Charles Cooper (judge)

Sir Charles Cooper (1795 – 24 May 1887) was the first Chief Justice of South Australia and for two years a politician in the colony of South Australia.

Early life and education
Charles Cooper was born in 1795 Henley-on-Thames, the third son of Thomas Cooper, under-sheriff of Oxfordshire.

He entered the Inner Temple in 1822 and was called to the bar in February 1827.

Career
Cooper practised on the Oxford circuit until 1838, and was then appointed judge at Adelaide, in the colony of South Australia. He and his sister Sarah Ann Cooper landed there in March 1839 in the Katherine Stewart Forbes.

He was for many years the sole judge, then senior judge, of the Supreme Court of South Australia. In June 1856 he was appointed the first South Australian chief justice.

In September 1860 was sworn in as a member of the Executive Council of South Australia, which was part of the government in the now self-governing colony.

Cooper was regarded as a capable judge who earned the esteem of the colonists. He held courts at first in his own house, which had the advantage that he was constantly on the premises. He framed the first insolvency legislation of the colony.

Later life and death
Cooper retired from the bench in November 1861 and from the Executive Council in August 1862 owing to ill-health, and was given a pension of £1000 a year. He returned to England in 1862, resided at Bath, Somerset, and improving much in his health lived to be 92 years of age.

He died in London on 24 May 1887.

Honours and legacy
Cooper was knighted in 1857.

Cooper's Creek, (now Cooper Creek), in central Australia was named after him by his friend, Captain Sturt.

While in South Australia he had a seaside residence adjacent to "The Grange", Charles Sturt's property for which Grange Beach was named. It is likely that Henley Beach was named for Cooper's hometown, after Cooper rejected Sturt's proposed name "Cooper's Beach".

His city home, at south-east corner of Whitmore Square, was in May 1870 re-opened as the Bushmen's Club, a facility for members visiting the city.

Personal life
Cooper married in 1853 Emily Grace Newenham, eldest daughter of Charles Burton Newenham, Sheriff of the Province. They had no children, and she outlived him.

His sister Sarah Ann Cooper (c. 1804 – 31 May 1895) married William Bartley (1801–1885), Senior Solicitor to the Lands Titles Office, on 23 September 1852.