GEORGE WRAGGE Art Metalwork 1863-1932

 

George Wragge 1863-1932

I began researching the life of George Wragge as a result of seeing one of his brochures for his art metalwork company, the Wardry Works in Salford Lancashire. His name sparked my interest as George Wragg (without the ‘e’) was the name of my Uncle and Great Grandfather.

George was born in the latter part of 1863. He was baptised on 22 Nov 1863 at Bramshall church, son of Charles Wragge, a farmer and cattle dealer from Nottinghamshire and his wife Sarah Barker. In 1871 George was 7 years old living with his parents at The Farmhouse, Little Bramshall, near Uttoxeter, Staffs.

George’s mother died young, aged only 29 in July 1871, probably as a result of giving birth to George’s younger brother William Wragge (born Nov 1870). Only three years later, on 2 Feb 1874, George’s father, Charles Wragge died. The guardianship of the children- George, Annie, Elizabeth and William was placed with Charles’s brother William Wragge.

In the next census in 1881, George was described as an ‘apprentice’ aged 17 living with an aunt, Mary White in Claremont Road in Chorlton, Manchester. His siblings were living with their paternal grandmother. Maria Wragge nee White in Chaddesden, Derby. By 1891 George was aged 27, an art metal worker and along with his sister Elizabeth aged 23 was visiting their married sister Annie Morley nee Wragge at 54 Osmaston Rd Eckington, Derby.

On 7 November 1891 George Wragge married Edith Cooper nee Jones at Manchester Cathedral. Edith was described as a ‘widow’ on the marriage certificate but this is where the story becomes a Victorian melodrama with devastating consequences.

Edith Jones, was born in March 1857 in Ardwick, Manchester, daughter of Josiah Jones and Eliza Burd. She had married George James Barker Cooper on 6 Nov 1878 at St Thomas Ardwick. George was described as a ‘gentleman’ living at Timperley Hall, Cheshire, son of George Cooper, gentleman. 

George and Edith had two children in the first few years after they married: George Herbert Cooper born in 1879 in Dunham Massey, Altrincham and Hilda Cooper born 1880 in Altrincham.

On 14 March 1882 George James Barker Cooper aged 25 ‘merchant’ was accused of “feloniously shooting at one Edith Cooper with a certain revolver then and there loaded with powder and a certain leaden bullet, with intent with so doing then and thereby feloniously, wilfully, and of malice aforethought to kill and murder the said Edith Cooper at Altrincham”.

On 21 April 1882 George Cooper was acquitted and discharged.

Edith, not surprisingly, filed for divorce in May 1882 on grounds of assault, desertion and adultery. The divorce was finalised on 27 Oct 1891. She married George Wragge on 7 November 1891.

That wasn’t the end of the story of Edith’s ex-husband however.

In Oct/Nov 1891, only weeks after his divorce, George James Barker Cooper married Edith Annie Cooper (same surname) in Solihull, Warwickshire. The following year, on 3 Sept 1892, George Cooper stabbed his wife to death at the Regent Hotel, Douglas, Isle of Man. He was accused of murder but convicted of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 10 years penal servitude. George James Barker Cooper died on 26 Aug 1901 of a heart attack at Pacific House, Hull, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA. The Boston Globe report says he was known as Dr George Hall and was married with a son!!  The death of Edith Annie Cooper was reported in the Birmingham Daily Post 9 Sept 1892.

His name came up once more on the marriage certificate of Harold Adrian Cooper to Ivy Ruffell in Sept 1918 where the bridegroom’s father is ‘deceased’. Harold’s age gives him a date of birth about 1885 but I can find no record of a birth around that time.

It seems that Ethel Cooper nee Jones had a lucky escape and we can only hope she had a quiet peaceful life being married to George Wragge. At the time of their marriage George was aged 28, an ‘art metal worker’ and gave his address as The Mitre Hotel, 1 Ivy Mount, Stretford, Manchester. In 1901 George and Edith Wragge were living at 22 Edge Lane, Chorlton Cum Hardy. George was described as a manufacturer of metalwork and stained glass. In 1911 the couple were visitors at The Hollies, St John’s Road, Buxton. They had been married for 19 years and had no children. In 1919 the couple were living at 29 Hornton Court, Holland Park, London.

In the 1921 census, George was aged 57 and a ‘retired manufacturer’ and Edith was 62. They were living in Newmarket, then in Cambridgeshire. They employed a widowed 53 year old, Ellen Kitson, as a domestic maid.

They travelled between the wars. They are on a passenger list arriving in Plymouth from New York on 19 May 1930 and other references to arriving in California and Honolulu.

George and Edith died within a few months of each other in 1932. Edith died in July Quarter 1932. Registered Wycombe, Bucks.

George Wragge died 22 Sept 1932 at King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor. His home address was “Paerata” in Penn, Buckinghamshire.