should not be granted mercy. Powell described how 'Cole' ingratiated himself with Powell and eventually married his daughter Grace in May 1825. He then lived with her in style, getting money by forging cheques on a Bank in London. Realising he was about to be exposed, he then fled with the two women, only to abandon them with Grace already pregnant. Following this episode, Cooper fled to London, where for a year and a half he lived at various addresses and passed a number of false cheques for cash or jewellery. Aliases during this time included Allison, Jackson, Croften, Cook, Cope, and Cottage. He may have been trying to gain the affection of at least one other lady, as a ticket for a private theatre box was found in his trunk when arrested. Eventually the law caught up with him in March 1827 and he was detained in Newgate Prison. Trial and transportation Cooper was tried at the Old Bailey on 5 April 1827 before Lord Chief Justice Abbott on one count of fraud perpetrated on 26 March of that year (although other alleged offences were described) and being found guilty he was sentenced to death. Incarcerated in Newgate Prison, Cooper, as custom allowed, wrote a petition accompanied by references from people in authority to the Home Secretary William Sturges Bourne pleading for mercy. and when completed it was signed by the Earl of Clare as well as himself. Surprisingly, given his offences, at the Report in Council on 23 May 1827, his sentence was reduced to transportation for life. This result together with the offences which he was said to have committed was duly reported in the Times article of 1827. After a period of incarceration in the prison hulks on the Thames, Cooper was transported aboard the Asia V to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on 17 August that year. Describing himself as a widower his conduct on the voyage was exemplary according to the Records. On Arrival at Van Diemen's Land in December 1827 he was required, as was the custom, to initially assist with the building of roads and other public works but at the end of 1833 he was given the opportunity to establish an independent life through a conditional pardon. Notes The petition submitted in a plea for mercy is the main source of information about the first half of Cooper's life. Collaboration for his