Robert Cooney
1800-1870
Robert Cooney (Methodist clergyman, journalist, and author) was born on 24 June 1800 in Dublin (Republic of Ireland). In 1824 Cooney immigrated to New Brunswick and found employment in a Newcastle mercantile firm. He was studying to enter the Catholic priesthood, but in 1828 left the Catholic Church. Between 1829 and 1831, Cooney wrote for the Gleaner at Chatham, and gathered notes for his work, A compendious history of the northern part of the province of New Brunswick and of the district of Gaspé, in Lower Canada. In 1832 he took his manuscript to Halifax for publication by Joseph Howe. During his visit to that town, Cooney was converted to Methodism, and soon began preaching. He was stationed in the next few years at Murray Harbour, PEI and Liverpool, Halifax, and Guysborough, NS, and was ordained in 1837. That same year he married Susan Catherine Shaw of Halifax. The next year he was transferred to Odelltown, Lower Canada. After serving in Stanstead and Montreal in Canada East and Toronto in Canada West, he returned to New Brunswick in 1847, and preached at Carleton, Saint John, and St Stephen. He lectured in the Saint John Mechanics’ Institute, and during the early 1850s he prepared his Autobiography of a Wesleyan Methodist missionary. Cooney left New Brunswick in 1855, and moved on to prech in Guelph, London, and St Catharines, Ontario. There he lived in retirement from 1862 to 1868 when he returned to Toronto. By 1858 two universities had honoured him with degrees. Cooney died on 17 March 1870 in Toronto, Ontario. In 1896, his Compendious History was republished in Chatham, NB.
Toner, P.M. “Cooney, Robert.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume IX. Accessed 3 June 2023.
Predominant New Brunswick Residences:
Miramichi
Archival Material
See the William Francis Ganong fonds at the New Brunswick Museum for a manuscript copy of The History of Miramichi by Robert Cooney (notes by W.F. Ganong indicate he believed the manuscript was written by Cooney, and partially incorporated it into Ganong's History of Northern New Brunswick.
Frontispiece of A Compendious History of the Northern Part of the Province of New Brunswick and of the District of Gaspe in Lower Canada by Robert Cooney
Cooney, Robert. A Compendious History of the Northern Part of the Province of New Brunswick and of the District of Gaspe in Lower Canada. Chatham, Miramichi, NB. D.G. Smith, 1896. Internet Archive. Accessed 3 June 2023.