Some years thus passed, when, from some cause or other, a dissolution took place in the partnership, and when, probably from the advice of friends stimulated by his wife’s ambition (a Miss Yarrington, a woman as I have been given to understand, of masculine mind, vast energy, and indomitable spirit, whom her son Henry has been often said by those who knew her, to have resembled in more than features, for in face he resembled his mother), he was induced to enter himself at Lincoln’s Inn, which he accordingly did in the year 1782, and is thus entered: “Charles Cooper, of the City of Norwich, eldest son of Charles Cooper of the same place, merchant, admitted 22nd of April, 1782.” Prior to this, a remarkable incident occurred in his life: he undertook the conduct of a cause of great intricacy and importance for a pauper, a labouring blacksmith. An extensive and valuable landed property, well-known as Oby Hall, with its extensive demesnes, had been for a long time in abeyance; the property was estimated at that period, at not less than £30,000; on failure of male issue, the descendants on the female side put in their claim, among whom the blacksmith stood foremost;
he came, consulted with my father on his claim, who became after a time, convinced of the solidity of his title; and after examining it with indefatigable assiduity, he at length, after much entreaty, undertook to carry his cause through every court, were it necessary, upon certain conditions; the conditions were, that if my father succeeded in gaining the cause, in consideration of taking upon himself all the risk, expenses, and labour, he should enjoy the estate; whilst the claimant, having no relations but the most distant, if any, was to receive an annuity for life of £300. After almost insurmountable difficulties, great expense, and consumption of time and labour, the long anticipated time arrived when the trial was to decide the question of such grave moment to the parties concerned: Lord Erskine came down to Norwich specially retained for the claimant (the origin, I believe of his after intimacy with Henry), the case came on for trial,—was fought on both sides with all the ability and ingenuity such a cause demanded (I forget the name of the opposing counsel), the claimant’s title was confirmed, and the estate gained. The claimant lived but a little more than a year or two after to receive his annuity, to him absolute wealth; and he died, I have heard, expressing to the last, his gratitude to (as he styled my father) his protector.
Unfortunately, coming into the possession of the estate, my father must turn farmer, and like him, I have before compared him to, and I have often thought since reading the works of Cobbett, that there was a similarity in their thoughts on many subjects; he soon began to farm at a fearful loss (for to be a gainful farmer, so farmers hold, or rather they did then, a man should properly be trained to it from his youth), he
was forced to trust to others to do what he should himself have done, and being still occupied in his professional pursuits at Norwich, his visits to the hall and the estate were but occasional, and the eye of the master was but too often absent; his family, however, resided there, consisting of his wife and his four children, Charles, Henry, Harriet, and Alfred, and there his affections were centred, so that it cannot be wondered at, that with a divided duty, and the course pursued, ere many years, but I am forestalling, the estate soon became involved, and eventually he was compelled to part with it at a loss, or rather with no gain, for at the time of its sale, which happened at a period during the long war, land fell all of a sudden greatly in value, and the seller was glad to experience the truth of the old saying—
“When house and land and all are spent,
Then learning is most excellent.”
This sale, however, did not occur till some years after the death of his first wife, and when he had married his second, a Miss Rose White, my mother, and by whom he had several children, seven only living to maturity, all of whom, I being the eldest, having survived him. His first family, with the exception of his daughter, who died a few years ago, having all died previous to the decease of their father. After having pursued his studies with his accustomed assiduity, in chambers he had taken in Stone Buildings, and eaten his terms, he was called to the bar on the 9th of June, in the year 1788. (For these several dates I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Doyle, the greatly respected steward of Lincoln’s
Inn.) When, having resided a few terms in London, he hastily left the metropolis—the true and only sphere for the full development of extensive legal knowledge and great abilities, such as his,—to reside and practise as a provincial barrister in his native city; where, from his previous reputation, not only as a lawyer well versed in common law, with great knowledge in the practical parts of it, but as a most skilful conveyancer, and great real property lawyer, with a deep knowledge of all its intricacies and moot points, he, at once, obtained considerable practice, and a fine income, which, I believe, by present provincial counsel would be regarded rather as a fiction than reality. He was, moreover, a fluent speaker, with diction pure, and most grammatical. I ought, here, perhaps, to mention what will seem strange to the present generation, that I have often heard my father say, that the first book he began to study law from was “Wood’s Institutes,” a book that “the Commentaries of Blackstone,” rendering the study of the law far more intelligible and easy to the student, has long completely superseded. In Norwich he continued to reside up to his death, where he was ever applied to by every attorney, without exception, far and near, if any very difficult point of law arose; and, till within some few years prior to his death, which happened on the 21st of July, 1836, when age as, is usual, though it kindly spared the vigour of his intellect, yet brought with it its physical weakness and ailments, he was employed as leading counsel in many important causes, where legal knowledge and acumen was required; and, in the courts, from the high reputation he had acquired, he ever commanded the ear of the judges, and the respect of his brethren at the bar.
He had the joy, too, to live to see his son Henry rising fast to eminence in the same profession, though the after pang and anguish to sorrow for his death; and he grieved for him in heart, though not his youngest, as did Jacob at the imagined loss of his favourite, and, in my opinion, never did he quite get over it; he not only loved, but was proud of him.
The latter years of him, whose life I have thus briefly sketched, were past at his small country residence, situated at Lakenham, where his second wife, who survived him, my mother, now seventy-four, still resides, a hamlet of and situate two miles from Norwich, where he spent the chief of his time, of that he could spare from the city where he practised, till up to the last twelve months of his life, when in his eighty-fourth year he expired, worn out with past exertion and years, and was, as chief Coroner and Magistrate of the Close and its precincts, under the jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter, buried within the cloisters of the cathedral.
By his family, from his sweetness of disposition, kindness of heart, and amiability of temper, he was tenderly beloved and regretted, and still whenever recalled to memory in the quietude of the chamber the eye will ever be moistened by a tear, and the heart kindle at the recollection; and by many others he was and will be yet greatly missed; the poor and struggling literary man he would encourage not only with praise, but with his purse, and, that, the poor and needy had ever open to them, and his advice besides gratuitously, whenever required (and this might be confirmed by hundreds still living “in the once ancient city,” as a certain wise Alderman of yore styled it), and to their affairs he would give as much attention as to the richest client; his private memoranda alone, after