Early Cooper family.

It must be stressed that this is only an initial gathering of names. All the church records in the vicinity of Darwen should be studied as well as further afield before you could with any certainty say that all these names belonged to your family.

Joseph Cooper we know from the census was born in Darwen and we have an approximate date of birth so the Joseph baptised in 1809 at the Wesleyan Chapel in Over Darwen seems a good bet. However we do not know where his father Richard was born. The other records of Coopers at the Wesleyan have given us approximate dates for Joseph's parents and two brothers.

There is a second Richard Cooper about Darwen at the same time as your possible Richard. This Richard Cooper was married to Ann and so far two children have been found. Richard Cooper baptized 23 Oct 1785 (abode O. Darwen) and Tho's Cooper Sep 1788 (abode Pickup Bank). These are from Darwen Chapel (St James). From the burial records an Anne Cooper age 78 was buried 29 Nov 1817 and a Richard Cooper was buried age 76 on 29 Aug 1818 giving him a birthyear about 1742.

I had hopes of a Richard Cooper christened 25 Aug 1764 at Saint Peter, Bolton le Moors parents Joseph and Betty. (batch P007153 familysearch site). But that was based on thinking Richard's first son being called Joseph. Now Richard's first son could have been Thurston. However the Bolton family should also be studied in more detail to find out what happened to them.

It is possible that Richard's baptism and marriage details may be amongst those records which are unreadable, damaged or lost.

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One possible scenario.

Richard Cooper born about 1765 (from burial 63 years old in 1828 Wesleyan Darwen)
Betty born about 1763 (from burial age 48 in 1811 Wesleyan Darwen)
children
Thurston Cooper c. 16 Mar 1783 son of Rich. Cooper + Betty
William Cooper c. 23 Jan 1785 son of Rich. Cooper + Betty
{Darwen St. James, this makes Betty about 20 when Thurston was born. Looking for a marriage before 1783, Joseph's brother James called his first son Thurston}
Betty Cooper c. 29 April 1787 Richard Cooper + Betty Duxbury born 12 March 1787 living at Drummer Stoops
Joseph Cooper c. 28 June 1789 Richard Cooper + Betty Duxbury born 11 June 1789 living at Sough - Twin to Benjamin (St. James burial 1 July 1789 Joseph Cooper son of Rich'd + Betty)
Benjamin Cooper c. 28 June 1789 Richard Cooper + Betty Duxbury born 11 June 1789 living at Sough - Twin to Joseph
{This information extracted from a transcript at Darwen Library, many thanks to the person who did this. Baptisms at Lower Darwen Chapel compiled using Chapel records and Rev. Smalley's private records}
Betty Cooper c. 18 Jul 1790 Richard Cooper + Betty (see batch 7607623 and 7515013, submitted details no church given)
Richard Cooper c. 2 Jan 1793 Richard Cooper + Betty (see batch 7516130 Wesleyan Chapel, Blackburn. There is a burial at St James Darwen 20 Feb 1822 Richard Cooper age 30)
James Cooper c. 6 Jul 1798 b. 15 May 1798
George Cooper c. 13 Nov 1804 b. 3 Aug 1804
Joseph Cooper c. 15 Oct 1809 b. 18 Jun 1809
{Wesleyan Chapel, Darwen - you have copies of these also -
burial March 30 1811 Betty wife of Richard Cooper died March 28 age 48 of Natural causes
burial Oct 2 1828 Richard Cooper age 63
also 25 June 1815 Mary daughter of Richard Cooper age 16}

Joseph was not yet 2 then when his mother died.