COOPER, Thomas I (1594-1640), of High Street, Oxford.

A yeoman’s son from a village near Stratford upon Avon, Cooper appears to have owed his prosperity as an Oxford mercer to a fortunate apprenticeship and his own subsequent connections with the university. He came to the central parish of St Martin’s, Carfax in 1607 to serve William Chillingworth, father of the celebrated scholar and theologian of the same name, whose godfather in 1602 was the controversial senior fellow of St John’s College, William Laud.12Oxon. RO, city archives, L.5.1, f. 152v; ‘William Chillingworth’, Oxford DNB. Admitted free in 1614, Cooper soon established himself independently, taking on a succession of well-born apprentices from 1617, including Walter Cave (brother of Sir Richard Cave*) and Ralph Chillingworth, who both also became substantial figures in mid-seventeenth-century Oxford.13Oxford Council Acts 1583-1626, 239; Oxon. RO, city archives, L.5.1, ff. 36, 38, 58, 111, 136, 190, 202v, 232. In February 1619 Cooper gained privileged status within the university as a receiver for All Souls College; in May 1625 vice chancellor John Prideaux listed him under ‘stewards, rentgathers and bailiffs’ as liable to pay the relatively large sum of 13s in the fifteenths tax.14Reg. Univ. Oxford, ii, pt. i, 404; Oxon. RO, city archives, F.5.8, p. 452. Meanwhile, by July 1623, when his daughter Jane or Jone was baptized at St Martin’s, he had married, perhaps Ursula, the wife mentioned in his will, and almost certainly someone from outside the city as there is no record in surviving registers. A son, Thomas, followed in December 1624, but both children died in infancy.15St Martin, Carfax, par. reg. transcript. At some point before 1634 Cooper took over from William Chillingworth the lease of a house in the heart of the city at the west end of High Street.16Oxford City Properties ed. Salter, 142.

Having become a freeman and a bailiff in 1626, Cooper rapidly gained prominence on the corporation.17Oxford Council Acts 1626-1665, 1, 12, 14. In October 1627 he was delegated to attend the law courts in London to hear the judgement in a suit brought by the city, while two years later he went again in connection with the election of a new recorder.18Oxford Council Acts 1626-1665, 9, 19. Chosen in March 1630 as one of the eight assistants who with four aldermen and the mayor constituted an inner council, in September, after two other candidates had refused the office, he was himself elected mayor.19Oxford Council Acts 1626-1665, 25, 27. In the context of often tense relations between the city and the university, he was unusually congenial to the latter. In April 1631 William Juxon, president of St John’s College, informed his predecessor Laud, now bishop of London and chancellor of the university, that Mayor Cooper had been the means of delivering £100 from a third party and was ready to remit a further £300, a rare convenience.20CSP Dom. 1631-2, p. 21. Five years later Cooper, still a fairly active member of the inner group on the council, was deputed to procure gloves for the city to present to the chancellor during a royal visit.21Oxford Council Acts 1626-1665, 355-6; Oxon.RO, city archives, E.4.5, ff. 2, 3v, 6v-7v, 8v, 10v-12, 13v, 14v, 22v.

Pressure in his favour from the university may have played a part in Cooper’s election to Parliament on 3 March 1640 for a borough seat. After a contest in which the recorder, John Whistler*, a critic of the 1630s regime, and Alderman John Nixon*, a thorn in the university’s side, were also nominated, Cooper was returned with Charles Howard*, Lord Howard.22Oxon. RO, C/FC/1/A2/03, ff. 73-4; Oxford Council Acts 1626-1665, 91. However, he took no recorded part in proceedings.

On 5 August 1640, already ill, Cooper made a will devising ‘temporal goods whereof God hath made me his steward’; this included unspecified merchandise ventured to ‘Malagos’ (perhaps Malaga). The chief beneficiaries were his wife Ursula, his sister (?Margaret) and brother-in-law Richard Calcott, his kinsman Robert Calcott, and his godson Thomas Granger. He also left the corporation two sums of £25 to be lent to the eldest common councilman and to the eldest former chamberlain.23PROB11/184/151. Dying a few days later, he was buried at St Martin’s on 13 August.24St Martin, Carfax, par. reg. transcript. He seems to have left no surviving children; no known relative followed him into Parliament.