James Cooper

There was a wee cooper wha lived in Fife,
Nickety, nackety, noo, noo, noo,
And he has gotten a gentle wife,
Hey willy wallachy, how John Dougal
Alane quo rushety, roo, roo, roo.

Wee Cooper O'Fife is a Scottish folk song about a cooper who beats his wife because she will not cook, clean and sew.  Hopefully our James Cooper from Fife wasn't like that.  He was born in 1803 on a farm just to the south of Dunfermline but the family moved over to the south of the Forth and he was married and living near his parents at one of the Norton farms by 1841.  He was an agricultural labourer but a couple of references say he was an overseer or grieve which is a farm foreman during his travels round other farms in Ratho, Kirknewton, Kirkliston and Currie.  That is promotion within his type of work but he couldn't write his own name and signed his wife's death certificate with an x.  This is quite strange as he married a vet's daughter which would therefore seem to be above his position in life in Victorian days.  That said, I can't find a marriage so who knows?  Maybe they didn't marry if they didn't have the approval of her parents.

There is one exception to his life in Midlothian and that is an adventure to the Mull of Galloway, to Glencreggan, on the west side of the Mull, level with Carradale.  I can offer no explanation for this and they were back in the east by the next census.  There were no children born there so I can't tell how long they were there.