Can anyone confirm what this says please

[Lensgirl]

Hi

this baptism has been transcribed as Elizabeth daughter of John Cooper Sherwise Howard and his wife Sarah, however looking at it it seems to be "Cooper of Sherwise" (or something similar)

Ancestry.co.uk - England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1936

It is number 33 , bottom right page

Many thanks!

[Lensgirl]

Actually their son William is on the next page and it now looks like the father is John Cooper Otherwise Howard? If so, what does that mean?

[Anne in Carlisle]

It means one or both parents also use another surname. Its not quite clear from the image if it refers to both of them or implies that they are not married? For you to find out why!
Anne

edit to say the image for William is clearer. Yes, it means they are known by either surname.

[PhotoFamily]

Any chance John was a Cooper - maybe born a Howard, but his work as a Cooper made it easy to refer to his occupation as his surname?

Note that there's two years between the two baptisms.

Do you know all of their children? Are there other baptisms to look at?

[Lensgirl]

Yes, they had 4 children that I can see and all are on this record saying the same thing.

I believe their son William married as a Cooper but when the family move to London they are Howard's. I have come to that finding as there are children born in Rotherhithe and it appears MMN is Pilborough, and there is a marriage of a William Cooper and Sarah Ann Pilborough in 1827 in Ipswich.

Williams brother John and his sister Elizabeth are living together in 1871 in Rotherhithe, again as Howards
It just seems a bit bizarre to me.

Would John Sr maybe have been illegitimate but it was common knowledge his father was a Howard?

[Anne in Carlisle]

Would John Sr maybe have been illegitimate but it was common knowledge his father was a Howard?

That is one possibility certainly and I have an example in my family.
However name changes are not uncommon and sometimes they have no apparent reason! I have one family who moved to another town after the father committed suicide. They are found on censuses with a different surname but continued to register marriages and deaths with their original surname. I have found no clue about the surname they chose!
Anne

[Lensgirl]

Its definately strange! William and Sarah's first child is baptised in Ipswich and is transcribed as Sarah Howard Cooper. Frustratingly I cant find an image to check what it actually looks like. As is their second child William. By the time their son John is born, it appears they are in Rotherhithe and I cant find any baptism record for John

[Darksecretz]

Without looking at it i'd say that Sherwise is actually 'otherwise' John Smith otherwise Brown.

[kylejustin]

Could be illegitimacy, or maybe mother remarried.