James Lundin Cooper
Cooper, a provincial lawyer from Fife, was a rising man in the 1820s,
engaging in business and travelling to Edinburgh for a smart wedding by the
Bishop. In the 1830s, however, he went bankrupt and his reputation was
destroyed by his misguided participation in ecclesiastical controversy, and he
followed his children to an early grave. His story is told in greater length in
this article
for church magazines.
- Lived
- 1791-1839
- Origin
- Kirkcaldy
- Father
- James Cooper, saddler in Kirkaldy (7)
- Political views
- His cause against Rev. Marshall was supported by a
radical, Mr Aytoun, who disliked Mr Marshall for political reasons, but there
is no evidence Cooper was a radical himself. (2 p.13)
- Religious views
- When the rest of the disgraced managers left to
join the Presbyterian Kirk instead, Cooper appears to have stayed on,
suggesting he had a stronger allegience to the Episcopal Church. (2 p.23)
- Profession
- Writer in Kirkcaldy who also engaged in business as a
Shipowner, Trader and Gas-Manufacturer. (3) In 1828 he was Manager of the
Kirkcaldy and London Shipping Company, with 3 smacks of 132 tons, the
Enterprise (Moir), Fifeshire (Morison) and Hope (Mann) (6)
- Wealth at death
- Cooper went bankrupt in 1839 and died a few years
afterwards before matters were settled with his creditors. (3 and 4)
- Story
- Cooper was one of the managers in the Episcopal Chapel in
Kirkcaldy. Around 1830, he persuaded a priest called Mr Marshall to replace
their elderly incumbent on very poor financial terms. However, Mr Marshall
discovered not a congregation doing its best in honest poverty, but one kept
impoverished by corrupt managers who ran the organisation in their own
interests. They also began to find more and more fault with Mr Marshall, and
eventually complained about him to the bishop. This proved a mistake, as Mr
Marshall had a good reputation in the Episcopal Church, while the managers
already had a reputation with a former bishop, who advised that 'he had more
trouble with Kirkaldy than with all the other chapels within his diocese put
together, and that he believed the Archbishop of Canterbury himself would not
be acceptable to the Managers thereof!' Cooper seems to have realised he
had gone too far and disassociated himself from the other managers; but he died
shortly afterwards. (2)
- Chapel connection
- 1816 (wedding)
- Married on
- 30 May 1816
- Spouse
- Sarah Brown
- Children
- Elizabeth Kinnear (d.1825), Michael (d.1825), Elizabeth
(1826-1834), Michael (1828-1842), Mary Stark (1833-1838) (5)
Sources
- Registers of Charlotte Chapel (NAS CH12/3)
- Observations on a recent publication entitled Speech delivered by the Rev John Marshall in the presence of Patrick Torry Bishop of Dunkeld on 15 August 1838, concerning the late dissentions in St Peter's Episcopal Chapel Kirkcaldy by a clergyman of the Episcopal Church of Scotland (London, 1839)
- London Gazette, 19 February 1836 p.353
- London Gazette 3 September 1841 p.2243
- A.J. Campbell, Kirkcaldy Burials 1767-1854 (Online accessed 18 May
2011)
- Edinburgh Almanack (Oliver and Boyd, 1828)
- Old Parish Registers, Scottish Family History Centre
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