Lancelot Cooper

LANCELOT COOPER new article content ... Lancelot Cooper was a prolific English fraudster and conman of the early 19th Century. According to a transcript of Australian Convict Records he was born c1775 in Hackness North Yorkshire.

Naval Record

In Cooper's petition to the Home Secretary written in 1827 he wrote that entered the Royal Navy in 1799 as a "writer in the Admin. Office" on the ship Zealand, a depot ship moored on the Thames, through the interest of Sir George Cayley Bt. of Brompton North Yorkshire which if true suggests that his family had some standing in the area. In 1801 Cooper joined the Medusa, a 38 gun frigate, as secretary (or clerk) to Captain John Gore During the following five years Medusa ventured on a number of voyages and saw action taking a number of Spanish prizes. In February 1806 Cooper was transferred with his Captain ( Knighted and rich from prize money) to Revenge, a Ship of the Line. For the next two and a half years Cooper spent much of his time on Revenge which was blockading enemy ports and when Gore temporarily retired in August 1808 due to ill health Cooper was given two good conduct certificates by Gore (found in his possession when arrested) . This led to a promotion as purser first in the sloop Pelorus and later in the Frigate Orpheus. In early 1811 when Cooper returned home he was appointed as purser to the receiving ship Princess moored in the Mersey.

Crime and Deception

Cracks soon began to appear in Cooper's 'good conduct'. In July 1813 John Wilson Croker, Secretary to the Admiralty, instigated an enquiry which reported that " from the victualling book of Lancelot Cooper..70 men appeared discharged..to the Intelligent Gun Brig in July 1812 although their victualling is claimed by Mr Cooper" As a result Cooper was dismissed from the Royal Navy for misconduct. In his petition Cooper makes no mention of his disgrace stating " he remained in her (the Princess) until the fall of 1813" . He then asserts that he embarked on a Royal Navy ship from Plymouth carrying dispatches to Admiral Sir John Gore who was blockading Venice still under French rule and when he reached Gore, as Napoleon had just abdicated, he was asked by him to go ashore and liaise with the Austrian authorities as His Britannic Majesty's Consul.This version was later contradicted by Gore in a letter to William Powell in 1825 in which Gore stated that Cooper had arrived on this ship, asked to be reinstated as Secretary which was refused, and put ashore without further delay. Notwithstanding this true version of events Cooper amazingly did indeed manage to convince the Austrians that he was the newly appointed Consul and evidence for this is provided by a letter written by John Fitzgibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare (1792-1851) written to an unknown recipient from Whitehall April 25th (1827):

" My Dear Lord, Will you meet me for a few minutes today or tomorrow. I wish to speak to you on the subject of an unfortunate man who has written to me from Newgate with whose case I am not acquainted. His Name is Cooper and I knew him when he was Consul at Venice.. Yours faithfully Clare"

The concluding pages of Cooper's petition describe in some detail his dealings with British and Foreign representatives as Consul in Venice and later as Consul in Ragusa, Sicily but there appears to be no independent evidence as to the veracity of theses claims. He finishes by stating that in the summer of 1817 he and "his family" were forced to flee from Ragusa due to the plague.

In November 1825 a notice appeared in the Times newspaper inserted by a John Powell asking for help to locate a Captain Thomas Cole RN who had been living at a hotel in Dublin for six months having married a daughter of "a respectable family". It relates that after promising his wife and sister in law that they were going to his home in Yorkshire,he had crossed the Irish Sea and travelled by "post with four horses" to Birkenhead where he had left them and was never seen again. Captain Thomas Cole was in fact an alias of Lancelot Cooper as a 1827 article in the Times which dealt with Cooper's misdemeanors revealed . It is not absolutely clear where Cooper had spent the intervening years but it might have well have been in the US as an American Passport in the name of Allison was found on him when he was arrested . It is certain though that when Cooper returned to Great Britain he embarked on a life which involved forging checks under a number of aliases by ingratiating himself with families and businesses. One unfortunate family were the Powells for in a letter to the Home Secretary written in May 1827 begging that Cooper should not be granted mercy William Powell ( a relative of John ) describes how 'Cole' ingratiated himself with Powell and eventually married his daughter Grace in May 1825. He then lived with her in style using money by forging checks on a Bank in London. Realising he was about to be exposed he then fled with the two women only to abandon them with Grace already pregnant. Following this episode Cooper fled to London where for a year and a half he lived at various addresses and passed a number of false cheques for cash or jewellery. Aliases during this time included Allison, Jackson, Croften, Cook, Cope and Cottage. He may well have been trying to gain the affection of at least one other lady as a ticket for a private box was found in his trunk when arrested. Eventually the law caught up with him in March 1827 and he was detained in Newgate Prison.

Trial and Transportation

Cooper was tried at the Old Bailey on 5th April 1827 before Lord Chief Justice Abbott on one count of fraud perpetrated on the 26th March of that year ( although other alleged offences were described) and being found guilty he was sentenced to death. Incarcerated in Newgate Prison Cooper, as custom allowed, wrote a petition accompanied by references from people in authority to the Home Secretary William Sturges Bourne pleading for mercy. It is to be noted that the petition was signed by the Earl of Clare as well as himself. Surprisingly, given his offences,at the Report in Council the 23rd May 1827 his sentence was reduced to Transportation for life. This result together with the offences which he was said to have committed was duly reported in the Times article of 1827. After a period of incarceration in the prison hulks on the Thames Cooper was transported aboard the Asia V to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the 17th August that year. Describing himself as a widower his conduct on the voyage was exemplary according to the Records. On Arrival at Van Diemen's Land in December 1827 he was required, as was the custom, to initially assist with the building of roads and other public works. Several years later he was given the opportunity to establish an independent life through a grant of land and with this conditional pardon he disappears at the end of 1833 into the mists of time.

Notes

The Petition submitted in a plea for mercy is the main source of information about the first half of Cooper's life. Collaboration for his account of the beginning of his naval career include the Good Conduct Certificates written by Sir John Gore and letters of recommendation accompanying the petition from captains on other ships in which he served . It is only from when he was purser on the Princess and its aftermath that it is wise to be a little distrustful about his accounts. He was Consul in Venice for a time but the six folio pages recounting his dealings as Consul of Venice and Ragusa should be treated with suspicion. Perhaps future researchers will be able to delve further into these claims. One clue about the truth is found in the Times of 1827. In it the reporter states that "amongst his papers was found a letter written in French and addressed to the Princess Charlotte of Wales in the handwriting of the late..Queen Caroline. It contains a...request that the Princess would use her interest to induce Lord Castlereagh to restore the bearer in the situation of consul of Venice" This letter suggests that Cooper was indeed forced to to relinquish the post of Consul but does not give any information as to how long he had this position .There are also many other mysteries remaining about his life particularly about his early years and the gap between approximately 1817 and 1825. Finally there is the question of his physical features and perceived character. His appearance was unremarkable as during his trial he was described as being " about 5 ft 9 in in height, stout made, bald at top & before & a strong north country dialect". However his manner must have convinced as William Powell wrote " that the world could not produce a more religious, charitable and humane man, nor one on whom I could with more safety bestow the hand of my child"

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