Thomas Abthorpe Cooper

Thomas Abthorpe Cooper was an English actor born in Harrow on the Hill, London, in 1776, the son of a physician employed by the East India Company. Following his father's death, he was adopted by Thomas Holcroft and William Godwin. He died on 21 April 1849 in Bristol, Pennsylvania.

Cooper began his stage career with Stephen Kemble's company in Edinburgh before moving to Covent Garden in London, where he achieved considerable success in the roles of Hamlet and Macbeth. His acting style belonged to the school of John Philip Kemble, whom Cooper was regarded as capable of rivaling in his earlier years. He possessed notable natural gifts of person and voice, though he was not considered a dedicated student of his craft.

In December 1796, Cooper crossed the Atlantic and made his American debut at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, performing as Macbeth. The following August he appeared at the Greenwich Street Theatre in New York, taking the role of Pierre in Venice Preserved. He returned to England in 1802, where he maintained a prominent standing on the stage for several years, before coming back to New York in 1804. Around that time he became lessee of the Park Theatre, a position he held for an extended period. He subsequently made additional visits to England but continued returning to the United States, where he performed into his later years.

His Broadway career spanned 1799 to 1807 and included appearances in Town and Country, in which he starred, as well as the comedy The Italian Father and the play King Henry V.

Cooper's family connections brought him into proximity with American political life. His daughter Priscilla married Robert Tyler, the eldest son of President John Tyler, a relationship that contributed to Cooper receiving several public appointments. These included the position of military storekeeper in Frankford, Pennsylvania, in 1841, and subsequently the office of surveyor to the ports of New York and Philadelphia.