Background
He was born at Bolton, Lancashire, England, the son of Thomas Cooper, merchant, and his wife Jane Ramsden.
He was born at Bolton, Lancashire, England, the son of Thomas Cooper, merchant, and his wife Jane Ramsden.
University College London.
Cooper began business at Le Havre, France, but his health failing, he returned to Sydney in 1843. There, he acquired an interest in a mercantile firm, afterwards known as Doctorate. Cooper and Company, and bought much property in Sydney and its suburbs. This afterwards appreciated in value and Cooper became a wealthy manitoba
He represented Paddington from 1859 to 1860.
At its first meeting, Cooper was elected Speaker by a majority of one vote over Henry Watson Parker. His election was not popular, but Cooper held office with dignity and impartiality and set a standard for future speakers.
He successfully established rules of procedure and parliamentary conventions, which influenced the Parliament in the following years. In politics, he was close to Charles Cowper and Henry Parkes and supported Parkes" The Empire, financially.
In return it described his political principles as being "of so liberal a cast that, were he less identified with the great interests of property, he would be set down as a dangerous democrat".
In January 1860 his health was again troubling him and he found it necessary to resign. He was asked to form a ministry in March, but declined and in 1861 returned to Britain. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.
His Australian postage stamps, sold to Judge Frederick Philbrick in 1878 for £3,000 (the first four-figure price for a collection), became part of Ferrary"s celebrated collection.
The Sir Daniel Cooper Lectures, sponsored by the Royal Philatelic Society, are in his honour.
He was an early member of the senate of the University of Sydney, to which he gave £500 for a stained glass window, and £1,000 to found a scholarship. In 1849 at the age of 28, Cooper was made a member of the legislative council, and in 1856 he was elected as a member for Legislative Assembly seat of Sydney Hamlets of the first Parliament of New South Wales. He continued his interest in New South Wales and occasionally acted as agent-general, did useful work in connexion with the exhibition held at Sydney in 1880, and in 1886 was a member of the Royal Commission for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition at London.