William Cooper b. 2 Dec 1754 Byberry, Bucks, Pennsylvania d. 22 Dec 1809 Albany, Albany, New York: The McKenzies of Early Maryland

1754 - 1809 (55 years)

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Name	William Cooper [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
Birth	2 Dec 1754	Byberry, Bucks, Pennsylvania [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7]
Gender	Male
Residence	1789	Otsego, New York [5]
Politics	17 Feb 1791	Otsego, New York [5]
Politics	4 Mar 1795	New York, New York [5]
Politics	4 Mar 1799	New York, New York [5]
Burial	Dec 1809	Cooperstown, Otsego, New York [3]
Death	22 Dec 1809	Albany, Albany, New York [1, 3, 5, 7]
Notes	Was elected as a Federalist to the 6th Congress (4 Mar 1799-3 Mar 1891) from the state of New York. William Cooper and Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper Genealogy Compiled by W.W. Cooper (Washington, D.C., 1879) Appended to papers presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of the New York State Historical Association, held October 3-5, 1916, in Cooperstown Published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. XVI, pp. 193-211, 1917. William Cooper, b. December 2, 1754, in Byberry township, then in Philadelphia county. His father's dwelling was near the site now occupied by Somerton post office. In 1775 married Elizabeth Fenimore at Burlington, N. J., In 1785, William had examined lands on which settlement had failed in Otsego county, N. Y., and disposed of large areas in May 1786; lived at the south end of Otsego lake until 1790, and then removed his family from Burlington, N. J., to the growing settlement now known as Cooperstown. William was appointed (February 17, 1791) judge of the first court of common pleas for Otsego county; and was Representative from New York in the Congress of the United States for the sessions December 7, 1795-March 3, 1797, and December 2, 1799-March 3, 1801; died at Albany, December 22, 1809, and was buried at Cooperstown, N. Y., as was also his wife Elizabeth, who died there September 15, 1817. Children of William and Elizabeth (Fenimore) Cooper 1 Richard Fenimore, b. 1776, died 1813 x Ann Low Carey, 1801 2 Hannah, b.1778, d. 1800 3 Ann, d. infant 4 Abraham, d. infant 5 Isaac, b. 1781, d. 1818 x Mary Ann Morris, b. 1784, d. 1873 6 Abraham, d.infant 7 Ann, b.1784, d.1870 x George Pomeroy 8 William x Eliza Clason 9 Elizabeth, died young 10 Samuel x Eliza Bartlett 11 James Fenimore Cooper, b. September 15, 1789, at Burlington, N.J.; removed in childhood to Cooperstown, Otsego county, N.Y.; entered Yale College, 1802; Midshipman U.S.N. 1806; married (in 1811) Susan Augusta Delancey. After his first work in 1819, famed as an American writer. author of the "American Democrat," "Naval History of the United States," and many popular works in imaginative literature. Died at Cooperstown, September 14, 1851. His wife died January 20, 1852. 12 Henry Fry, d. infant Judge William Cooper (December 2, 1754 - December 22, 1809) was the founder of Cooperstown, New York and father of writer James Fenimore Cooper, who apparently used his father as the pattern for the Judge Marmaduke Temple character in his book The Pioneers. William Cooper was born in a log house in Smithfield (now Somerton) just outside Philadelphia, the son of British Quaker parents, James and Hannah (Hibbs) Cooper. He appears to have worked as a wheelwright in and around Byberry. There is no record of his attending school. On December 12, 1774, in Burlington, New Jersey, he was married by civil magistrate to Elizabeth Fenimore, daughter of Richard Fenimore, a Quaker of Rancocas, New Jersey. When Mr. Fenimore asked how his daughter was to be supported at William's young age, William answered that he was poor and "she must shift for herself." During the early 1780s Cooper became a storekeeper in Burlington, New Jersey, and by the end of the decade he was a successful land speculator and wealthy frontier developer in what is now Otsego County, New York. He founded Cooperstown, at the foot of Otsego Lake, in 1786 and moved his family there in 1790. After 1791, when Otsego County was split off from Montgomery County, Cooper became county judge and later served two terms in Congress, elected as a Federalist to the Fourth Congress (March 4, 1795-March 3, 1797), again elected to the Sixth Congress (March 4, 1799-March 3, 1801). Cooper family tradition has it that Judge Cooper was killed by a blow to the head sustained during an argument with a political opponent after a public meeting in Albany, New York on December 22, 1809, but it is now believed that he died of natural causes. Cooper's great-great-grandson was the writer, Paul Fenimore Cooper, whose most notable novel was the children's adventure, Tal: His Marvelous Adventures With Noom Zor Noom. This judge's interment was located at Christ Episcopal Churchyard in Cooperstown where his son was buried many years later. U.S. Congress William Cooper won of James Cooper and Hannah Hibbs, born 2 Dec 1754 Byberry, PA died 22 Dec 1849, Oswego, New York served as Representative to the U.S. Congress, Sessions, 7 Dec 1795 - Mar 1797 and 2 Dec 1799 - Mar 3 1801.
Person ID	I18989	McKenzie Genealogy
Last Modified	5 Apr 2013

