William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper

William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, PC, KC, FRS (c.1665  10 October 1723) was an English politician who became the first Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Cowper was the son of Sir William Cowper, 2nd Baronet, of Ratling Court, Kent, a Whig member of parliament of some mark in the two last Stuart reigns.


The Earl Cowper

PC KC FRS
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
Lord High Steward for the trials of:
In office
4 May 1707  23 September 1710
MonarchAnne
Preceded byHimself (as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England)
Succeeded byIn Commission
In office
21 September 1714  15 April 1718
Monarch
Preceded byThe Lord Harcourt
Succeeded byThe Earl of Macclesfield
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England
In office
11 October 1705  4 May 1707
MonarchAnne
Preceded bySir Nathan Wright
Succeeded byHimself (as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain)
Personal details
Bornc.1665
Died10 October 1723
Panshanger, Hertfordshire
Great Britain
The Earl Cowper.

Career and titles

Cowper was educated at St Albans School in Hertfordshire, and was later to acquire a country estate in the county and represent the county town in Parliament. He was admitted to Middle Temple on 18 March 1681/82, was called to the bar on 25 May 1688, and built up a large practice. He gave his allegiance to the Prince of Orange on his landing in England in 1688, and was made King's Counsel and recorder of Colchester in 1694.

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 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 Chancellor of Great Britain, he being the first to hold this office. He presided at the trial of Dr Sacheverell in 1710, but resigned the seal when Harley and Bolingbroke took office in the same year.[1] Queen Anne, who had a high regard for him, "begged him with tears in her eyes" not to resign,[4] and though she was reluctantly persuaded to accept his resignation, continued to consult him unofficially for the remainder of her reign.[5] On the death of Queen Anne, George I appointed Cowper one of the Lords Justice for governing the country during the king's absence, and a few weeks later he again became Lord Chancellor.[1]

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 Lord Oxford for high treason in 1715, and in 1716 presided as Lord High Steward at the trials of the peers charged with complicity in the Jacobite rising, his sentences on whom have been censured as unnecessarily severe. He warmly supported the Septennial Bill in the same year.[1]

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 Prince of Wales's side in the prince's quarrel with the king. Taking the lead against his former colleagues, Cowper opposed the proposed Peerage Bill brought forward in 1719 to limit the number of peers, and also opposed the bill of attainder against Atterbury in 1723. Cowper was not a great lawyer, but Burnet says that he managed the Court of Chancery with impartial justice and great despatch; the most eminent of his contemporaries agreed in extolling his oratory and his virtues.[1] It is notable that Queen Anne, despite her prejudice against the Whigs in general, came to have a great respect and liking for Cowper, and continued to seek his advice even after he left office as Lord Chancellor.

Trial of Spencer Cowper

His younger brother, Spencer Cowper (1669–1728), was tried for the murder of Sarah Stout in 1699, but was acquitted; the lady, who had allegedly fallen in love with Cowper, having committed suicide on account of his inattention—at least according to Cowper's lawyers. Spencer was one of the managers of the impeachment of Henry Sacheverell, was Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales (1714), Chief Justice of Chester (1717), and Judge of the Common Pleas (1727). He was great uncle of William Cowper, the poet.[1]

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] Swift (Examiner, xvii., xxii.) alludes to an allegation that Cowper had been guilty of bigamy, for which there appears to have been no solid foundation. The 1st Earl left two sons and two daughters by his second wife; the elder son, also William, inherited his titles, and the younger, Spencer Cowper[7] became Dean of Durham.

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.

Polygamy allegation

The rumours about Lord Cowper's polygamy appeared to be based on the fact that Elizabeth Culling was of a station in life that perhaps would, in other circumstances, have led to her becoming the wife, rather than the mistress, of William Cowper. 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.[8]

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]

Arms

Coat of arms of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper
Crest
A lion's jamb erased Or holding a cherry branch Vert fructed Gules.
Escutcheon
Argent three martlets Gules on a chief engrailed of the last three annulets Or.
Supporters
Two dun horses close cropped (except a tuft on the withers) and docked a large blaze down the face a black list down the back and three white feet viz both hind and the near fore foot.
Motto
Tuum Est (It Is Thine) [9]

Footnotes

  1.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cowper, William Cowper, 1st Earl". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 348–349.
  2. "Privy Counsellors 1679 - 1835". leighrayment.com. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
  3. Gregg, Edward Queen Anne Yale University Press 2001 p. 206
  4. Gregg, p.323
  5. Gregg p.331
  6. William Cowper, History of Parliament, Retrieved 12 February 2017
  7. Kenworthy, Joan M; McCollum, Margaret S (March 2009). "A Contribution to Meteorology by Spencer Cowper, Dean of Durham 1746-74". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 63 (1): 57–80. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2007.0047. JSTOR 40647193. S2CID 145590156.
  8. National Archives
  9. Debrett's Peerage. 1869.

References

  • Private Diary of Earl Cowper, edited by EC 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)
  • TB Howell, State Trials, vol. xii.-xv. (33 vols, London, 1809–1828)
  • George E. Cokayne, Complete Peerage (London, 1889).

 Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Cowper, William (d.1723)". Dictionary of National Biography. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Parliament of England
Preceded by
Sir William Cowper, Bt
Sir William Leman, Bt
Member of Parliament for Hertford
16951701
With: Sir William Cowper, Bt
Succeeded by
Charles Caesar
Thomas Filmer
Preceded by
Sir Rowland Gwynne
Sir Peter King
Member of Parliament for Bere Alston
17011705
With: Sir Peter King
Succeeded by
Sir Peter King
Spencer Cowper
Political offices
Preceded by
Sir Nathan Wright
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
17051707
Succeeded by
Himself
as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
Preceded by
Himself
as Lord Keeper
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
17071710
In commission
Title next held by
The Lord Harcourt
as Lord Keeper
Preceded by
In Commission
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
17141718
Succeeded by
The Earl of Macclesfield
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The 2nd Earl of Essex
Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire
17101712
Succeeded by
The Earl of Salisbury
Preceded by
The Earl of Salisbury
Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire
17151722
Succeeded by
The 3rd Earl of Essex
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation Earl Cowper
17181723
Succeeded by
William Clavering-Cowper
Peerage of England
New creation Baron Cowper
17061723
Succeeded by
William Clavering-Cowper
Baronetage of England
Preceded by
William Cowper
Baronet
(of Ratlingcourt) 
17061723
Succeeded by
William Clavering-Cowper
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.