Thomas Cooper (1805–92)

Chartist and religious lecturer. Opened a school in Gainsborough in 1828. Moved to Lincoln, where he became involved in the mechanics’ institute and the choral society. Moved to London in 1839; Leicester, 1840. Worked as a journalist and editor of a number of Chartist journals. Arrested after the riots in the Potteries, 1842, and sentenced the following year to two years in prison. Travelled throughout Britain as a religious lecturer for two decades from 1856 and published collections of these lectures.