Charles Purton Cooper
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Charles Purton Cooper QC, FRS (1793–1873) was an English lawyer and antiquary.


Life

He was educated at
Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...
, where he was a contemporary of Richard Bethell, and in 1814 he attained double first-class honours, and graduated B.A. on 7 December 1814, and on 5 July 1817 M.A. He was
called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
at
Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
in Michaelmas term 1816. After practising as an equity draughtsman, he was appointed a
Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...
in 1837, and became queen's serjeant for the
Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is the private estate of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the sovereign. The estate consists of ...
. In 1836 he became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn; he was treasurer in 1855, and master of the library in 1856. His enthusiasm for the cause of legal reform attracted the attention of Henry Brougham, by whom he was introduced to the
Holland House Holland House, originally known as Cope Castle, was an early Jacobean country house in Kensington, London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
circle and the heads of the Whig party.
Lord Brougham Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, (; 19 September 1778 – 7 May 1868) was a British statesman who became Lord High Chancellor and played a prominent role in passing the 1832 Reform Act and 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. ...
appointed him secretary of the second
Record Commission The Record Commissions were a series of six Royal Commissions of Great Britain and (from 1801) the United Kingdom which sat between 1800 and 1837 to inquire into the custody and public accessibility of the state archives. The Commissioners' work ...
, in which capacity he bought and printed so many books, that the commission's debt exceeded the sum voted by parliament.
Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland of Holland, and 3rd Baron Holland of Foxley PC (21 November 1773 – 22 October 1840), was an English politician and a major figure in Whig politics in the early 19th century. A grandson of Henry F ...
recommended him for the post of Solicitor General when Robert Monsey Rolfe was appointed, in 1835. Cooper enjoyed a leading practice in the court of Vice-chancellor
James Lewis Knight-Bruce Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce, (born James Lewis Knight; 15 February 1791 – 7 November 1866) was an English barrister, judge and politician. Life He was the youngest son of John Knight of Fairlinch, Devon, by Margaret, daughter and heiress ...
; but they had a public quarrel, and Cooper lost his reputation. He tried without success to obtain government assistance for a project for digesting all the existing law reports. He retired to
Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...
, and died of paralysis and bronchitis on 26 March 1873.


Political candidacies

Cooper played an active part in public affairs in
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, where he resided at Denton Court, near Canterbury. He appeared as a parliamentary candidate for
Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...
in 1850, but withdrew from the contest; in 1854 he unsuccessfully contested
Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...
, and was proposed as a candidate for
West Kent Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation. Prehistoric Kent Kent has been occupied since the Lower Palaeolithic as finds from the quarries at Fordwich and Swanscombe attest. The Swanscombe skul ...
in 1855, but declined to stand.


Honours and awards

His knowledge of jurisprudence and legal antiquities gained him a fellowship of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, and the degree of LL.D. of the universities of Louvain and Kiel. He was also a
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...
, and corresponding member of the royal academies of Lisbon, Munich, Berlin, and Brussels. He was elected a member of the
American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...
in 1835.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
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Works

Cooper was a voluminous writer. In his later years he published a printed list of 52 pamphlets, written, edited, or printed by him on political topics between 1850 and 1857. His major works were: * ''An Account of the Parliamentary Proceedings relating to the Practice in Bankruptcy, Chancery, and the House of Lords'', 1828. * ''Notes, etc., in French on the Court of Chancery'', 1828, 2nd edit. 1830. * ''Notes on Registration and forms in Conveyancing'', 1831. * ''An Account of the Public Records of the United Kingdom'', 2 vols. 1832. * ''Speech for Rev. C. Wellbeloved in the case of Lady Hewley's Foundation, Attorney-general v. Shore'', 1834. * ''Notes on the Act for regulating Municipal Corporations'', 1835. * ''Reports of Cases decided by Lord Brougham in 1833 and 1834 from the original MSS.'', 1835. * ''Reports of Cases decided by Lords Cottenham and Langdale, and by Vice-chancellor Shadwell in 1837 and 1838'', with notes 1838–41. * ''Reports of Lord Cottenham's decisions'', 1846. * A letter to the Lord Chancellor on defects in the law as to the custody of lunatics, 1849. * A pamphlet on the reform of solicitors' costs, 1850. * A letter to Sir George Grey on the sanitary state of St. George's parish, 1850. * A pamphlet on the condition of the court of chancery, 1850. * A pamphlet on the masters in chancery. * A pamphlet on the House of Lords as a court of appeal. * ''Chancery Miscellanies'' under his editorship, Nos. 1–13, 1850 and 1851. * ''Parliamentary and political Miscellanies'' under his editorship, Nos. 1–20, 1851. * A letter on the pope's Apostolic Letters of 1850, 1851. * A pamphlet on the Government and the Irish Roman Catholic members, 1851. * ''Reports of Cases and Dicta in Chancery from MSS., with notes'', Nos. 1–7, 1852. * ''Memorandum of a proposal to classify the Law Reports'', Boulogne, 1860. * A similar proposal for digesting the statute-book, Boulogne, 1860. * ''On Freemasonry'', Folkestone, 1868.


Legacy

Cooper in 1843 presented Lincoln's Inn with two thousand volumes of civil and foreign legal works, having previously presented a hundred and fifty volumes of American law reports.


References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Charles Purton 1793 births 1873 deaths Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford English antiquarians English King's Counsel Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Members of Lincoln's Inn 19th-century King's Counsel Members of the American Antiquarian Society 19th-century English lawyers