Thomas Cooper, an American scholar and politician, born in London, Oct. 22, 1759, died at Columbia, S. C, May 11, 1840. He was educated at Oxford, afterward studied medicine and law, and was admitted to the bar and travelled a circuit for a few years; but being sent by the democratic clubs of England to the affiliated clubs in France, he took part with the Girondists, and was called to account for his course by Mr. Burke in the house of commons. He wrote a violent pamphlet in reply, the publication of which in cheap form for popular circulation was forbidden by the government. While in France he had learned the secret of making chlorine from common salt, and now became a bleacher and calico printer in Manchester, but his business was unsuccessful. He then came to America, and ' established himself in Pennsylvania as a lawyer. He opposed the administration of John Adams, and for a violent attack on the president in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1799 was tried for a libel under the sedition act, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine of $400. The democratic party coming into power, he was appointed land commissioner for Pennsylvania in 1806. Being appointed to the office of judge, he became obnoxious to members of his own party, and was removed in 1811 on a charge of arbitrary conduct.

He then successively occupied the chair of chemistry in Dickinson college, in the university of Pennsylvania, and in Columbia college, S. C, of which last institution he became president in 1820, and in which he discharged also the duties of professor of chemistry and of political economy. On his retirement in 1834, the revision of the statutes of the state was confided to him, and completed just before his death, in 10 vols. 8vo. Dr. Cooper was eminent for the versatility of his talent and the extent of his knowledge. His principal works are: "Information concerning America" (London, 1794); "An English Version of the Institutes of Justinian," contrasting the Roman and American jurisprudence (Philadelphia, 1812; 3d ed., 1852); "Tracts on Medical Jurisprudence" (Philadelphia, 1819); and "Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy" (Charleston, 1826). He was also a vigorous pamphleteer and an admirable talker.

Thomas Cooper #1

Thomas Cooper, an English chartist, born in Leicester, March 20, 1805. A shoemaker by trade, he became a schoolmaster, afterward a newspaper reporter, and in 1841 a leader of the chartists in his native town. He was imprisoned from 1842 to 1844 for having lectured in the Potteries during the riots in August, 1842. While in Stafford jail he wrote "The Purgatory of Suicides" and "Wise Saws and Modern Instances" (1845). He afterward published "The Baron's Yule Feast" (1846), "Triumphs of Perseverance" and" Triumphs of Enterprise" (1847), "Alderman Ralph" (1853), and "The Family Feud" (1854). He also edited the "Plain Speaker" and "Cooper's Journal," both penny weeklies. In 1855 he renounced the skeptical views which he had expounded in the latter publication, and has since lectured and preached in favor of Christianity.