William B. Cooper was born 26 Apr 1807 in Abbeville, South Carolina, the son of Joseph Cooper (1777-1842) and Sarah Ann Franklin (1788-1874).
His father Joseph, born in Winchester, Virginia, of Quaker parents Jeremiah Cooper and Rebecca Perrill, and his mother Sarah Ann believed to have been born in Maryland of parents William Temple Franklin and Abigail Brauner, reportedly came to the Abbeville/Laurens area before 1805, settling on acreage near the Rabons Creek Quaker Meetinghouse. It was here that Wm B. and his fifteen siblings would receive their early education and religious training .
Wm B. is reported to have attended Furman Institute, South Carolina for two years followed by two years at Columbian College, Washington, DC before answering a call to the Baptist ministry. His first ministry was at Hamburg, South Carolina where he is reported to have experienced a rheumatic condition, causing him to seek a milder clime to the south.
Removing to the Territory of Florida ca. 1833-36, Wm B. appears first in Hamilton County as a member of Concord Baptist Church near present day Jennings, and next serving on the initial presbytery of a proposed arm of Concord, the Prospect Primitive Baptist Church in eastern Hamilton County. It was apparently at this point that his Missionary beliefs caused him to abandon the Primitive tenet, and in 1838 take a pastorship at newly constituted Hickstown Baptist Church in nearby Madison County. Assuming a commanding role in the Florida's Missionary movement along the Florida/Georgia corridor, he next became the first pastor of Little River, Troupville Baptist Church near present day Valdosta, Georgia, and in consort with Georgia's Baptist leaders strove to turn the tide against the Missionary movement, becoming known in the annals of Florida Baptist history as the first Missionary Baptist preacher of Florida.