Cooper

Is an occupational name, from the Middle English word "couper" meaning a maker of wooden casks, buckets or tubs. The wide spread adoption of this surname is testimony to the fact that Cooper was one of the valued specialist trades in the Middle Ages all through Europe.

Records show a Robert leCupere in the Pipe Rolls in Surrey in 1176, a Selide leCopere in the Pipe Rolls in Norfolk in 1181, and a William leCoupere in the Subsidy Rolls in Sussex in 1296.

Variants in English include Copper, Coupar, Cupper, Kooper, Coope, Coupe, and Cooperman.

Other European variants include Kiefer (German), Kupper (low German), Kupker (Frisian), De Cuyper, Cuyp (Flemish), Kuijper, Kuiper, Kuijpers, Kuypers, Cuijpers, Cuypers (Dutch) and Coupar, Cowper, Couper (Scottish).

One of the earliest examples of the name is that of Robert le Cupere, who is mentioned in the Surrey Pipe Rolls for 1176 and 1177. Selide le Copere (or le Cupere) was named in the Norfolk Pipe Rolls only five years later, while William le Coupere appeared in the Subsidy Rolls for Sussex in 1296. Geoffrey Cowper is listed in the same source in 1377, and a John Copper is mentioned in a 1424 entry in the Register of the Freemen of the City of York. Other instances of the surname during the medieval period include Walter Cuppere (or Couper), who is recorded in the Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London for the years 1378 and 1391.

One of the earliest Coopers to have earned a place in the history books was Thomas Cooper. Bishop of Winchester. He was born in about 1517 at Oxford, the son of an impoverished tailor who owned a worltshop in Cat Street. Despite his humble origins, Cooper was educated as a chorister at Magdalen College School and, after graduating, became both a fellow and a master there. In 1545, he began an ambitious project to complete a history of the world, which had been left unfinished after the death of the chronicler Thomas Lacquet that same year. Lacquet had covered the period from the Creation to 17AD, and it took Cooper until 1549 to complete the remaining 1.530 years. When The Chronicle of the World was published in 1549 it was attributed to Cooper, who had written at least three-quarters of it and, when it reappeared in 1565, it was even entitled Cooper's Chronicle.

Cooper was an ardent Protestant, and he hoped to become a minister in the Church of England. However, the accession of the Catholic Queen Mary I. in 1553, forced him to set his ambition aside and. instead, he qualified and practised as a physician in Oxford. When Mary died in 1558, Cooper was ordained and quickly gained a reputation as a fiery preacher. However, he still exercised his literary talent and, around this time, he began to compile his greatest work, a Latin and English Dictionary, which was first published in 1565 and had been reprinted three times by 1584.

Unfortunately, Cooper's marriage to his wife, Amy, was desperately unhappy. According to the diarist John Aubrey, she once became so infuriated by the long hours her husband spent working on his dictionary that "when he had half-done it . . . she threw it into the fire and burnt it." Cooper, placid as ever, began work again, while his wife embarked upon a series of affairs. Despite being offered a divorce by the authorities of Oxford University, Cooper continued to forgive her.

Cooper's academic career was largely unaffected by his troubled home life and he rose steadily up the Church hierarchy. He became Dean of Gloucester in 1569, Bishop of Lincoln in 1570 and, finally, was translated to the bishopric of Winchester in 1584. He died ten years later and a Latin inscription engraved on his memorial plaque describes him as a man "most munificent, most learned, most vigilant and benign."

In the century following the bishop's death, two London-born Cooper brothers made their mark on history in quite a different way. Both men were nephews of the famous miniature painter John Hoskins, who tutored them in his art. In fact, the younger brother, Samuel Cooper (b. 1609), showed such brilliance that Hoskins was said to have been jealous of him. The elder brother, Alexander (Jl.1630-1.660), who also painted landscapes, gave his uncle less cause for jealousy but was nonetheless very successful. After producing a large number of miniatures depicting personalities at Charles I's court, Alexander moved to Amsterdam, and then to Sweden, where he became miniaturist to Queen Christina.

Meanwhile in 1640, Samuel Cooper set up a London studio at Henrietta 'Street, Covent Garden, and quickly developed a reputation as a fashionable miniaturist. His sitters included the wife of Samuel Pepys, who paid Cooper £30 for the portrait, and the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. Fortunately, this connection didn't affect Cooper's prospects when the monarchy was restored in 1660 and, in 1663, King Charles II even gave him a pension of £200 a year.

Samuel Cooper was an affable and cultured man whom Pepys described as being "good company". Cooper was also considered by many to be the finest portrait miniaturist of his day and was later described by Horace Walpole as "an original genius, as he was the first who gave the strength and freedom of oil to miniature. Cooper died on 5th May 1672 and was buried in the old church at St Pancras.

Edward Joshua Cooper had the good luck to inherit a family talent, and was introduced to the study of astronomy by his grandfather, Harry Verelst, former Governor of Bengal. Cooper was born at Stephen's Green, Dublin in May 1798, and was the eldest son of wealthy landowner, Edward Synge Cooper. Synge had allowed his son to spend ten years travelling the globe and, in that time, Cooper visited many countries, including Turkey, Persia and Scandinavia, which became the home base for an expedition to the North Cape in Norway, Europe's most northerly point.

