Author: Cooper, Myles
Biography:
Cooper, Myles (1737?-1785: WBIS)
His parents were William and Elizabeth Cooper of Wha House in Cumberland, England. (His birthdate is given variously as 1735, 1736, or 1737; he appears to have been baptised in Feb. 1737.) He attended Queen's College, Oxford, graduating BA (1756) and MA (1760), and returning to the College as Chaplain in 1761. On the recommendation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he went to King's College (later Columbia) in New York, where he served as a highly effective President from 1763 until 1775 when, as an outspoken loyalist, he was forced to flee. On his return to England he was granted a pension and resumed his fellowship at Queen's. He served as senior minister in the episcopal chapel in Edinburgh from late in 1777 until his death. He was a contributor to a volume of Poems on Several Occasions in 1761. Besides a small number of loyalist pamphlets, one volume of poetry published in New York, The Patriots of North America, is attributed to him. (ODNB 11 May 2018; DAB) HJ