Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooling, Richard
COOLING or COLING, RICHARD (d. 1697), clerk of the privy council, became secretary to the Earl of Manchester on that nobleman's being appointed lord chamberlain in 1660, and, being with the earl at Oxford when he was incorporated M.A. (8 Sept. 1665), received the same degree from the university. He was apparently on intimate terms with Pepys, to whom when in liquor he was communicative on the subject of the relations of the king with Lady Castlemaine, and other court gossip. He also acted as secretary to the Earl of Arlington during his tenure of the office of lord chamberlain (1674–80). On 21 Feb. 1688–9 he was sworn clerk of the privy council in ordinary. He died on 19 June 1697. Wood says that he ‘was originally, as it seems, of All Souls' College.’ He is described as Dr. Richard Cooling in the ‘Cal. State Papers’ (Dom. 1667), p. 28.
[Pepys's Diary, 5 July 1660 and 30 July 1667; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), ii. 285; Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs, i. 504, iv. 241.]