After his father's death in 1830, Cooper inherited Markree Castle in County Sligo, Ireland. It was here that he constructed an observatory equipped with the largest cast-iron telescope in Europe. This splendid instrument was set up in the open air and incorporated a comet-searcher, enabling Cooper to determine between 1842 and 1843 the positions of some fifty stars. In the following year, he set out on a tour of France, Germany and Italy with his assistant, Andrew Graham, and took the Markree refractor with him. Using this fine instrument, Cooper sketched the Orion Nebula and, on the February 1845, he detected a comet.

During his stay in Germany, Cooper was able to use his observations to extend the star maps, which were being compiled there. Not only did his maps include stars of the twelfth or thirteenth magnitude, but also his success in adding over 60,000 previously unknown stars to the records won him the Cunningham gold medal from the Royal Irish Academy in 1858.

Cooper had observed and drawn sketches of Halley's Comet in 1835 and Mauvais' Comet in 1844 and, in 1852, he published information about 198 similar bodies in his book Cometic Orbits, with Copious Notes and Addenda. He was invited to lecture on his discoveries at the Royal Astronomical Society in 1853, at the Royal Society in 1855 and the British Association in 1858. Unfortunately, Cooper did not live long enough to enjoy the benefits of his success and he died at Markree Castle on 28th April 1863. His castle observatory soon fell into disrepair but, in 1874, it was used once more for the study of double stars.

Another talented Cooper, Thomas, was born in London on 22nd October 1759. He began his career as a lawyer, but devoted much of his time to studying anatomy and medicine. After practising law for several years, he became involved with a number of political clubs, which flourished in both England and France during the late 15th century. Cooper was encouraged to go to France himself and, while there, he embraced the right-wing Girondist movement. However, he hastily returned to England when many of the organisation's members were guillotined during the Reign of Terror between 1793 and 1794.

Despite his hurried escape, Cooper's time in France was not wasted. He learned to make chlorine from common salt, and when he returned to England set up in business as a bleacher and calico printer in Manchester. When his company failed he emigrated to America and earned a living by practising law at Sunbury, Pennsylvania. However, he soon got into trouble by attacking the US President, John Adams, and was tried for libel. Cooper lost the action and received a $400 fine and a six-month prison sentence. After his release he returned to the law. However, it seemed as if he had learned nothing from his detention and, while serving as presiding judge of the Pennsylvania common pleas district, he so offended the state governor that he was dismissed from the position in 1811.

Having abandoned the legal profession, Cooper became a professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Pennsylvania, and ended his extraordinary career as president of South Carolina College at Columbia. When Cooper was a very old man, President Adams, who had a forgiving nature and a sense of humour, described him as "a learned, ingenious, scientific and talented madcap". Cooper died in South Carolina on 11th May 1840.

Cooper's namesake, Thomas Thornville Cooper, was a character formed in much the same mould. He was the eighth son of John J. Cooper, a coalfitter and shipowner, and was born at Bishopwearmouth, between Sunderland and the River Wear, on 13th September 1839. His health was fragile but, as a young man, he took a passage to Australia. However, on the way there, the crew of his ship mutinied, and Cooper and the captain armed themselves with pistols and took turns to guard the cabin door. When the ship finally reached Australia, Cooper explored the country's arid interior before leaving for India in 1859. While there, he worked for a brief time in the office of a British company in Madras, but soon left to tour the vast subcontinent before crossing the border into Burma. By 1863, be was off to join one of his many brothers in Shanghai, where he joined the city's defence force against the Taiping rebels.

After leaving Shanghai, Cooper set out for Tibet at the request of the Shanghai chamber of commerce, which wanted him to help expand its markets. Cooper's task was to find a route to India, by which one might travel through China via Tibet. Unfortunately, while he was still in China, he was stopped by a tribal chief who refused to let him pass through his terority. Cooper was later arrested and sentenced to death on suspicion of an allegiance with rebels from the Yunnan province, and suspicious officials later thwarted his attempt to find a route from eastern India to China.

For a man who was in poor health, Cooper had a remarkably active life. However, his frailty got the better of him in 1870 and he was forced to return to England for a period of convalescence. After recovering from his illness, he left England to serve as Emissary to the Viceroy of India. This was to be Cooper's last journey, as a sepoy whom he had punished murdered him.

Probably the most famous family of Coopers were the Ashley Coopers, the Earls of Shaftesbury. The first earl, Anthony Ashley Cooper, was born on 22nd July 1621 at Wimborne St Giles, Dorset. He not only succeeded his father as the 2nd Baronet Cooper, but was later awarded the titles of Baron Cooper of Pawlett, Baron Ashley of Wimborne St Giles and, in 1672, Earl of Shaftesbury.

Cooper inherited a vast fortune and, as a result, was rich enough to embark on a parliamentary career at the early age of only 18. He quickly became successful, although he was inclined to switch his political allegiances whenever it seemed advantageous for him to do so. For instance, in 1644, the third year of the English Civil War, he deserted Charles I and joined the parliamentarians in his native county of Dorset. However, despite being appointed to Oliver Cromwell's Council of State. Cooper rediscovered his monarchist loyalties in 1660, when he was one of 12 commissioners sent to Holland to offer Charles II the English crown.

