William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain Lord High Steward for the trials of: | |
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In office 4 May 1707 – 23 September 1710 | |
Monarch | Anne |
Preceded by | Himself (as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England) |
Succeeded by | In Commission |
In office 21 September 1714 – 15 April 1718 | |
Monarchs | |
Preceded by | The Lord Harcourt |
Succeeded by | In Commission |
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England | |
In office 11 October 1705 – 4 May 1707 | |
Monarch | Anne |
Preceded by | Sir Nathan Wright |
Succeeded by | Himself (as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain) |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1665 |
Died | 10 October 1723 Panshanger, Hertfordshire Great Britain |
Children | |
Parents |
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Relatives |
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William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper,
Career and titles
Cowper was educated at
Cowper had the reputation of being one of the most effective parliamentary orators of his generation. He lost his seat in parliament in 1702 owing to the unpopularity caused by the trial of his brother Spencer Cowper on a charge of murder.[1]
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
On 11 October 1705 he was sworn to the Privy Council,[2] was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and took his seat on the woolsack without a peerage. In the following year he conducted the negotiations between the English and Scottish commissioners for arranging the union with Scotland. In November of that year he succeeded to his father's baronetcy, and on 14 December 1706, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cowper of Wingham, Kent.[1] He was the youngest Lord Keeper for many years: the Queen, who had taken a great liking to him, joked that "she had given the Seals to a boy" and suggested that in future he should wear a wig to lend him gravity.[3]
Lord High Chancellor
When the union with Scotland came into operation in May 1707 the Queen in Council named Cowper
Lord High Steward
A paper which Cowper drew up for the guidance of the new king on constitutional matters, entitled An Impartial History of Parties, marks the advance of English opinion towards party government in the modern sense. It was published by Lord Campbell in his Lives of the Lord Chancellors. Cowper supported the impeachment of
Viscount Fordwich and Earl Cowper
On 18 March 1718 he was created Viscount Fordwich and Earl Cowper, and a month later he resigned office on the plea of ill-health, but probably in reality because George I accused him of espousing the
Trial of Spencer Cowper
His younger brother,
Personal life
Marriages
William Cowper was twice married: first, in about 1686, to Judith, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Booth, a London merchant; and secondly, in 1706, to Mary, daughter of John Clavering, of Chopwell, Durham. The latter marriage seems to have been based on Cowper's admiration of her beauty although he demanded to see her undressed before the wedding.[6] The 1st Earl left two sons and two daughters by his second wife:
- Lady Sarah Cowper (1707–1758)
- William Clavering-Cowper (1709–1764), succeeded as 2nd Earl
- Spencer Cowper (1713–1774), Dean of Durham
- Lady Anne Cowper (died 1750), married James Colleton MP
Mistress
Elizabeth Culling was the mistress of William Cowper, and bore him two children. She was the daughter of John Culling of Hertingfordbury Park, who died in 1687/8, and was buried in St Helen's, Bishopsgate. Her brother John died in January 1702/3 without issue, and Elizabeth inherited the estate. She died on 27 November 1703, and was buried at Hertingfordbury. Of her children, William, born on 14 November 1697, died in Paris on 31 October 1719. Mary, born on 10 September 1700, lived to maturity, and married one Robert Isaacson.
Tory writers satirised Lord Cowper as a bigamist. In The New Atalantis by Delarivier Manley, the married Hernando eloquently persuades an impressionable young woman that double marriage is lawful, seducing her with a sham marriage ceremony.[7] Jonathan Swift referred to Cowper as "Will Bigamy".[8] In his diary, Thomas Hearne recorded that Cowper was "well known to have had two wives at a time".[9] The rumours may have gained traction because Elizabeth Culling was of a station in life that perhaps would, in other circumstances, have led to her becoming Cowper's wife, rather than his mistress. In her will, she acknowledges that the children are her natural children, and the children were also acknowledged by Lord Cowper and his second wife, as will be seen from the correspondence.[10]
Later years and death
In his last years Cowper was accused, but probably without reason, of active sympathy with the Jacobites. He died at his residence, Cole Green near Panshanger in Hertfordshire on 10 October 1723. Mary, who was devastated by his death, outlived him by only a few months.[1]
Relatives
[11] | Cowper Family Tree|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Arms
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Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cowper, William Cowper, 1st Earl". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 348–349. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ "Privy Counsellors 1679 - 1835". leighrayment.com. Archived from the original on 7 June 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Gregg, Edward Queen Anne Yale University Press 2001 p. 206
- ^ Gregg, p.323
- ^ Gregg p.331
- ^ William Cowper, History of Parliament, Retrieved 12 February 2017
- ^ Manley, Delarivier (1709). Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of both Sexes, From The New Atalantis. pp. 218–229. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- ^ Swift, Jonathan (1710). Wikisource. – via
- ^ Bliss, Philip, ed. (1869) [1705]. Reliquiae Hearnianae: The Remains Of Thomas Hearne. Vol. 1. p. 43. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- ^ National Archives
- .
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1869.
References
- Private Diary of Earl Cowper, edited by E. C. Hawtrey for the Roxburghe Club (Eton, 1833)
- The Diary of Mary, Countess Cowper, edited by the Hon. Spencer Cowper (London, 1864)
- Lord Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal (8 vols, London, 1845–1869)
- Edward Foss, The Judges of England (9 vols, London, 1848–1864)
- Gilbert Burnet, History of his Own Time (6 vols, Oxford, 1833)
- T. B. Howell, State Trials, vols xii–xv. (33 vols, London, 1809–1828)
- George E. Cokayne, Complete Peerage (London, 1889).[volume & issue needed][pages needed]
External links
- Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Cowper, William (d.1723)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Treasure, Geoffrey (January 2009). "Cowper, William, first Earl Cowper (1665–1723)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6511. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- UK Parliamentary Archives, The Cowper Books of Standing Orders