General Notes

Name: John of Rockburne COOPER
Sex: M
Birth: 1598 in Wimborne,St. Giles,Dorset,England
Death: 23 MAR 1631 in Rockburne,Sham,Dorsetshire,England
Father: John COOPER b: ABT. 1565 in England
Mother: Martha SKUTT b: ABT. 1569 in England
Marriage 1 Anne Elizabeth ASHLEY b: 1602 in Rockburne, England
Married: 1 JAN 1617 in Dorsetshire, England
Children
George Ashley COOPER , Earl of Shaftsbury b: 22 JUL 1621 in Wimborne,
St. Giles, Dorsetshire, England
Anthony Ashley COOPER b: 22 JUL 1621 in Wimborne, St. Giles,
Dorsetshire, England
Phillipa COOPER b: 1623 in Wimborne, St. Giles, England
Jane COOPER b: ABT. 1627
George Cooper was the brother of Anthony Ashley Cooper, though he was
rather quiet and did not use the Ashley Cooper name but only the Cooper.
He married Elizabeth Oldfield, the daughter of a wealthy London baker,
and had his residence in Clarence Park near Salisbury. He served briefly
in Parliament but business seems to have agreed with him better than
politics. He had large interests in Barbados and Bermuda, spent some time
in Holland and died Jan 28, 1681/2. Anthony Ashley Cooper mentions his
brother in a diary.
The Coopers likely were descendants of a retainer who came over from
France with William the Conqueror. At that time the name was Coupard,
actually a title, meaning something like "Keeper of the Locks and
Barrels." It was similar to Steward, which became heriditary with the
Scots.
The Cooper DNA tests point to an origin in Iberia or North Africa, and
many branches are Jewish right down to the present. James probably was a
secret practicer of Judaism to some degree, under the guise of Quakerism.
Here is a story about Anthony Ashley Cooper that tends to confirm the
Cooper family's Jewish roots. He told a lady at a party,"Men of sense
never argue about religion." Lady: "And pray what religion do you belong
to, Sir Anthony?" "Madame, men of sense never say."