Father	James Cooper, b. Jan 1729, Byberry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania d. 1795, Chester, Pennsylvania (Age ~ 65 years)
Relationship	natural
Mother	Hannah Hibbs, b. 6 Jun 1730, Buckingham, Bucks, Pennsylvania d. 22 Apr 1777, Byberry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Age 46 years)
Relationship	natural
Marriage	18 Sep 1750	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [1, 2]
Family ID	F08831	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Elizabeth Fenimore, b. 11 Jun 1752 d. 15 Sep 1817, Otsego, New York (Age 65 years)

Marriage 22 Nov 1774 Burlington, New Jersey [1, 2]

Children

	1. Richard Fenimore Cooper, b. 12 Aug 1775, Byberry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania d. 8 Mar 1813, Albany, Albany, New York (Age 37 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	2. Hannah Cooper, b. 9 Aug 1777, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey d. 10 Sep 1800, Morris, Otsego, New York (Age 23 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	3. Ann Cooper, b. 7 Mar 1779, Byberry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania d. 1779, Byberry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	4. Isaac Cooper, b. 6 May 1781, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey d. 1 Jan 1818, New York (Age 36 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	5. Abraham Cooper, b. 6 May 1781, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey d. 1781, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	6. Ann Cooper, b. 1784, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey d. 7 Apr 1870 (Age 86 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	7. William Cooper, b. 1785, New York d. 19 Oct 1819 (Age 34 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	8. Abraham Cooper, b. 1786, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey d. 1786, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey (Age 0 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	9. Elizabeth Cooper, b. 4 Jan 1786, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey d. 1786, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	10. Samuel Cooper, b. 22 May 1787, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey d. 15 Feb 1819 (Age 31 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	11. James Fenimore Cooper, b. 15 Sep 1789, Burlington, New Jersey d. 14 Sep 1851, Cooperstown, Otsego, New York (Age 61 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	12. Henry Fry Cooper, b. 1791, Burlington, Burlington, New Jersey d. 1792, Cooperstown, Otsego, New York (Age 1 year) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]

Family ID F08841 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 20 May 2011

Sources

[S010963] Simons/Cowell Family Tree, www.ancestry.com.
QUAY 3
[S004882] Cooper Genealogy.
[S006057] FindAGrave.com.
[S006229] Genealogical and Family History of Central New York, Vol. III, (Go to Section: Central New York Family Histories.).
[S004035] Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005, (Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 2005).
[S003612] American Genealogical-Biographical Indexes(AGBI), (Godfrey Memorial Library, comp.. American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999. Original data: Godfrey Memorial Library. American Genealogical-Biographical Index. Middletown, CT).
[S004047] Biography & Genealogy Master Index (BGMI).
[S007428] Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, at the second session of the Sixth Congress; in the twenty-fifth year of the independenc, (House of Representatives, Washington, DC, 17 Nov 1800.).
[S008171] Masts for the Navy. Communicated to the House of Representatives, Dec 30, 1801., (1801-12-30; American State Papers 036, Claims Vol., 1; Publication No. 121.).