The collection is of family papers belonging to Isabella, Lady Cooper, her children and grandchildren. The papers include documents detailing Lady Cooper's inheritance and assignments of its stock to her husband and children.There is a collection of title deeds for Isleworth Estate, together with leases of various parts of it, tradesmen's vouchers, accounts and particulars of its eventual sale (1855-78). There are also some 17th century title deeds to property in Hidden, Hungerford, as well as later deeds, accounts, rentals and leases.
Among the personal papers are a group concerning the settlement made on the marriage of William Honywood, Lady Cooper's grandson, with Barbara Whyte, and a group of financial papers chiefly on the subject of loans and securities, the same is true of the papers belonging to William's sisters Elizabeth and Caroline. There are also papers dealing with a mortgage he held from Sir John Shelley on property in Maresfield and Fletching in Sussex and as an executor of his grandmother's will he was forced into lengthy proceedings against the Ware family of Cheltenham for a long outstanding mortgage debt owed to Lady Cooper.
The last group of family papers relates to Elizabeth, Lady Cooper's younger surviving daughter, who married, secondly, the Reverend Edward Henry Dawkins. It includes their marriage settlement, and a number of his financial papers. The most interesting part of the whole collection relates to the sugar plantation of Dukinfield Hall, Jamaica (1719-1877). There are title deeds for a particularly tortuous descent, yearly accounts of crops, letters from the Jamaica agents and inventories of stock, which include slaves and give their names, ages, country of origin, occupation and state of health. There is also the will of Robert Dukinfield (1755), the original owner of the plantation, which makes provision for his negre mistress and their children out of his other property. The family name has a variety of spellings, Dukinfield being the one most frequently applied to the estate, although the main branch of the family comes from Duckenfield, Chester.
There are also a few papers concerned with three plantations on the Island of Grenada, which Lady Cooper also inherited (1773-1867).
Cooper , family , of Isleworth