Note J — AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MRS. JOHN DREW WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HER SON

Thomas Apthorpe Cooper left unappreciative London in his twentieth year to try his fortune with Manager Thomas Wignell at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia in 1796. There, as afterward in New York, his handsome face and figure, fine voice, and unquestioned ability made him the popular favorite in leading parts both of tragedy and genteel comedy.

During the first quarter of the century he was the acknowledged leader of the profession, and both on and off the stage courted and admired. In 1806 he became, first with Dunlap then with Stephen Price, the manager of the Park Theatre until 1814. In 1803 he had visited England and again in 1810 with only moderate success. At the latter visit he induced George Frederick Cooke to come to America with him; during Cooper's last visit to England in 1828 he was coldly treated as an American, but welcomed home warmly when, with J. H. Hackett as Iago, he produced "Othello" on his return. Both these parts, with Hamlet, Macbeth, Leon, Pierre, Mark Antony, Beverly, Hotspur, Petruchio, Doricourt, and Charles Surface were ranked among the best of the one hundred and fifty characters he frequently appeared in. He practically left the stage in 1835, although he played occasionally until 1838. Through the influence of his son-in-law, Robert Tyler, he was appointed a New York Custom House officer, a position he held until his death at Bristol, Pa., in his seventy-third year, April 21, 1849.