Cooper, THOMAS

Cooper, THOMAS, the Chartist poet, born at Leicester in 1805, was apprenticed to a shoemaker at Gainsborough, taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and French, and became a schoolmaster at twenty-three, and at the same time a local Methodist preacher. After reporting for some of the newspapers in the Midlands, he became leader of the Leicester Chartist in 1841, and was an active editor of tracts. He lectured in the Potteries during the riots in August 1842, was arrested on a charge of conspiracy and sedition, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Stafford gaol. Here he wrote The Purgatory of Suicides, a poem in the Spenserian stanza, and Wise Saws and Modern Instances, a series of tales, which were both published in 1845. Next year appeared his Baron's Yule Feast, a Christmas Rhyme, and a series of papers headed 'Condition of the People of England' in Douglas Jerrold's Newspaper. In 1848 he began to lecture on history and politics in London, and set up the Plain Speaker and Cooper's Journal, two short-lived penny weeklies. He published two novels, Alderman Ralph (1853), and The Family Feud (1854), and relinquishing sceptical opinions he had held since his imprisonment, became a Christian lecturer. In 1867 his friends purchased an annuity for him; in 1892 he got a Civil Service pension of £200, but died 15th July of the same year. Cooper published his Autobiography in 1872, and an edition of his Poetical Works in 1878.