Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury

Summary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Ashley_Cooper,_1st_Earl_of_Sha...

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury PC (22 July 1621 – 21 January 1683), known as Anthony Ashley Cooper from 1621 to 1631, as Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Baronet from 1631 to 1661, and as The Lord Ashley from 1661 to 1672, was a prominent English politician during the Interregnum and during the reign of King Charles II. A founder of the Whig party, he is also remembered as the patron of John Locke.

Family

from COOPER, Sir Anthony Ashley, 2nd Bt. (1621-83), of Wimborne St. Giles, Dorset and The Close, Salisbury, Wilts.

• b. 22 July 1621,
• 1st s. of Sir John Cooper, 1st Bt.†, of Rockbourne, Hants by 1st w. Anne, da. and h. of Sir Anthony Ashley, 1st Bt., of Wimborne St. Giles;
• bro. of George Cooper.
• educ. privately (Aaron Guerdon) 1627-37; Exeter, Oxf. 1637-8; L. Inn 1638.
• m. (1) 25 Feb. 1639, Margaret (d. 11 July 1649), da. of Sir Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry of Aylesborough, s.p.;
• m (2) 15 Apr. 1650, Lady Frances Cecil (d. 31 Dec. 1652), da. of David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter, 2s. (1 d.v.p.);
• m (3) 30 Aug. 1655, (with £4,000) Margaret, da. of William Spencer†, 2nd Baron Spencer, s.p. suc. fa. 23 Mar. 1631;
• cr. Baron Ashley 20 Apr. 1661; Earl of Shaftesbury 23 Apr. 1672.

Family notes

from https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Massie-46#Penelope_Ashley-Cooper_Cont...

“While Ashley-Cooper's Journal and private papers do reveal that he had two daughters, his writings clearly state that both, sadly were stillborn.”

Therefore, “Penelope” Massie was not his child.

Notes

• In May 1663, Ashley was one of eight Lords Proprietors (Lord Clarendon was one of the others) given title to a huge tract of land in North America, which eventually became the Province of Carolina, named in honour of King Charles.
• In autumn 1672, Shaftesbury played a key role in setting up the Bahamas Adventurers' Company.
• Both the Ashley River and the Cooper River in South Carolina were eventually named in his honor.

Biography

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, PC (22 July 1621 – 21 January 1683), known as Anthony Ashley Cooper from 1621 to 1630, as Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Baronet from 1630 to 1661, and as The Lord Ashley from 1661 to 1672, was a prominent English politician during the Interregnum and during the reign of King Charles II. A founder of the Whig party, he is also remembered as the patron of John Locke.

Anthony Ashley Cooper was born in 1621 and had lost both of his parents by the age of eight. He was brought up by Edward Tooker and other guardians named in his father's will, before attending Exeter College, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn. After he married the daughter of Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, in 1639, Coventry's patronage secured Cooper a seat in the Short Parliament, although Cooper lost a disputed election to a seat in the Long Parliament. During the English Civil War, Cooper initially fought as a Royalist, before departing for the Parliamentary side in 1644. During the English Interregnum, he served on the English Council of State under Oliver Cromwell, although he opposed Cromwell's attempt to rule without parliament during the Rule of the Major-Generals. He also opposed the religious extremism of the Fifth Monarchists during Barebone's Parliament.

As a member of the Council of State, Cooper opposed the New Model Army's attempts to rule the country following the downfall of Richard Cromwell, and he encouraged Sir George Monck's march on London. Cooper served as a member of the Convention Parliament of 1660, which determined to restore the English monarchy, and Cooper was one of twelve members of parliament who travelled to the Dutch Republic to invite King Charles II to return to England. Shortly before his coronation, Charles created Cooper Lord Ashley, so when the Cavalier Parliament assembled in 1661 he moved from the House of Commons to the House of Lords. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1661–1672. During the ministry of the Earl of Clarendon, Shaftesbury opposed the imposition of the Clarendon Code and supported Charles II's Declaration of Indulgence (1662), which the king was ultimately forced to withdraw. After the fall of Clarendon, Ashley was one of the members of the so-called Cabal Ministry, serving as Lord Chancellor 1672–1673. He was created Earl of Shaftesbury in 1672. During this period, John Locke entered Ashley's household. Ashley took an interest in colonial ventures and was one of the Lords Proprietor of the Province of Carolina; in 1669, Ashley and Locke collaborated in writing the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. By 1673, Ashley was worried that the heir to the throne, James, Duke of York, was secretly a Roman Catholic.

After the Cabal Ministry ended, Shaftesbury became a leader of the opposition to the policies pursued by Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby. Danby favoured strict interpretation of the penal laws, enforcing mandatory membership of the Church of England. Shaftesbury, who sympathised with the Protestant Nonconformists, briefly agreed to work with the Duke of York, who opposed enforcing the penal laws against Roman Catholic recusants. By 1675, however, Shaftesbury was convinced that Danby, assisted by the bishops of the Church of England, was determined to transform England into an absolute monarchy, and he soon came to see the Duke of York's own religion as linked to this issue. Opposed to the growth of "popery and arbitrary government", throughout the latter half of the 1670s Shaftesbury argued in favour of frequent parliaments (spending time in the Tower of London, 1677–1678 for espousing this view) and argued that the nation needed protection from a potential Roman Catholic successor to King Charles II. During the Exclusion Crisis, Shaftesbury was an outspoken supporter of the Exclusion Bill, although he also endorsed other proposals that would have prevented the Duke of York from becoming king, such as Charles II's remarrying a Protestant princess and producing a Protestant heir to the throne, or legitimising Charles II's illegitimate Protestant son the Duke of Monmouth. The Whig party was born during the Exclusion Crisis, and Shaftesbury was one of the party's most prominent leaders.

In 1681, during the Tory reaction following the failure of the Exclusion Bill, Shaftesbury was arrested for high treason, although the prosecution was dropped several months later. In 1682, after the Tories had gained the ability to pack London juries with their supporters,[1] Shaftesbury, fearing a second prosecution, fled the country. Upon arriving in Amsterdam, he fell ill, and soon died, in January 1683.

Sources

• Arthur Collins, Peerage of England, pp. 545-546
• http://www.juch.org/gedpages/fam/fam08800.htm
• https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/cooper-anthony-ashley/

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Military service
Rank Colonel
Battles/wars
First English Civil War
Capture of Wareham
Capture of Abbotsbury
Capture of Shaftesbury
Relief of Taunton

Spouse(s)

Margaret Coventry (1639–1649, her death)

Frances Cecil (1650–1654, her death)
Margaret Spencer (1655–1683, his death)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Ashley_Cooper,_1st_Earl_of_Sh...

Anthony Ashley Cooper was only ten when his father died. Much of his inheritance was squandered due to the incompetence of his trustees, but the uncertainties of childhood shaped the man. "Sagacious, bold and turbulent of wit," he grew into one of the most influential statesmen of the late seventeenth century.

Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper was born in England and as a young boy both of his parents died. This left his inheritance with a trustee whom his father had appointed, Sir Daniel Norton. Norton also raised Lord Anthony Ashley and as his guardian hired Mr. Fletcher, a puritan as his tutor. This influence would play a part in his political views and actions he would later take.

He married several times. First to Margaret Coventry 25 February 1639 who died 10 July 1649. His second wife was Frances Cecil 15 April 1650 and had two children with her, Anthony and Frances. Frances his daughter, died at the age of 19. On 30 August 1655, Cooper married his third wife, Margaret Spencer.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120360788/anthony-ashley_cooper
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LL48-QPL
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/LL48-QPL
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LL48-QPL