A tiny question answered
 

Ashley Cooper and his wife and infant son were removed from Hilgay in Norfolk to Walpole St Peter in 1809. He and his son died within months and his wife was marooned, away from any friends or family support groups. This was the more poignant when you consider that his father, also living in Hilgay, was a wealthy farmer.

Ashley was born in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire in 1770, so I have a note that he would have had to have done something in his own right to change his place of settlement.

Now I have found an apprenticeship record in 1786, where he is apprenticed to John Lowe, wheelwright of Walpole St Peters.

While it is good to be proved right, I can't help wondering why none of his family came to his rescue, and whether he would have lived longer had he stayed in Hilgay.

Phoenix, it makes you realise that we have lots of safety nets nowadays, whereas our ancestors were at risk of losing everything because of ill health, economic downturns or sheer bad luck.

I'm pleased you found the apprenticeship record to show why he was removed to Walpole St Peters. It was a cruel system.