Author: Cooper, Cecilia
Biography:
COOPER, Cecilia (1798-1863: ancestry.co.uk)
She was the second of four daughters born to James Cooper (1763-1846), a dyer, and his wife Elizabeth Pearl (1768-1838). Although James was baptised a non-conformist, he married Elizabeth in St. Martin’s church, Worcester, on 29 Sept. 1787. Cecilia was baptised in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, on 26 Nov. 1798. Nothing is known about her education but the 1861 Census identifies her, with her elder sister Mary Cooper, as a school mistress. She never married. Her book is dedicated by permission to John Edmund Dowdeswell and John Martin, MPs for the borough of Tewkesbury; the subscription list is almost entirely made up of people living in Tewkesbury and Kidderminster, Gloucestershire. The preface, dated 4 May 1820, excuses “a young and unlettered female” taking a great historical event for the subject of her poem on the grounds that her residence overlooks “the Intrenchments of Queen Margaret, and the grounds on which it took place.” The family lived in Barton Street, Tewkesbury, and Cooper died there on 21 Jan. 1863. She was buried at St. Mary’s, Tewkesbury, on 26 Jan. Death notices describe her as “much respected.” (ancestry.co.uk 30 Jan. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 30 Jan. 2024; Worcestershire Chronicle 4 Feb. 1863) SR