Family and Education

s. of John Cooper of Canterbury.

Offices Held

Jurat, Canterbury Mich. 1398-1400; bailiff 1401-2.1

Commr. of array, Canterbury Aug. 1402.

Biography

Born the son of a Canterbury ‘woodyer’ (woodman), Cooper, himself a grocer by trade, was admitted to the freedom of the city by patrimony on 16 Sept. 1398. Promptly elected as one of the 12 jurats, he served in that position for two years, in the course of which, in 1399, he travelled to the capital with John Sheldwich I* to petition Henry IV’s council regarding royal confirmation of Canterbury’s charters. He had not completed his term as bailiff when he was elected to Parliament in 1402, although as the date of its meeting was subsequently postponed to 30 Sept. he was no longer holding office when Parliament actually assembled. In 1405 he was suing one William Cooper, perhaps a kinsman, for uttering threats against him, but is not recorded alive thereafter.2

Nearly 60 years later the octogenarian William Benet* made provision in his will for prayers to be said in the chapel of St. John in St. Mildred’s church, Canterbury, for Cooper’s soul.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: L. S. Woodger

Notes

• 1. List Canterbury Officials, comp. Urry and Bunce, 49; Canterbury Cathedral City and Diocesan RO, city accts. FA1, ff. 37, 42.
• 2. FA1, ff. 33, 44d; CCR, 1402-5, p. 525.
• 3. Canterbury archdeaconry ct. wills, 1, ff. 114-16.