#57 Margaret Ellen Cowling or Cooling

Birth

Margaret Ellen Cowling [1, 2, 3] (or Cooling [5, 6]) was born in 1833 in Oxfordshire, England, to Sophia, age 31, and William Cooling, age 43. She was baptized on November 11, 1832 at Saint Giles,Oxford. [5, 6]

Early Years
The First Henley Regatta, a series of boat races on the River Thames that quickly became a popular annual event, started when Margaret was six.

At age 8 Margaret was living in Oxfordshire when the worldwide cholera epidemic made deadly passes through England and Wales.Thankfully she survived.

In the 1841 England Census Margaret is 9 and the man who will become her husband, Charles, is living in the same house in St Ebbe Parish in Oxfordshire. [1]

Marriage
Margaret Ellen Cowling married Charles Cox in Oxford, Oxfordshire, in July 1857 when she was 24 years old and he was 34. [4]

Family
Their son William Charles (my great-great-grandfather) was born in July 1858 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, and was baptized on September 19 that year at Holy Trinity Oxfordshire England Parish.

Margaret and her family were living in Oxford, Oxfordshire in 1861 when Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, died suddenly. [2]



Another son, George Frederick, was born in 1861 in Oxfordshire. This was a time when the railroad industry swiftly expanded in England.

Son Walter was born in 1862 and daughter Elizabeth was born in April 1868 in Oxford, Oxfordshire.

Margaret and her family lived in St Mary Magdalene, Oxfordshire, in 1871. Living in the United Kingdom in 1871, they may have enjoyed additional days off from work, thanks to Sir John Lubbock’s bill that sanctioned government-sponsored bank holidays. [3]

Death
Margaret's date of death is unknown.

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Sources:
1. 1841 England Census
2. 1861 England Census
3. 1871 England Census
4. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
5. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
6. Oxfordshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915