Thomas Cooper Home at 800 Radcliffe Ave

The historic Colonial Revival house at 800 Radcliffe serves as a reminder of two notable, nineteenth-century members of the Cooper Family. Thomas Cooper, a renowned Shakespearean actor from England who became American theater's first idol, took possession of the home in 1819. His third child, Priscilla, married the son of eventual U.S. President John Tyler. In 1842, she assumed the role of White House Hostess (an interim First Lady) after President Tyler's wife suffered from a stroke. The two were forced to flee Bristol because of Robert's views on states' rights; Priscilla's husband went on to serve the government of the Confederate States.

Thomas Cooper, a famous Shakespearean actor from England, had the house erected to accommodate his children and their governess. Though unconfirmed, the story goes that he won that house in a card game while in Paris and then took possession of it in 1819. (He lived with his wife Mary in a home that once stood next door.) He gained fame in England as the star of such productions as Hamlet and Macbeth. In December 1796, Cooper made his first appearance in Philadelphia as Macbeth and then followed that with a performance at the Greenwich Street Theatre in New York. For several years he traveled back and forth to England and New York, fulfilling various acting roles. Cooper also held several public offices, including a military storekeeper and Office of Surveyor for the New York and Philadelphia ports of New York and Philadelphia. 

His daughter Priscilla, the third of Thomas and Mary Cooper's nine children, might be the most famous of the two Coopers, having made it to the White House. Born in 1816 in New York City, she first followed her father's footsteps as an actor, making her stage debut at the age of three. She met Robert Tyler, son of future president John Tyler, while Robert attended law school, and the couple married in 1839. When President Tyler's wife suffered a debilitating stroke in 1842, Priscilla stepped in and served as White House Hostess, ostensibly fulfilling the role of First Lady. Letitia Christian Tyler, one of Priscilla and John's nine children, was born at the White House. 

Priscilla unofficially filled the role of First Lady until John Tyler remarried in 1844. The couple returned to Bristol and rented a home on 610 Radcliffe Street, where they remained until 1861. As a prominent state politician, Robert ardently supported slavery and secession. This was an unpopular stance in Bristol leading the couple to move to Montgomery, Alabama, where Robert served as a Confederate treasury official. After the war, Robert worked as an editor for the Montgomery Mail and Advertiser. 

The historic house on 800 Radcliffe stands as a symbol of the genesis of the Cooper story in the United States. Thomas Cooper died in 1849; his body lays in a Bristol cemetery alongside his wife, Mary. Meanwhile, Priscilla died in 1889, at age 73, in Montgomery. Her journey took her from the stage to the White House to the Confederacy and the post-Civil War South.

Anthony, Carl. "First Ladies Who Never Married Presidents: Priscilla Tyler & Letty Tyler Semple." National First Ladies' Library. firstladies.org. October 20, 2014. http://www.firstladies.org/blog/first-ladies-who-never-married-presidents-priscilla-tyler-letty-tyler-semple/.

Caroli, Betty Boyd. First Ladies: The Ever-Changing Role, from Martha Washington to Melania Trump. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.

"Historic Bristol Borough Map." arcgis.com. Accessed March 4, 2021. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=62e62a755d654b959e6596cb197dc957.

Johnson, Odai. "Thomas Abthorpe Cooper: Father of the American Stage, 1775–1849." Theatre Survey 47, no. 2 (2006): 327–29.