Thomas Cooper | Laboring-Class Poets Online

"In 1828 opened his own school in Gainsborough where at one time he had over a hundred pupils. However, his decision to provide lessons in Latin and Greek rather than concentrating on the basic subjects was unpopular with the parents and the school was eventually forced to close. Cooper then moved to Lincoln where he started another school for children. For five years he was a Weslyian preacher. He also taught in the Mechanics Institute in Lincoln and wrote articles for the local newspaper, the Lincoln Mercury and in time became a full-time journalist." (Newitt; http://www.nednewitt.com/whoswho/C.html)

Imprisonment:

Imprisoned in Stafford gaol for two years following the pottery riots; wrote epic prison poem, The Purgatory of Suicides: A Prison Rhyme (1845)

Politics and Religion

Affiliations:

Chartist

Religion:

Baptist

Wesleyan Methodist

"For five years [between 1828 and 1840] he was a Weslyian preacher." "In 1856, he dramatically abandoned his religious scepticism and became a Baptist convert, thereafter spending most of his time as a travelling preacher. " (Newitt, http://www.nednewitt.com/whoswho/C.html).

Education

Education Types:

Self-taught (autodidact)

Formal Education:

No formal education

References and Sources

References and Sources:

Biblio Texts:

189-204

230-48

190-228

X, xiv

87-8

172, 175-6

516-7

108-12, 159, 189 (1974 edition)

173

I, 36-7

79

no. 177

128-9, 150-6

57-9, 127-32

133-7, 331-2

188-9

176-7

esp. 166-73

146-7, 194

Item 21

501-9

107

76-7, 80-83

8-22

2

240 (numerous manuscripts and letters)

Other Digital References:

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Personal Map

Relationships

Source	Relationship Type	Target	Description	View
Thomas Cooper	written about by	Charles Kingsley	Cooper’s "life, and to a lesser extend his works, were raided and reconstructed by [Charles] Kingsley for his social-problem novel Alton Locke: Tailor and Poet (1850)." (Sales 2002)	View