John Cooper

John Cooper (November 5, 1729 – April 1, 1785) was a political leader of the American Revolution in New Jersey. He was likely the main author of the New Jersey Constitution of 1776, and served as one of the first judges of Gloucester County. An outspoken abolitionist, Cooper called for New Jersey to end slavery immediately, and argued against a more gradual approach to emancipation. A Quaker who was disowned by the Society of Friends for his political actions during the revolution, he was likely buried in the Quaker cemetery in Woodbury, New Jersey, in an unmarked grave. He was the estranged younger brother of Quaker abolitionist David Cooper. Early life Cooper was born near Woodbury in Gloucester County, New Jersey, the youngest of eight children born to John Cooper Sr. and Ann Cooper (née Clarke). His paternal grandfather, William Cooper, was a minister in Hertfordshire, England, who knew George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends, and emigrated to southwestern New Jersey in the 1600s. His maternal grandfather, Benjamin Clarke, was an early Quaker abolitionist who emigrated around the same time. He was named after an older sibling named John Jr. who died one year before his birth. His brother David was five years old when John was born in 1729. On September 22, 1730, their father John Cooper Sr. died when John Jr. was only ten months old. Raised by their mother who was a devout Quaker, the Cooper brothers received their education at the Friends meeting house in Haddonfield.