Author: Cooper, Maria Susanna
Biography:
COOPER, Maria Susanna, formerly Bransby (1737-1807: ODNB)
She was the eldest daughter of James Bransby (1714-82), an attorney, and his wife Anna Maria Paston (1713-73), who had married in the parish of Reddenham with Harleston on 27 Oct. 1736. Maria Susanna was born on 20 Aug. 1737 and baptised at All Saints, Shotesham, Norfolk, on 11 June 1739. (James and Anna Maria had at least three other children but by 1782 only Maria and her younger sister, Margaretta, were still alive.) She married the Rev. Samuel Cooper (b c. 1739) in Shotesham on 21 Dec. 1761. CCEd records that Samuel served as curate at Brockdish, Norfolk, before being appointed rector of Morley St. Botolph (south of Norwich) in 1765. The family lived with James Bransby before moving to Brooke Hall, near Norwich. She may have written some children’s books that were published by Newbery but these have not been traced. Beginning with Letters between Emilia and Harriet (1762), she wrote a series of didactic tales which were well-received; The Exemplary Mother (1769) in particular made her name. Jane Shore to her Friend (1776) is the only one of her books in verse; it is dedicated to Soame Jenyns (q.v.) with thanks for his comments on the manuscript of another of her works. Her first child, Robert Bransby Cooper, was born in Feb. 1762; he was followed by nine more children but by the time of her death all five of her daughters and one of her sons had died, likely from tuberculosis. In 1781 Samuel Cooper was appointed curate at Great Yarmouth and the family moved there. In 1800 Samuel died from tuberculosis and in 1806 Maria moved to live with Robert Bransby Cooper and his family in Dursley, Gloucestershire. She died there on 3 July 1807. Parish records show that she was buried in Dursley on 10 July but findagrave.com states that she was buried in St. Nicholas’s churchyard, Great Yarmouth, with her husband. One of her sons, Astley Paston Cooper (1768-1841) was an eminent surgeon who was made a baronet in 1821 by George IV for his medical services. Robert Bransby Cooper wrote a memoir of his mother which was published with her Moral Tales in 1811. (ODNB 22 Feb. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 22 Feb. 2024; ACAD; CCEd 22 Feb. 2024)