Photographs - 1920s-before
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William Major Roper. (b: 19/01/1851 d: 1885)The first son of Robert and Mary Roper. The ‘Dorset Archives’ for 19/01/1851 shows William baptized as ‘William Major Roper’.Family recollections and the 1881 census indicate that William was apprenticed as a carpenter, after which he owned a thriving coach-building and wheelwright business in ‘Swindon, Wiltshire’. He married ‘Susannah Pritchard’ from Monmouth. Their first child was a girl ‘Elizabeth Mary Louise Roper’ (b: 11/04/1880). Two years later a boy arrived ‘Thomas George Roper’ (b: 03/06/1882) and finally another girl ‘Ellen Roper’ (b: 1884). Tragedy struck this family in 1885 when William and Susannah suddenly died within a short period of each other. The children’s destiny was either the orphanage or fostered. The family rallied to their needs: Elizabeth went to live with her mother’s family in Monmouth, Ellen moved to Ealing to live with her Uncle Robert and Thomas (our direct family line) moved to Clyffe Pypard to be with his Uncle John and Aunt Bessie. |