Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooper, Thomas (fl.1626)
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.]