John COOPER (1592 – 1684) may have been Alex’s 10th Great Grandfather; one of 2,048 in this generation of the Miller line.

Cooper Coat of Arms

John Cooper was born 1592 in England.   He immigrated with his sister Lydia Cooper about the year 1632. He immigrated in 1634 and became a freeman on 1 Jan 1634/35 in Scituate, Plymouth Colony.  He married Priscilla CARPENTER on 27 Nov 1634 in Scituate, Mass.  About 1645, Lydia married Priscilla’s nephew Nathaniel Morton, son of Priscilla’s sister Juliana Carpenter MORTON Kempton.   Lydia & John Cooper also have a sister, Ann Cooper who died 1 Sept 1691 in Massachusetts.  The parents of Lydia, John & Ann Cooper are not known. However, their grandfather may be Thomas COOPER of Fluton with Silsoe, Bedfordshire, England. This line needs further research.  He left a will on 28 Dec 1676. His will was proved on 25 Feb 1683/84.   John died 25 Feb 1684 in Barnstable.

Priscilla Carpenter was born 3 Sep 1598 in Wrington, Somerset, England.  Her parents were Alexander CARPENTER and  Priscilla (Drucilla) DILLEN She was the sister of Juliana Carpenter. She first married William Wright who went to New England on the Fortune in 1621. Stratton, in “Plymouth Colony” believes that Priscilla did not come before 1627.  Priscilla died 28 Dec 1689 in Duxbury, Plymouth Mass.

William Wright was born in England probably around 1596 (based on his wife’s age). Nothing is known of his life in England. William Wright came over as a single man. By his marriage he was connected to William and Alice (Carpenter) (Southworth) Bradford and Samuel Fuller, whose second wife was Agnes Carpenter. He was a freeman of Plymouth in 1633, but died shortly thereafter. His inventory contained a number of woodworking tools. He married Priscilla Carpenter between 1629 and 1633 in Plymouth. They had no children

Many sites claim Ann was the Child of John and Priscilla:  However, Their marriage took place in 1634, 10 years before Ann Cooper married Ephraim Morton, which would make Ann an exceedingly young bride. Also John’s will written in 1676 mentions his sister Lydia and Priscilla’s sister Alice Bradford (Julianna) but does not mention any children, although Ann was alive at the point

John Cooper, planter, was in Scituate 1634.

John  was chosen a constable of Barnstable in 1639/40 and became a deputy there in 1642 and 1643.

In 1638, ‘tongue island,’ so called, was granted to John by the committee for laying out lands. This is one of the marsh Islands near Little’s bridge, and has been known by the name of Cooper’s Island. In 1639, he sold the island to William Wills, and the island bears the name of Wills’s island to this [1831] day. … He removed to Barnstable, 1639.  His will was made 1676.

John Cooper was not on the 1633 or 1634 Tax lists, but he was married at Plymouth on 27 Nov 1634 to Priscilla (Carpenter) Wright, widow of William Wright, and he became a freeman 1 Jan 1634-35.

In January 1634-35 a servant of Nicholas Snow said that he was willing to serve out the time of his indenture with John Cooper.

Cooper later moved to Scituate, and sometime between September 1634 & 1637 Goodman Cooper acquired John Hewes house in Scituate.

1 Jan 1637/38 –  John Cooper was one a group of men at Scituate who complianed about not having enough land to subsist on, and the Court of Assistants granted them additional land between the North and South Rivers.

He was chosen a constable of Barnstable in 1639/40 and became a deputy there in 1642 and 1643.

He dated his will 28 Dec 1676, sworn 25 Feb 1683/84, and he named his loving wife Priscilla, the children of his sister Alice Bradford, and the surviving children of his sister Lydia Morton. Alice (Carpenter) Bradford was the sister of his wife Priscilla (Carpenter) Cooper, and Lydia Morton was the Lydia Cooper who married Nathaniel Morton on 25 Dec. 1635; There is no known relationship of the Cooper family of Henlow, Bradfordshire, allied with the Sampson and Tilley families.

John Cooper was one of the first settlers in Barnstable, where he was active in town affairs and became a Deacon in the church; John Cooper and his sister, Lydia, came to Plymouth colony about the year 1632. In 1634, John married Priscilla, widow of William Wright and daughter of Alexander Carpenter.

John’s sister Lydia Cooper married Nathaniel Morton, son of our ancestor   George MORTON -Pilgrim Father and Juliana Carpenter, on 25 Dec 1635 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony.

This John Cooper should not be confused with the John Cooper who was fined ten shillings on 5 July 1666 for profane and abusive carriage toward another, and who was a servant to Robert Bartlett on 4 July 1663, Bartlett complaining that Cooper refused to serve him because he had lost the indenture papers.

Sources:

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/o/w/Linda-A-Cowdrick/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0431.html

http://www.rgcle.com/SS/p118.htm#i2360

http://www.gulbangi.com/5families-o/p227.htm#i5670

http://www.capecodhistory.us/genealogy/wellfleet/Names85.htm#COOPER