by command of Queen Elizabeth, in putting down ‘prophesyings’ in his diocese.
He died at Winchester on 29 April 1594, and was buried in the choir, near the bishop's seat. A monument placed over his grave described him as ‘munificentissimus, doctissimus, vigilantissimus, summe benignus egenis.’ It has now disappeared; probably, as Milner suggests, it was removed on the repairing of the choir. He left a widow (Amy) and two daughters, Elizabeth, wife of John Belli, provost of Oriel, and afterwards chancellor of the diocese of Lincoln, and Mary, wife of John Gouldwell, gent.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 608; Harrington's Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 69; Cassan's Lives of the Bishops of Winchester, ii. 36–48; Milner's History of Winchester, i. 290; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. ii. 166; Bloxam's Register of Magd. Coll., Oxford.]
COOPER, COUPER, or COWPER, THOMAS (fl. 1626), divine, was born in London and educated at Westminster, whence he was elected in 1586 on the foundation of Christ Church, Oxford, and as a member of that house proceeded B.A. on 14 Dec. 1590, M.A. on 19 June 1593, and B.D. on 14 April 1600. His first call, as he himself tells us, was to succeed ‘that painefull and profitable Teacher Maister [William] Harrison’ as one of the preachers for the county palatine of Lancaster, and on 1 Aug. 1601 he was presented by his college to the vicarage of Great Budworth, Cheshire, which he held until 1604. On 8 May in the latter year he became vicar of Holy Trinity, Coventry, but resigned in January 1610. In 1620 he was living in Whitecross Street, London, apparently befriended by Lord-chief-justice Montagu, to whom and his lady Cooper expresses himself under deep obligations. In September 1626, having been appointed a ‘preacher’ to the fleet at 5l. a month by Captain Richard Gyffard, he petitioned ‘the most illustrious and renowned prince, George, duke of Buckingham,’ for a small advance of salary to enable him to get to Portsmouth. Cooper published:
- ‘The Romish Spider, with his VVeb of Treason. Wouen and Broken: together with the seuerall vses that the World and Church shall make thereof,’ 3 pts. 4to, London, 1606 (republished the same year with a new title-page, ‘A Brand taken out of the Fire,’ &c.).
- ‘Nonæ Novembris æternitati consecratæ in memoriam admirandæ illius liberationis Principis et Populi Anglicani à proditione sulphurea.’ [In verse and prose] 4to, Oxford, 1607.
- ‘The Chvrches Deliverance, contayning Meditations … vppon the Booke of Hester. In remembrance of the wonderfull deliuerance from the Gunpoulder-Treason,’ 4to, London, 1609.
- ‘The Mystery of Witch-craft. Discouering the Truth, Nature, Occasions, Growth and Power therof. Together with the Detection and Punishment of the same. As also the seuerall Stratagems of Sathan, ensnaring the poore Soule by this desperate practize of annoying the bodie,’ &c., 3 books, 12mo, London, 1617.
- ‘The Cry and Reuenge of Blood. Expressing the Nature and haynousnesse of wilfull Murther … exemplified in a most lamentable History thereof, committed at Halsworth in High Suffolk,’ &c. 4to, London, 1620.
- ‘VVilie begvile ye, or the Worldlings gaine,’ &c., 4to, London, 1621.
Wood's account of Cooper is vague and inaccurate.
[Prefaces to Works as cited above; Welch's Alumni Westmon. (1852), p. 59; Ormerod's Cheshire, i. 452; Dugdale's Warwickshire (Thomas), i. 174; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1603–10 p. 263, 1625–26 p. 425; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 250, 262, 285; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
COOPER, THOMAS, M.D. (1759–1840), natural philosopher, lawyer, and politician, was born in London on 22 Oct. 1759, and matriculated from University College, Oxford, in Feb. 1779, aged nineteen; in 1787 he was called to the bar from the Inner Temple. While studying law he extended his researches into anatomy and medicine. His name does not occur in the official list of graduates. He was admitted to the bar and went on circuit for a few years; but entering into the political agitations of the period, he was sent, in company with James Watt, the inventor of the steam-engine, by the democratic clubs of England to the affiliated clubs in France. There he took part with the Girondists, but perceiving their inevitable downfall he escaped to England. In his old age he said that the four months he spent at Paris were the happiest of his life, and that in them he spent four years (Encyclopædia Americana, ii. 402). For this journey he and Watt were called to account by Edmund Burke, and this led to the publication of a violent pamphlet by Cooper in reply (Muirhead, Life of Watt, pp. 492, 493; Smiles, Lives of Boulton and Watt, pp. 408, 414). When his publisher proposed to reissue the reply in a cheaper form, Cooper received a note from Sir John Scott, attorney-general, informing him that, although there was no exception to be taken to his pamphlet when in the hands of the upper classes, yet the government would not allow it to appear at a price which would insure its circula-