Cooper was rewarded with the earldom of Shaftesbury, but was disgraced when, as Chancellor, he opposed the King’s decision to allow a marriage between his brother, James, Duke of York and Mary of Modena. Charles was determined that James would succeed him, and finding Shaftesbury too equivocal to trust, dismissed him from his post as Chancellor in 1673.

Shaftesbury continued to oppose James' succession to the throne, and the Earl's behaviour led to an abuse of his parliamentary privileges. The Earl was arrested on 2nd July 1673 and imprisoned in the Tower of London on a charge of treason. The accusations against him were dismissed by a grand jury and Shaftesbury subsequently fled to Holland, where he died on 21st January 1683

Shaftesbury’s grandson, also named Anthony Ashley Cooper, was quite a different character. Born in London on 26th February 1671, he became his grandfather's ward, possibly because his father was only 19 years old. Shaftesbury assigned the English philosopher John Locke to the boy's education, and he soon became well versed in Latin, Greek and Classical literature. Before long, the future third Earl had written several philosophical treatises and become one of the foremost English Deists, believing that the human sense of morals, and the capacity to distinguish right from wrong, was not a God-given quality but an innate virtue. In fact, it was almost entirely through works such as Characteristicis of mien, Manner, Opinions Times, which was published in 1711, that English Deism became known in Germany.

The third Earl was a Whig sympathiser, although he frequently failed to follow the Party line. He took his seat in Parliament in 1695, went to the Lords on inheriting his title in 1699, and retired in 1702, after losing his only official position of Vice-Admiral of Dorset. The third Earl died in Naples on 14th February 1713, while on a European tour which he had hoped would improve his health.

The great-grandson of the third Earl, Anthony Ashley Cooper, became the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury in 1851. Born in London on 28th April 1801, he later became known as a man of great intellect and good conscience. He was concerned with some of the worst social evils of the day and used Parliament to promote an Act banning women and girls, as well as all boys under the age of ten, from labouring in the mines, and one which limited to ten hours the working day in textile mills. The Earl belonged to the Evangelical movement within the Church of England, and exploited his position to stop the abuses suffered by 'climbing boys', or apprentice chimney sweeps. He was also responsible for the passing of the Lunacy Act of 1845, which allowed mental patients to be treated, not as pariahs and social outcasts, but as "persons of unsound mind." He went on to pioneer the creation of low-cost housing for urban workers, free education in the 'Ragged Schools' for destitute children, and set up the Young Men’s' Christian Association and Workingmen’s institutes.

The Earl also made personal visits to the city slums to see the appalling conditions there for himself. The 7th Earl died in Folkestone, Kent on 1st October 1885 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Anthony. While the 8th Earl sadly committed suicide in 1886, the Shaftesbury dynasty continues to this day.

John Cooper (died 1626) was a musician who changed his name to Giovanni Coperario (or Coprario), after studying in Italy. He kept the Italianised version of his name while working at the court of James I, for whom he wrote masques between 1607 and 1613, as well as Songs of Mourning, to commemorate the death of James' heir, Prince Henry, in 1613. Charles I, who succeeded his father James in 1625, appointed Coperario as royal composer when he became king.

Abraham Cooper (1787-1868) was a painter of horses and battles. He was born at Red Lion Street, Holborn, and London on 8th September 1787, and was the son of a tobacconist and innkeeper. He drew many of the celebrated racehorses of his day and was also awarded 150 guineas by the British Institution in 1810 for a picture of the battle of Waterloo. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1820 for his painting of Marston Moor, the battle that took place in 1644 during the English Civil war. Cooper died in Greenwich on 24th December 1868.

Peter Cooper (1791-1884), who invented the Tom Thumb locomotive in 1830, was an industrialist and philanthropist. He was born on 12th February 1791 in New York and later working in coachbuilding and manufactured textile machinery, glue, isinglass and ironworks before designing an engine to run over hilly, twisting terrain for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. Cooper went on to produce structural iron beams for the building industry, a washing machine and a compressed-air engine for use on ferryboats. His personal motto was: "I have endeavoured to remember that the object of life is to do good." Cooper died on 4th April 1884 in New York.

Dame Gladys Cooper, the actress and film star was born on 18th December 1888 in London. She acted in plays by such dramatists as Oscar Wilde. Arthur Wing Pinero and Noel Coward. Her early fame came from her performance In Pinero's The Second Mrs. Tanqueray. She was nominated for Academy awards in 1942, 1943 and 1964. Cooper died at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on 17th November 1971.

Sir Astley Paston Cooper (1768-1841) was a surgeon born at Brooke, Norfolk, on 23rd August 1768. He was one of the first people to treat aneurisin by tying the abdominal aorta. He performed many successful operations in the days before anaesthesia 'md antiseptics, and became the Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1813. Cooper ended his carrer as surgeon to King George IV, who awarded him a baronetcy in 1821, and he died in London on 12th February 1841.

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