Edward Henry Cooper
Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Henry Cooper PC (Ire) (1827 – 26 February 1902) was an Irish officer in the British Army, a landlord in County Sligo, and a Conservative politician.
At the age of 36 the Dublin-born soldier inherited Markree Castle in County Sligo from his uncle, and left the army to manage his country estate.
[3] His father was the third-born (and second surviving) son of Edward Synge Cooper MP of Markree Castle in County Sligo.
[8] In 1857 Cooper purchased a promotion to lieutenant colonel of the Grenadier Guards,[9] and on 9 August 1858, he married Charlotte Maria Mills at the church of St Mary's, Bryanston Square in London.
[15] O'Hara stood down due to ill-health,[16] and Cooper was returned unopposed along with the sitting Conservative MP Sir Robert Gore-Booth, 4th Bt.
On 9 July, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Elphin Dr Laurence Gillooly (whose diocese includes part of County Sligo) chaired a meeting which adopted Denis Maurice O'Conor as the Liberal candidate.
[21] On the same day, Owen Wynne of Hazelwood chaired a meeting of the County Registration Society to organise the campaign for the re-election of Cooper and Gore Booth.
[22] The nomination took place at the courthouse in Sligo on 26 November, when both O'Connor and Gore-Booth were given a hearing, but Cooper's address was delivered in what The Times of London described as "great uproar".
[23] A show of hands favoured Gore-Booth and O'Connor, but Cooper demanded a vote,[24] making County Sligo the last constituency in Ireland to complete its election.
[23] After the violence which accompanied the election in Sligo Borough two weeks beforehand, The Times of London reported that "the passions of the peasantry have been inflamed by incessant appeals, and a bitter feeling of hostility against the landlords has been aroused".
[25] It noted that the plan to flood the county with military "to protect Catholic voters" did not have happy precedents, citing the Dungarvan massacre[25] during the December 1866 by-election when lancers charged a crowd, killing one person and injuring 19.
[23] The county poll was largely free of the public violence which marred the election in Sligo Borough two weeks beforehand,[24] although one man was reported to have had his finger shot off at a voting station.
[23] O'Connor contended that the issue at stake was of freedom of election versus what he called the "monstrous doctrine" that votes belonged to the landlord.
[29] Another petition, signed by John Hannon and James Casey, asked that the return of Gore Booth be voided on grounds of bribery, treating and intimidation.
The introduction of the secret ballot in the 1872 Act ended landlord's control over their tenants' votes, and at the 1874 general election O'Connor was returned as a Home Rule League candidate alongside Gore-Booth, without a contest.
[14] Cooper's uncle Edward Joshua had built on his lands Markree Observatory, an astronomical facility whose telescope contained what was then the largest lens in the world.
