was presented, at the society's meeting at Pulborough (August 1865), with a handsome silver salver. His contributions to the society's transactions on ‘Hastings’ and ‘The Oxenbridges of Brede Place, Sussex, and Boston, Massachusetts,’ and his articles in the eighth volume of its collections, were published separately. For the Camden Society he edited ‘Lists of Foreign Protestants in England, 1618–88,’ ‘Savile Correspondence, Letters to and from Henry Savile,’ ‘Expenses of the Judges of Assize on Western and Oxford Circuits, 1596–1601,’ and ‘The Trelawny Papers,’ the last of which appeared in the ‘Camden Miscellany,’ vol. ii. For the Shakespeare Society he edited Udall's comedy of ‘Ralph Roister Doister’ and the tragedy of ‘Gorboduc.’ To the ‘Reliquary’ he communicated an article on ‘Anthony Babington and the Conspiracy of 1586,’ printed separately in 1862. Many of his papers appeared in the transactions of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society, one was in the Surrey Archæological Society proceedings, and a paper on ‘John Cade's followers in Kent’ was contributed to the Kent Society, and published as an appendix to B. B. Orridge's ‘Illustrations of Jack Cade's Rebellion.’ Cooper was one of the earliest contributors to ‘Notes and Queries,’ and a frequent writer in the ‘Archæologia.’ He compiled a history of Winchelsea in 1850, and wrote for vols. viii. and xxiii. of the ‘Sussex Archæological Collection’ two further papers on the same subject. Lower was indebted to him for information published in the work on ‘Sussex Worthies,’ and three manuscript volumes of his notes on Sussex were sold in the second parts of Mr. L. L. Hartley's library on 3–14 May 1886.
[Two Sussex Archæologists, W. D. Cooper and M. A. Lower, by Henry Campkin, 1877; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. v. 40 (1876); Lower's Hist. of Sussex, i. 261, ii. 251.]
COOPER, WILLIAM RICKETTS (1843–1878), oriental student, began life as a designer of carpet patterns, an occupation which he exchanged for that of a London missionary, until the influence of Joseph Bonomi the younger [q. v.] directed his varied energies to the study of Egyptian antiquities, to which the rest of his short life was devoted. Without being precisely a scholar, he accomplished a great deal of valuable work. He was one of the principal originators in 1870 of the Society of Biblical Archæology, of which he was the active and zealous secretary from its foundation, until delicate health compelled him in 1876 to retire to Ventnor, where he died two years later. The following is a list of his useful and painstaking publications:
- ‘Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt,’ 1873.
- ‘The Resurrection of Assyria,’ 1875.
- Lectures on ‘Heroines of the Past,’ 1875.
- An address on ‘Egypt and the Pentateuch,’ 1875.
- ‘Archaic Dictionary,’ 1876.
- ‘The Horus Myth and Christianity,’ 1877.
- ‘Short History of the Egyptian Obelisk,’ 1877; 2nd edition, 1878.
- ‘Christian Evidence Lectures,’ delivered in 1872 and published 1880.
In addition to these works, the valuable series of translated Assyrian and Egyptian documents, entitled ‘Records of the Past,’ owes its origin to Cooper's energy and zeal. He translated Lenormant's ‘Chaldæan Magic,’ 1887.
[Athenæum, No. 2665; Academy, No. 342; Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 1878; personal knowledge.]
COOPER, WILLIAM WHITE (1816–1886), surgeon-oculist, was born at Holt in Wiltshire on 17 Nov. 1816. After studying at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, he became M.R.C.S. in December 1838, and F.R.C.S. in 1845. His notes of Professor Owen's lectures at the College of Surgeons were published after revision, under the title of ‘Lectures in the Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Invertebrate Animals,’ in 1843. Becoming associated with John Dalrymple, the ophthalmic surgeon [q. v.], Cooper followed in his footsteps and gained a large practice. He was one of the original staff of the North London Eye Institution, and subsequently ophthalmic surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington. He was a careful, steady, and neat operator, and judicious and painstaking in treatment. In 1859 he was appointed surgeon-oculist in ordinary to Queen Victoria, whose sincere regard he gained (Court Circular, 2 June 1886). It was announced on 29 May 1886 that he was to be knighted, but on the same day he was seized with acute pneumonia, of which he died on 1 June 1886. Cooper's personal character was most estimable, combining kindliness, sincerity, and simplicity with much energy. He wrote an ‘Invalid's Guide to Madeira,’ 1840; ‘Practical Remarks on Near Sight, Aged Sight, and Impaired Vision,’ 1847, second edition 1853; ‘Observations on Conical Cornea,’ 1850; ‘On Wounds and Injuries of the Eye,’ 1859. He also published in 1852 a volume of ‘Zoological Notes and Anecdotes’ under the pseudonym ‘Sestertius Holt,’ of which a second edition appeared in 1861 under the title ‘Traits and Anecdotes of Animals.’ It was illustrated with full-page plates by Wolf.
[Lancet, 19 June 1886, p. 1187.]
