Recently I had the great pleasure of meeting up with my contact Sam who was in Adelaide for a few days. Needless to say, with our mutual interest in the Hooker families, we had plenty to talk about and the time just flew by. Inspired by her visit, I have decided to tackle once again the task of sorting out, if at all possible, the relationships between the many Hookers living in London in 1841.

So far, I have identified 1 family – that of James Hooker born 1771 in Shoreditch (a watchmaker by profession) and his wife Anne (1776-1838).

Their children are as follows:- (1841 or 1851 census details are in brackets)
1795 – James, born St. Luke – (1841 nothing, 1851 – born 1796, living in Shoreditch, watchmaker).
1797 – Anne Charlotte, born Finsbury – no further information.
1799-1814 – Joseph, born Finsbury, died Shoreditch.
1802 – Charles, born Finsbury – (1841 nothing, 1851 – born 1802, living in Stoke Newington, corn chandler).
1805 – William, born Shoreditch – no further information.
1808-1809 – Newman, born Shoreditch, died Shoreditch.
1811 – George, born Shoreditch – (1841 – born 1811, living in Shoreditch, artificial flower maker)
1814 – Henry, born Shoreditch – (1841 – born 1811, living in Shoreditch, type founder)
1816 -Joseph Thomas, born Shoreditch – (1841 – born 1821, living in Shoreditch, type founder)
1818-1819 -Rosetta, born Shoreditch, died Shoreditch.
1821 – Edward, born Shoreditch – (1841 – born 1821, living in Shoreditch, watchmaker)

The 1841 census takers often rounded ages up or down to the nearest 5 (another Jaunay pearl of wisdom, see previous post) so the ages do not always correspond with parish records.
I am trying very hard to resist the temptation to follow the children through to later years, or to explore backwards from James & Anne. For the moment, I want to sort out family relationships in the 1841 census – something both Sam & I think could be quite illuminating. Our ultimate aim, of course, is to see if we can fit our ancestor Robert Hooker, whose birth & parents remain elusive, into one of these families.