Charles Purton Cooper QC , FRS (1793?1873) was an English lawyer and antiquary.

Life [ edit ]

He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford , where he was a contemporary of Richard Bethell , and in 1814 he attained double first-class honours , and graduated B.A. on 7 December 1814, and on 5 July 1817 M.A. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in Michaelmas term 1816. ^[1]

After practising as an equity draughtsman, he was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1837, and became queen's serjeant for the Duchy of Lancaster . In 1836 he became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn; he was treasurer in 1855, and master of the library in 1856. ^[1]

His enthusiasm for the cause of legal reform attracted the attention of Henry Brougham , by whom he was introduced to the Holland House circle and the heads of the Whig party. Lord Brougham appointed him secretary of the second Record Commission , in which capacity he bought and printed so many books, that the commission's debt exceeded the sum voted by parliament. Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland recommended him for the post of Solicitor General when Robert Monsey Rolfe was appointed, in 1835. ^[1]

Cooper enjoyed a leading practice in the court of Vice-chancellor James Lewis Knight-Bruce ; but they had a public quarrel, and Cooper lost his reputation. He tried without success to obtain government assistance for a project for digesting all the existing law reports. He retired to Boulogne , and died of paralysis and bronchitis on 26 March 1873. ^[1]

Political candidacies [ edit ]

Cooper played an active part in public affairs in Kent , where he resided at Denton Court, near Canterbury. He appeared as a parliamentary candidate for Lambeth in 1850, but withdrew from the contest; in 1854 he unsuccessfully contested Canterbury , and was proposed as a candidate for West Kent in 1855, but declined to stand. ^[1]

Honours and awards [ edit ]

His knowledge of jurisprudence and legal antiquities gained him a fellowship of the Royal Society , and the degree of LL.D. of the universities of Louvain and Kiel. He was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries , and corresponding member of the royal academies of Lisbon, Munich, Berlin, and Brussels. ^[1] He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1835. ^[2]

Works [ edit ]

Cooper was a voluminous writer. In his later years he published a printed list of 52 pamphlets, written, edited, or printed by him on political topics between 1850 and 1857. His major works were:

• An Account of the Parliamentary Proceedings relating to the Practice in Bankruptcy, Chancery, and the House of Lords , 1828.
• Notes, etc., in French on the Court of Chancery , 1828, 2nd edit. 1830.
• Notes on Registration and forms in Conveyancing , 1831.
• An Account of the Public Records of the United Kingdom , 2 vols. 1832.
• Speech for Rev. C. Wellbeloved in the case of Lady Hewley's Foundation, Attorney-general v. Shore , 1834.
• Notes on the Act for regulating Municipal Corporations , 1835.
• Reports of Cases decided by Lord Brougham in 1833 and 1834 from the original MSS. , 1835.
• Reports of Cases decided by Lords Cottenham and Langdale, and by Vice-chancellor Shadwell in 1837 and 1838 , with notes 1838?41.
• Reports of Lord Cottenham's decisions , 1846.
• A letter to the Lord Chancellor on defects in the law as to the custody of lunatics, 1849.
• A pamphlet on the reform of solicitors' costs, 1850.
• A letter to Sir George Grey on the sanitary state of St. George's parish, 1850.
• A pamphlet on the condition of the court of chancery, 1850.
• A pamphlet on the masters in chancery.
• A pamphlet on the House of Lords as a court of appeal.
• Chancery Miscellanies under his editorship, Nos. 1?13, 1850 and 1851.
• Parliamentary and political Miscellanies under his editorship, Nos. 1?20, 1851.
• A letter on the pope's Apostolic Letters of 1850, 1851.
• A pamphlet on the Government and the Irish Roman Catholic members, 1851.
• Reports of Cases and Dicta in Chancery from MSS., with notes , Nos. 1?7, 1852.
• Memorandum of a proposal to classify the Law Reports , Boulogne, 1860.
• A similar proposal for digesting the statute-book, Boulogne, 1860.
• On Freemasonry , Folkestone, 1868. ^[1]

Legacy [ edit ]

Cooper in 1843 presented Lincoln's Inn with two thousand volumes of civil and foreign legal works, having previously presented a hundred and fifty volumes of American law reports.

References [ edit ]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Hamilton, John Andrew (1887). " Cooper, Charles Purton ". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 140?141.