COOPER, John, of Maldon, Essex.

Cooper was engaged in the production of cloth, being charged alnage on seven ‘dozens’ sold at Maldon in 1394-5. He was among the men of Maldon who were arrested in 1401 at the suit of the bishop of London and Walter, Lord Fitzwalter, for infringement of their rights as lords of the borough.E101/342/9; CCR, 1399-1402, p. 489. He may perhaps be identified with the master of a Colchester ship who captured a vessel from Bilbao and took it to Sandwich in March 1403, and who subsequently seized a fishing vessel from Ostend off Great Yarmouth, both actions being in breach of truces.Ibid. 1402-5, pp. 56, 196.

Cooper stood surety for John Page of Maldon in Chancery in June 1409. In 1412 he obtained a royal pardon of outlawry for not appearing in the courts at Westminster to answer a London vintner for debt. At the parliamentary elections of 1417, 1420 and 1421 (Dec.) he acted as mainpernor respectively for Richard Sampson, Richard Galon and William Gore, all of them returned for Maldon.Ibid. 1405-9, p. 515; CPR, 1408-13, p. 334; C219/12/2, 4, 6.