Introduction
William Cooper and Richard Arnold were the two earliest settlers in Camden. Richard Arnold faded from history, but William Cooper and his descendants had a long history in Camden. Cooper Hospital, Cooper Street, and the Cooper River all bear the family name, as does Cooper Landing Road in Cherry Hill and the former Cooper elementary school in what is known as the Cooper-Grant neighborhood in Camden.
Camden's 'First Citizens'
The earliest settlers in Camden were William Cooper and Richard Arnold.
History tells but little about Arnold, but columns have been written about the life of William Cooper, possibly because his descendants still live in Camden, bearing the family name.
Never since the day he landed on the Pyne Poynt shore in 1682 has the Cooper name been extinct. Cooper Hospital, Cooper street, and Cooper river have been named after him.
William Cooper was born in England in 1632, and lived a number of years at Coleshill in the parish of Amersha, county of Hartford. Early in life he became a staunch member of the Society of Friends. William Penn resided within the bounds of the Upperside Meeting House, which Cooper attended.
Persecuted in England
Religious persecution of Friends in England caused Cooper to emigrate to America with his wife Margaret and five children in 1679. He arrived in Burlington, and purchased fifty acres of land which was conveyed to him October 5, 1680, on which he built a house for his family.
Two years later he decided to settle at Shackamaxon, now Kensington, and he purchased three hundred acres of land on the banks of the Delaware river, opposite the Aroches creek, now known as Cooper river. The land was deeded to him June 12, 1682.
He built a second house at Pyne Poynt above Cooper’s Point, in 1682. The house was situated on a high bank of the Delaware river near the head of what is now called Fifth street. Adjacent to it was a pine forest, from which the name of Pyne Poynt originated.
Benjamin Franklin was a guest in the old Cooper house nearly one hundred years later, and he called it a “large house.” The house had a large stone portico, and a door opened from the second story hallway to the roof of the portico.
Bought Land From Indians
The land on which Cooper settled was occupied by a small tribe of Indians, the chief of which was Tahlacca. He sold the land to Cooper. A canoe ferry was established between Cooper’s Point, and Shackamaxon.
At the yearly meeting of Friends at Salem on February 11, 1682, it was ordered that the members of the societies in the Jersies and Pennsylvania meet once a month. The first meeting was held at William Cooper’s home on the second and fourth day of the third month, 1682.
Two years later a meeting house was built at Newton, that portion of Camden on the north banks of the Newton creek. William Cooper was appointed one of the trustees.
William Penn signed his treaty Elm opposite Cooper’s home in Shackamaxon. William Cooper was present. Cooper was elected one of the members of the Third or “Irish Tenth” in 1682 and 1683. He was appointed by the Assembly in 1687 one of the Council of Proprietors.
As an attorney he represented Friends in England and Ireland in locating lands in the new world. He was commissioner of the division of lands.
Was County Judge
The pioneer was honored in 1694 by being appointed judge of Gloucester county.
Cooper increased his land acreage until he owned all the land of the present site of Camden from Line st., north to the Delaware and Cooper rivers.
William Royden founded the first ferry between Camden and Philadelphia in 1687. It landed at Cooper street. The ferry was purchased a few years later by William Cooper and became known as Cooper’s ferry. It was operated under that name more than a century. Flat boats, propelled by oars and sails, were used on the ferry.
He died March 11, 1710.
Camden’s ‘First Citizens’ — No. 1 WILLIAM COOPER
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The Origin of St. Joseph’s Parish—Continued
Gloucester-Camden district was attended by the priests of the Cathedral. This arrangement continued until the Newark Diocese was established in 1853.
In the year 1773 Jacob Cooper, a Philadelphia merchant, and a lineal descendant of the first William Cooper who settled at Pyne Point, forseeing [sic] the possibility of a town on the east bank of the Delaware, employed a Philadelphia surveyor by the name of Thompson to lay out 40 acres into a town plot. The colonies were aroused at the time over the Grenville policy of taxing the colonies without representation in Parliament, a policy expressed in the famous Townshend Acts. In England at the time there was also opposition to this policy inaugurated by George III’s Prime Minister, and one of the most outspoken opponents of it was Charles Pratt, First Earl of Camden. Jacob Cooper therefore named the new town on the Delaware in his honor. In the new town only six streets ran north and south: King (Front), Queen (Second), Whitehall (Third), Cherry (Fourth), Cedar (Fifth), and Pine (Sixth). Cooper, Market, and Plum (Arch) intersected them. To the north was Cooper’s Point, to the south Kaighn’s Point. In 1828 Camden was incorporated and received its charter, and the three distinct sections became one community capable of framing laws for its own domestic
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