Sir Daniel Cooper, 1st Baronet GCMG (1 July 1821 – 5 June 1902) was a nineteenth-century politician, merchant and philanthropist in the Colony of New South Wales.

He was born at Bolton, Lancashire, England, the son of Thomas Cooper, merchant, and his wife Jane Ramsden.

He was an early member of the senate of the University of Sydney, to which he gave £500 for a stained glass window, and £1,000 to found a scholarship.

[7][8] At the first meeting of the Legislative Assembly, Cooper was elected Speaker by a majority of one vote over Henry Parker.

His election was not popular, but Cooper held office with dignity and impartiality and set a standard for future speakers.

In return it described his political principles as being 'of so liberal a cast that, were he less identified with the great interests of property, he would be set down as a dangerous democrat'.

[9] During the Crimean War he had exerted himself in raising a fund for the relief of widows and children of soldiers, and in the UK in 1863 he did much work to relieve the distress in Lancashire caused by the cotton famine.