Lancelot Cooper

Lancelot Cooper (c.1775 — unknown) was a prolific English fraudster and conman of the early 19th Century. According to a transcript of Australian Convict Records he was born in Hackness, North Yorkshire.

In Cooper's petition to the Home Secretary, written in 1827, he wrote that entered the Royal Navy in 1799 as a "writer in the Admin. Office" on the ship Zealand, a depot ship moored on the Thames, through the interest of Sir George Cayley Bt. of Brompton, North Yorkshire which if true suggests that his family had some standing in the area. In 1801, Cooper joined the Medusa, a 38-gun frigate, as secretary (or clerk) to Captain John Gore. During the following five years, Medusa ventured on a number of voyages and saw action taking a number of Spanish prizes. In February 1806, Cooper was transferred with his Captain (knighted and rich from prize money) to Revenge, a ship of the line. For the next two-and-a-half years, Cooper spent much of his time on Revenge which was blockading enemy ports and when Gore temporarily retired in August 1808, due to ill health, Cooper was given two good conduct certificates by Gore (found in his possession when arrested). This led to a promotion as purser, first in the sloop Pelorus and later in the frigate Orpheus. In early 1811, when Cooper returned home, he was appointed as purser to the receiving ship Princess moored in the Mersey.

Cracks soon began to appear in Cooper's 'good conduct'. In July 1813, John Wilson Croker, Secretary to the Admiralty, instigated an enquiry which reported that "from the victualling book of Lancelot Cooper... 70 men appeared discharged... to the Intelligent Gun Brig in July 1812 although their victualling is claimed by Mr Cooper". As a result, Cooper was dismissed from the Royal Navy for misconduct. In his petition Cooper makes no mention of his disgrace stating "he remained in her (the Princess) until the fall of 1813". He then asserts that he embarked on a Royal Navy ship from Plymouth carrying dispatches to Admiral Sir John Gore, who was blockading Venice, then under French rule. When he reached Gore, as Napoleon had just abdicated, he was asked by Gore to go ashore and liaise with the Austrian authorities as His Britannic Majesty's Consul. This version was later contradicted by Gore in a letter to William Powell in 1825 in which Gore stated that Cooper had arrived on his ship, asked to be reinstated as secretary which was refused, and was put ashore without further delay. Notwithstanding this true version of events, Cooper did indeed manage to convince the Austrians that he was the newly appointed Consul and evidence for this is provided by a letter written by John FitzGibbon, 2nd Earl of Clare (1792-1851) to an unknown recipient from Whitehall on 25 April (1827):

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