Thomas Cooper
1805-1892
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Thomas Cooper's Timeline
Thomas Cooper's Timeline
Born on March 20, 1805 in Leicester, England [1]
Worked as a shoemaker and schoolmaster, then became a Methodist preacher in 1829 [1]
Embraced Chartism, a working-class political movement, in the 1840s and became a leader and lecturer [1][2]
Imprisoned for two years in 1843 for inciting riots, during which he wrote his political epic poem "The Purgatory of Suicides" [1][2]
After his release, abandoned full-time radicalism and turned to lecturing on historical and educational subjects [1][2]
Adopted skeptical, atheistic views in the 1840s, which he held until 1855 [1][4]
In 1856, publicly announced his reconversion to Christianity and joined the Baptists, becoming a preacher among them [1][4]
Spent the next 30 years lecturing in defense of Christianity, attacking evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and Ernst Haeckel [1]
Authored several religious works, including "Evolution, The Stone Book, and The Mosaic Record of Creation" which argued for creationism [1]
Remained an "old-fashioned Radical" in his later years, receiving a government pension before his death in 1892 [1]
Citations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cooper_%28poet%29
[2] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Cooper-British-writer
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheist_authors
[4] https://olddeadguys.com/2021/08/11/the-sudden-re-conversion-of-thomas-cooper-atheist-lecturer/
[5] https://academic.oup.com/book/9297/chapter/156030065
Key People In Cooper's Life
Key People In Cooper's Life
Susannah Chaloner: Cooper's wife, whom he married in 1834 in Lincoln. She was a cousin of the mathematician George Boole. [1]
Joseph Priestley: Cooper was associated with Priestley and the radical reformist group in Manchester, England in the 1790s. [1]
Edmund Burke: Criticized Cooper's radical political views in the House of Commons in 1790 and 1792. [1]
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve: Cooper traveled to Paris in 1792 with an introduction to Pétion, a French Jacobin leader. [1]
Antoine Lavoisier: Cooper traveled to Paris in 1792 with an introduction to the famous French chemist Lavoisier. [1]
Citations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cooper_%28poet%29
[2] https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/Thomas_Cooper_%28poet%29
[3] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Cooper-British-writer
[4] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Cooper-English-bishop-and-author
Thomas Cooper's Conversion
Thomas Cooper's Conversion
Cooper himself wrote:
“I commenced the year 1856 at the Hall of Science, with the aid of a large map of Europe, and signified that I should occupy the Sunday evenings by lecturing on the various countries, their productions, people, habits and customs. I delivered the first lecture on the 6th of January, “Russia and the Russians;” but on the 13th, when I should have descanted [blathered on], according to the printed programme, on “Sweden and the Swedes,” I could not utter one word. The people told me afterwards that I looked as pale as a ghost, and they wondered what was the matter with me. I could hardly tell myself; but, at length, the heart got vent by words, and I told them I could not lecture on Sweden, but must relieve conscience—for I could suppress conviction no longer. I told them my great feeling of error was that while I had perpetually been insisting on the observance of a moral life, in all my public teachings for some years, I had neglected to teach the right foundation of morals—the existence of the Divine Moral Governor, and the fact that we should have to give up our account to Him, and receive His sentence, in a future state.
“I used many more words in telling the people this and they sat, at first, in breathless silence, listening to me with all their eyes and ears. A few reckless spirits, by degrees, began to whisper to each other, and then to laugh and sneer; and one got up and declared I was insane. A storm followed some defending me, and insisting that I should be heard; and others insisting on speaking themselves, and denouncing me as a “ renegade,” a “turncoat,” an “apostate,” a “traitor,” and I know not what. But as I happened to have fought and won more battles than any or all of these tiny combatants put together, I stood till I won perfect silence and order once more; and then I told them, as some of them deemed me insane, we would try that issue. I then gave them one month for preparation, and challenged them to meet me in that hall on the 10th and 17th of February—with all the sceptics they could muster in the metropolis—to discuss, first, the Argument for the Being of God; secondly, the Argument for a Future State.”
Source: Thomas Cooper. The Life of Thomas Cooper, Written by Himself. 1872, pp. 353–354. I discovered this passage quoted among many other intriguing anecdotes in G. Holden Pike’s Dr. Parker and His Friends, 1904, pp. 269–270.
Obtained from https://olddeadguys.com/2021/08/11/the-sudden-re-conversion-of-thomas-cooper-atheist-lecturer/
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