Author: Cooper, Henry Fox
Biography:
COOPER, Henry Fox (1771-1838: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 26 Nov. 1771 and baptised on 22 Dec. at St. Marylebone, London, the third of at least six children of Henry Cooper and Phillis Fox, who had married in London in 1764. Nothing is known of his education. He contributed various poems to the Morning Post before the publication of Poems(1805) which reviewers correctly noted displayed his amorous propensities. (There may have been a 2nd edn. before the 3rd but there are no known extant copies of it.) He married first Elizabeth Nicholls, on 7 Mar. 1795 at St. Mary’s Lambeth. It is not known if there was issue. After her death he married Elizabeth Ann Bailey on 10 Dec. 1803 at St. John the Evangelist, Smith Square, Westminster. They had at least five children. She died about 1822 and he had three of the children baptised at St. Margaret’s, Barking, Essex, on 27 Apr. 1825. He then married Harriet Braine on 14 May 1826 at St. Giles, Camberwell. It is not known if there was issue. He was editor and part owner of the John Bull newspaper which had been set up at the end of 1820 to defend the Tories and George IV against the popular agitation in favour of Queen Caroline and the Whigs. A libel against Henry Grey Bennett MP in the issue of 6 May 1821 resulted in the owners, editor, and compositors being sent to Newgate and then summoned to the House of Commons to be examined. He resigned his editorship in Dec. 1825 and wrested control of the paper the following year and renamed it Cooper’s John Bull. This inevitably led to a bitter dispute over his tactics but his newspaper prevailed over its competitor. He died 21 Aug. 1838, aged 66, and was buried at Christ Church, Southwark. (ancestry.co.uk 23 Jan. 2022; Morning Post 24 Jan., 8 May 1805; Morning Chronicle 26 Dec. 1825; London Courier 23 Aug. 1838) AA