James Fenimore Cooper - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey, to William and Elizabeth (Fenimore) Cooper, the eleventh child of twelve children, most of whom died during infancy or childhood. He was descended from James Cooper, of Stratford-upon-Avon, England, who emigrated to American colonies in 1679. He and his wife were Quakers who purchased plots of land in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Seventy five years after his arrival in America his great-grandson, William, was born on December 2, 1754, father of the author James Cooper. Cooper lived the first year of his life in New Jersey. Shortly after his first birthday, his family moved to Cooperstown, New York, a community founded by his father, who was a United States Congressman. Their house was in the wilderness on the shore of Otsego Lake, an area in central New York that was surrounded by the Iroquois of the Six Nations.

Shortly after the American Revolutionary War, Cooper's father, William Cooper, purchased several thousand acres of land in upstate New York along the head-waters of the Susquehanna River. By 1788, William had selected and surveyed the site where Cooperstown would be established. He erected a home on the shore of Otsego lake, and in the autumn of 1790 and, after moving belongings, servants and carpenters to the location, he began construction of what would become Otsego Hall. Otsego Hall was completed in 1799 when James was ten years old.

At the age of 13, Cooper was enrolled at Yale, but, after inciting a dangerous prank that involved blowing up another student's door, Cooper was expelled in his third year without completing his degree. Disenchanted with college, Cooper obtained work in 1806 as a sailor and at the age of 17 joined the crew of a merchant vessel. By 1811, he obtained the rank of midshipman in the fledgling United States Navy, conferred to him on an officer's warrant signed by Thomas Jefferson.

At twenty Cooper inherited a fortune from his father. On January 1, 1811, at age twenty one, he married Susan Augusta de Lancey, at Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York. the daughter of a wealthy family that remained loyal to Great Britain during the American Revolution. They had seven children, five of whom lived to adulthood. His daughter, Susan Fenimore Cooper, was a writer on nature, female suffrage, and other topics. She and her father often edited each other’s work. Paul Fenimore Cooper (1899–1970) a writer during the 20th century, was a great-grandson of James Cooper.