John Cooper (New Jersey politician)

John Cooper (January 16, 1730 – April 1, 1785) was a political leader of the American Revolution in New Jersey. He was likely the main author of the New Jersey Constitution of 1776,^[1] and served as one of the first judges of Gloucester County.^[2] An outspoken abolitionist, Cooper called for New Jersey to end slavery immediately,^[3] and argued against a more gradual approach to emancipation.^[1][4] A Quaker who was disowned by the Society of Friends for his political actions during the revolution,^[1] he was likely buried in the Quaker cemetery in Woodbury, New Jersey, in an unmarked grave.^[2] He was the estranged younger brother of Quaker abolitionist David Cooper.^[1]

Cooper was born near Woodbury in Gloucester County, New Jersey, the youngest of eight children born to John Cooper Sr. and Ann Cooper (née Clarke).^[1] His paternal grandfather, William Cooper, was a minister in Hertfordshire, England, who knew George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, and emigrated to southwestern New Jersey in the 1600s.^[1] His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Clarke, was an early Quaker abolitionist who emigrated around the same time.^[1]

He was named after an older sibling named John Jr. who died one year before his birth.^[1] His brother David was five years old when John was born in 1729.^[1] On September 22, 1730, their father John Cooper Sr. died when John Jr. was only ten months old.^[1] Raised by their mother who was a devout Quaker, the Cooper brothers received their education at the Friends meeting house in Haddonfield.^[1]

John Cooper lived with his older brother David starting in 1751, but left for Philadelphia in 1756 to "enter into trade"; unlike David, who had inherited real estate property, John received a monetary inheritance only.^[1] He lived in the Dock Ward of Philadelphia, and was influenced by Philadelphian leaders such as Timothy Matlack, a former Quaker who was David's brother-in-law and was disowned by the Society of Friends for his support for American independence.^[1] Quaker doctrine at the time stipulated that Friends should adhere to pacifism by distancing themselves from revolutionary activity.^[1]

In 1774, Cooper left Philadelphia and returned to Woodbury, where he bought a plot of land, and lived with David while his new home was built.^[1][a] He continued to conduct business in Philadelphia and owned some property there.^[1]

John Cooper's house at 16 North Broad Street, Woodbury, was a "substantial" red-brick building^[1] with large fireplaces, walls with fine wood paneling, and a "well-filled wine cellar".^[6] He developed a reputation as an excellent host, regularly welcoming officers from the Continental Army and other notable figures to his home.^[7]

In May 1775, he was selected as a member of the Gloucester County Committee of Correspondence,^[1] and was treasurer of the Western Division of New Jersey.^[1] Cooper served in the Provincial Congress of New Jersey in 1775 and 1776,^[1] and voted to "oust, arrest, and deport" Royal Governor William Franklin,^[2] who denounced the Congress.^[2]

In February 1776, Cooper was selected as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, along with William Livingston, John De Hart, Richard Smith, and Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant,^[8] but as of mid-June 1776, they had not been authorized by the colonial government to vote for independence.^[9] De Hart, Smith, and Dickinson Sergeant resigned their positions, while Cooper appears not to have attended meetings,^[9] as his name does not appear in the published minutes.^[1] On June 21, 1776, the Provincial Congress formed a new state government, which selected new delegates from New Jersey, who were approved to sign the Declaration of Independence.^[9]

Cooper served on the committee that drafted New Jersey's first constitution, and was likely its principal author.^[1] For many years, historians believed that Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant was the main author of the New Jersey constitution, as claimed in a 1929 book by Charles R. Erdman Jr.^[1] However, Irwin N. Gertzog's discovery of "The First Draught of the Constitution of New Jersey", a manuscript in John Cooper's handwriting, has given credence to the view that Cooper was the lead author, at least initially.^[1][10] The puzzle of who the "true" author was may never be confirmed with complete certainty.^[10]

On July 2, 1776, following the ratification of the first New Jersey Constitution, Cooper was elected to the New Jersey Legislative Council as the representative from Gloucester County,^[11] a position he held until 1782.^[2]

Because of his political involvement with the American Revolution, the Society of Friends finally disowned John Cooper in 1776, and he became estranged from his family.^[1] According to historian Bill L. Smith, Cooper was "explicitly disowned for not embodying Quaker standards of masculinity such as piety, pacifism, humility, and discipline."^[1] John and his brother David never spoke again for the rest of their lives.^[1]

On November 16, 1777, British General Lord Cornwallis crossed the Delaware River from Chester, Pennsylvania,^[12] and captured Fort Billingsport.^[13] After marching into Woodsbury, Cornwallis commandeered John Cooper's house, because it was "the finest and best equipped home in the section",^[2] and used it as his temporary headquarters for three days,^[14][15] from November 21 to 24, 1777.^[16] Cooper locked his closets before fleeing to the home of his sister Ann Whitall, who lived in a farmhouse at Red Bank, on the Delaware River.^[7][2] The third floor of the house was used as a makeshift hospital for the British occupiers,^[6] who left bayonet marks on the doors and wood panels, possibly looking for silver and other valuables.^[7] While Cornwallis and his officers stayed at the Cooper House, the British troops camped on the grounds of the Woodbury Friends' Meetinghouse.^[13]

On September 20, 1780, Cooper published an article in the New Jersey Gazette denouncing slavery and taking the unpopular view that emancipation should happen immediately, rather than gradually.^[1][3] Going against the convention of writing under a pseudonym, he signed his article "JOHN COOPER" in all capital letters,^[1] and made what legal historian William Wiecek has called "a secular plea for immediatism, based on Revolutionary ideology".^[17] Cooper wrote:

We say, “all men are equally entitled to liberty, the pursuit of happiness;” but are we willing to grant this liberty to all men? If after we have made such a declaration to the world, we continue to hold our fellow creatures in slavery, our words must rise up in judgement against us; and by the breath of our own mouths we must stand condemned.^[3]

That year, he proposed legislation in the State Council to abolish slavery, but was unsuccessful in convincing New Jersey legislators,^[2] and bills for gradual emancipation failed in 1783, 1785, and after his death.^[3] New Jersey was the last northern state to abolish slavery.^[18]

In 1779, Cooper was elected President Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Gloucester County.^[7] Re-elected in 1784, he served until his death on April 1, 1785, at the age of 55.^[2]

Judge Cooper died a bachelor and left his estate to his friend Dr. Thomas Hendry, a Continental Army surgeon.^[7][2] He is understood to be buried in an unmarked grave at the Woodbury Friends Burial Ground.^[2][19] Cooper Street in Woodbury is named after John Cooper.^[7]

From 1932 to 1964, the house he built at 16 North Broad Street, Woodbury, had a plaque that read, "Headquarters of Lord Cornwallis, November, 1777".^[7][16] A new historical marker installed in 1964 called it the Cooper House, with the inscription, "Built by John Cooper, one of the drafters of the first state constitution, and war-time legislator. Cornwallis' Quarters, 1777."^[16] Although the house no longer stands, the wood paneling from the second-floor bedroom wall was saved and used inside the north wall of the Gloucester County Historical Society Library.^[7][20]

• John Cooper Advocates the Abolition of Slavery (Full text from New Jersey Gazette, September 20, 1780)