Merchant. Emigrated to New South Wales with his parents when he was a child. In 1835 he returned to England to complete his education. Upon his return to Sydney in 1843 established extensive commercial interests and accumulated great wealth. In 1853 he also inherited a large fortune from his uncle, Daniel Cooper, the wealthy emancipist merchant. Owned much Sydney property and held extensive runs in the settled and unsettled districts. Cooper was elected the first Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in 1856, when he was only thirty-five years old. The task of presiding over the Assembly was a difficult responsibility because the infant Parliament had yet to establish its own set of procedural traditions. Cooper provided much needed direction in the early years of the Assembly both in terms of business brought before of the House and the development of Parliamentary conventions. In 1856 he clashed with Premier Donaldson who attempted to make clerical appointments to the Assembly Office without consulting the Speaker; he eventually persuaded Donaldson to give way. In the same year Cooper came to an understanding with Premier Cowper that the Speaker should have the right to choose clerical staff for the Assembly. However in 1860 Premier Forster made a number of appointments in both the Assembly and Council Offices without informing or even consulting the Presiding Officers. Although Cooper resigned from Office over this principle he obtained a resolution from the Legislative Assembly that Clerks and other officers of the House should be appointed by the Executive only upon the recommendation of the Speaker. He returned to England in 1861, continuing his association with New South Wales by acting as Agent-General on several occasions. Author of 'A Federal British Empire the best defence of the Mother Country and her Colonies', 1880. Estate valued at over £440, 000. The Irish poet Francis Macnamara (1886 - 1946) was a grandson, by his daughter Edith Cooper.