William Durrant Cooper

William Durrant Cooper (1812-1875) was an English lawyer and antiquary. His father Thomas Cooper was a solicitor practising at Lewes; his mother was Lucy Elizabeth Durrant. He was born in Lewes on 10 January 1812, and was educated at the grammar school of Lewes. When 15 years old he became an articled clerk to his father. In Michaelmas term of 1832 he was admitted attorney and solicitor. In the following year he gave evidence on the parish registers of Sussex before a committee of the House of Commons. In 1837 he came to live in London, and attached himself to the parliamentary staff of the Morning Chronicle and The Times. The Duke of Norfolk gave him honorific posts as steward for the leet court of Lewes borough and auditor of Skelton Castle in North Yorkshire. He was a member of the Reform Club, and from 1837 acted as its solicitor; he also was solicitor to the vestry of St. Pancras (20 December 1858). In 1872 he was stricken with an attack of paralysis, but he lingered three years longer, dying at 81 Guilford Street, Russell Square, on 28 December 1875. He never married. Two of his brothers predeceased him; a third, with an only sister, outlived him.