Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/311



Samuel Cooper, the writer of this diary, was one of the distinguished men of the American Revolution. Born in Boston, March 28, 1725, he was the second son and third child of the Rev. William Cooper," by his wife Judith, daughter of Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of the province. His grandmother, Mehetabel Cooper, "the woman," as Dr. Colman said on her death, "that one would have wished to be born of," was niece and coheir to Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton, her mother being a daughter of Israel Stoughton, lieutenant-colonel of Rainborowe's regiment, in the Parliamentary army. After completing his preparatory studies at the Public Latin School, he entered Harvard College, and was graduated thence in 1743, in the same class with James Otis. The year following he was called to the ministry, being chosen, despite his youth, to succeed his father, recently deceased, as associate pastor of the church in Brattle Street (by the Mathers stigmatized as the " Manifesto" Church), of which his grandfather, Thomas Cooper, was a founder. On May 21, 1746, he was ordained, and at the death of his colleague. Dr. Colman, the next year, became pastor, and continued as such until his own death, December 29, 1783. He was a fellow of Harvard College from 1767 to 1783, and on the resignation of Dr. Locke was elected to the presidency, but declined the office, as his father had done thirty-seven years before on the death of President Wadsworth. From 1758 to 1770, and again from 1777 to 1783, he was chaplain to the General Court. One of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780, he was its vice-president from that year until his death. In 1750 he received from Yale College the honorary degree of M.A., and in 1767 that of D.D. from the University of Edinburgh.

He was one of those to whom the confidential letters of Governor Hutchinson were shown; though from his own testimony, it