1708, 1712 (rent £52), 1729 (rent £52), 1743, and 1746. His son William seems to have taken over as tenant after him.

References

Caynham parish registers, digital images on Findmypast.co.uk, accessed 12 March 2018.

Kinlet parish registers, digital images on Findmypast.co.uk, accessed 12 March 2018.

National Archives reference numbers: SRO 1045/85; SRO 1045/53-55; SRO 1045/55; SRO 1045/56-57; SRO 1045/65; SRO 1045/67-68; SRO 1045/70; SRO 1045/71; SRO 1045/77-78; SRO 1045/80-81.

“The Register of Kinlet” in Shropshire Parish Registers: Diocese of Hereford, Vol. XVII (Shropshire Parish Register Society: 1920).