COOPER, George (1626-89), of Clarendon Park, Wilts.

As the younger son of a man who died young leaving vast debts, George Cooper had to make his own way in the world. It was left to his elder brother, Anthony, to rebuild the family estates. The key moment in George’s life probably came in 1647 when, still aged only 20, he married the elder daughter of the wealthy London merchant, John Oldfield. The settlement he received from his brother to mark this event was the extent of his own inheritance – £4,000 as a lump sum and an annuity of £55.19Christie, Shaftesbury, i. pp. xliv-xlv. More promising would have been the prospect of inheriting his new wife’s share of her father’s substantial fortune, which was mostly based on the refining of sugar. The couple probably then settled in London and it was in the London area that Cooper first began to hold public office. As early as April 1648 he was added to the Middlesex commission of the peace.20C231/6, p. 114. The following year, under the new republic, he was included on the militia commission for Tower Hamlets and in 1650 he became one of the assessment commissioners for Middlesex.21A. and O. From June 1649 he combined those roles with his appointment as one of the sixteen trustees for the maintenance of preaching ministers. The trustees’ role was to manage the impropriate tithes formerly belonging to the bishops and cathedral chapters so that this revenue could provide increased stipends for preachers appointed by Parliament.22A. and O.

By the early 1650s Cooper had also established himself in Wiltshire. In November 1653 the Nominated Parliament added him to the Wiltshire assessment commission and, at about the same time, he also began to serve on the local commission of the peace.23CJ vii. 356a. The reason behind this was that Cooper had acquired a landed estate within the county by purchasing part of the former royal manor of Clarendon Park on the eastern outskirts of Salisbury.24Hoare, Hist. Wilts. v. (Alderbury), 144. The purchase must have occurred before June 1652, when Cooper entered into a contract with the government to supply timber from the park.25CSP Dom. 1651-2, p. 523. Three years later, however, he was complaining to his friend, Edward Hopkins*, who was one of the navy commissioners, that the navy was asserting that it was entitled to take timber from the park without recompensing him.26Aylmer, State’s Servants, 131-2. After the Restoration Cooper would claim that he had been forced to purchase these lands in order to recover £3,000 which it would seem he had lent to Parliament.27CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 290.

In 1654 the corporation of Poole invited Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper to become their MP in the first protectoral Parliament, but he decided instead to sit for Wiltshire. Doubtless on Sir Anthony’s recommendation, George was chosen in his place at a by-election on 24 October.28C219/44, unfol. From this point onwards the Commons clerk carefully identified Sir Anthony whenever he was mentioned in the Journal for this Parliament, so there is no difficulty distinguishing between the two brothers’ activities as MPs. In any case, George Cooper’s activities were very slight. The only trace he left on the proceedings of the 1654 Parliament was to be named to the committee on the writs of certiorari and habeas corpus (3 Nov. 1654).29CJ vii. 381b. The following spring the lord protector included him on the commission of oyer and terminer appointed to handle the trials of those royalists who had participated in Penruddock’s rising.30CSP Dom. 1655, p. 114.

On his death in 1657, John Oldfield’s fortune was mostly divided between his daughters Elizabeth Cooper and Katherine, who was married to George Fleetwood*. Elizabeth’s share included a house in Bow and the lease on the building in Billiter Lane, London, from which the sugar-refining business operated.31PROB11/269/170. Cooper’s tangential links with the world of London commerce might explain why, two years later, in February 1660 he was appointed by the Rump as one of the commissioners to take over the management of the admiralty, although, as his name was last in the list, his inclusion might have been an afterthought.32A. and O. That commission was, in any case, soon superseded by the restoration of the monarchy. Cooper had by then been returned once more as MP for Poole in the elections for the Convention. According to Edmund Ludlowe II*, who thought him ‘an honest gentleman (though brother to Sir Anthony)’, Cooper’s principal contribution in the Convention was to support the re-admission of those peers who had sat until 1649, as he saw them as the only group who might block moves to repossess the former crown lands.33Ludlow, Voyce, 117. That hope was unrealistic, although, after Clarendon Park had been reclaimed by the crown and then granted to the 1st duke of Albemarle (George Monck*), Cooper was allowed to continue to occupy his house there as a tenant. Cooper very briefly sat as MP for Poole again in 1673 before his return was declared void. He died in 1689.