William Cooper (judge)

William Cooper
William Cooper painted by Gilbert Stuart
Born	December 2, 1754 Smithfield
Died	December 22, 1809 (aged 55)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Judge
Known for	founder of Cooperstown, New York

William Cooper (December 2, 1754 – December 22, 1809) was an American merchant, land speculator and developer, the founder of Cooperstown, New York. A politician, he was appointed as a county judge and later served two terms in the United States Congress, representing Otsego County and central New York. He was the father of James Fenimore Cooper, who became a noted writer of historical novels related to the New York frontier.

William Cooper was born in 1754 in a log house in Smithfield (now Somerton), Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia, the son of English Quaker parents, James Cooper (b. Byberry, Philadelphia, 1729–1795) and Hannah (Hibbs) Cooper. He appears to have first worked as a wheelwright in and around Byberry. There is no record of his attending school. He later settled in Burlington, New Jersey, a Quaker city.

On December 12, 1774, in Burlington, he was married by a civil magistrate to Elizabeth Fenimore, daughter of Richard Fenimore, a Quaker of Rancocas.

During the early 1780s, Cooper became a storekeeper in Burlington, New Jersey, located along the Delaware River. By the end of the decade, he was a successful land speculator and wealthy frontier developer in what is now Otsego County, New York. Soon after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, he acquired a tract of land several thousand acres in extent within the borders of New York state and lying along the head waters of the Susquehanna River at Otsego Lake. He founded the Village of Otsego at the foot of the lake in 1786, creating a traditional plan for the village inspired by that of Burlington. He moved his family there, arriving on 10 November 1790.