COOPER, William, clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1694; died there, 13 December, 17z13. He was graduated at Harvard in 1712, and his leisure during his College years was given to the study of the Bible. After his graduation, being then only eighteen years of age, he continued his studies until 1715, when he began to preach. In August of that year he was invited to become the colleague of the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Colman, but his ordination was deferred until 23 May, 1716. He continued with the Brattle street Congregational church until his death. In 1737 he was chosen to the presidency of Harvard, but declined it. He participated actively in the great revival of 1740, and said, toward the close of his career, that "since the year 1740 more people had sometimes come to him in concern about their souls in one week than in the preceding twenty-four years of his ministry." In 1742 he became involved with the Rev. Jonathan Ashley, of Deerfield, in a dispute concerning the revival, and a long newspaper and pamphlet controversy ensued. Besides numerous published sermons, he was the author of "A Tract defending Inoculation for the SmallPox" (1720), and "The Doctrine of Predestination unto Life indicated in Four Sermons" (Boston, 1740; London, 1765).--His son, William, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1720; died. there, 28 November, 1809, was distinguished for his patriotic services during the revolutionary war, and for forty-nine years was town clerk of Boston.--Another son, Samuel, clergyman, born in Boston, 28 March, 1725; died there, 29 December, 1783, studied at the grammar-school in Boston, and was graduated at Harvard in 1743. He studied theology and became his father's successor and an associate to the venerable Dr. Colman. He was elected to the colleague postorate on 31 December, 1744, and ordained on 21 May, 1746. His ministry with the Brattle street church continued until his death. In 1767 he was elected a member of the Harvard corporation, in which office he remained during his lifetime, and in 1774 was chosen president; but, like his father, he preferred the active duties of the ministry. He took a prominent part in politics, and in 1754 published "The Crisis," a pamphlet in opposition to the excise act, then in contemplation. From the time of the stamp-act some of the best political articles in the "Boston Gazette" were written by him. The letters of Governor Hutchinson were sent to him by Dr. Franklin, with an injunction not to allow their publication. These he placed in the hands of a friend, whose disregard of the prohibition, though a breach of confidence involving serious consequences, was a great public benefit. In the spring of 1775, with other distinguished patriots, he was lampooned by the British officers in an oration delivered on State street. Afterward he made himself particularly obnoxious to the authorities, in consequence of which he withdrew from Boston just before the battle of Lexington. From April, 1775, till March, 1776, his church was used as a barracks for the British troops. Dr. Cooper was the intimate friend of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, who, during their residence in France, recommended to his care many of the prominent French visitors to America. He was also an esteemed correspondent of distinguished Europeans, and in 1767 was honored by the University of Edinburgh with the degree of D.D. He was a member of several religious and scientific societies, and was the first president of the American academy of science and arts. Besides his political writings he published numerous sermons. His "Discourse on the Commencement of the New Constitution of Massachusetts " (1780) is the most finished of all his literary productions. C00TE, Sir Eyre, British soldier, born in 1757" died 10 December, 1823. He was a nephew of Sir Eyre Coote, commander-in-chief in India, entered the British army as ensign, 15 April, 1774, and was promoted lieutenant in July, 1776. He was present at the battle of Long Island and the reduction of Fort Washington, took part in the expeditions to Rhode Island and the Chesapeake, was engaged at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and at the attack on Mud island. He became a captain, 10 August, 1778, was engaged at the siege of Charleston and in the Virginia campaign, and was present at the surrender of Yorktown. He became a major in 1783, served under General Greg in the West Indies in 1793-'5, was made a colonel in 1796, severely wounded in the Ostend expedition of 1798, promoted major general in that year, and served in Abercromby's Egyptian expedition of 1801. He was lieutenant governor of Jamaica from 1805 till 1808, and rose to the rank of general in 1814, but was afterward dismissed from the army for the commission of a crime.