John Cope, Esq., of Denshanger

Biography

John Cope (d. 1414) married twice, 1) “by the end of 1378” to Elizabeth Newenham d.c. 1396 2) Joan (d. 1434).

Child/ren of John and Elizabeth:

• unknown. She must have at least one child surviving until at least 1400, when her widower secured the property she brought to the marriage; that property would likely have reverted elsewhere otherwise.

Children of John and Joan:

• i. John Cope, born 1396 in Passenham, England. 1408, John appointed a porter of Moor End castle in Potterspury, Hundred of Cleley. Bef. 1434, John died; leaving his brother Stephen as heir. Comment: could be son by Joan, 2nd wife.
• ii. Stephen Cope born 1410 in Passenham, England. Stephen Cope was born in 1403. [281] He died in 1436. He married Joan Unknown. She was alive in 1445. [282]
• iii. William Cope born between 1410-1415. Married Miss Gossage.

IPM

12/28/1414, Writ for IPM of John Cope, Esquire. Northampton: He held in his demesne as of fee the site of the manor of Deanshanger and 132 a. arable, …, 1 cottage and … in Wike, Wicken, Passenham, Stony Stratford, Puxley, Whitfield, Deanshanger and Heathencote, all of the king as a 40th part of a knight’s fee, and by his charter dated at Deanshanger on 13 Dec. 1414 granted them to John Longeville, esquire, John Warrewyke, esquire, and Robert Spenser and their heirs and assigns, without royal licence, on condition that they should enfeoff Joan his wife, who survives him, for her life with remainder to his right heirs. … but on account of the transgression the escheator took them into the king’s hands … John (b.1396) his son and heir is aged 18 years and more. (S) CIsPM. [The estate was initially seized by the escheator since John had failed to secure licence for the alienation.]

2/1415, The premises were restored to the feoffees in on payment of a fine of 5 marks. The estate then consisted of the manor house; a garden and dovecote worth 3s. 4d.; 132 a. of land, of which 80 a. were worth 4d. an acre; 18 a. of meadow worth 18d. an acre; 6 a. 1 r. of wood; rent of 4s. 5½d. and a broad-hooked arrow; and two cottages each with 1½ a. of land; all of which lay in Wick Dive, Wick Hamon, Passenham, Stony Stratford, Whitfield, Deanshanger and Heathencote; held for 1/40th of a knight’s fee.

Notes

Northamptonshire Past and Present (2017) Number 70. John Cope of Deanshanger (c.1355 – 1414)...an eminent person. By William Cope. Page 9-15. < PDF >.

John’s first marriage ended with Elizabeth’s death in the mid 1390s, certainly before 1397. In that year, John took the ‘unusual step’ of buying the reversion of the manor of Deanshanger for a fee of 100 marks, and a fortieth part of a knight’s fee, because he held the manor ‘by the courtesy’,9 meaning that he and Elizabeth had had a child or children. Since the manor was Elizabeth’s to start with, had he not taken this step, on his death it would have passed back to her family. One third was still held by Anne, widow of William Hausted, his wife’s aunt. ….

John married his second wife Joan in 1395 or 1396.Their first born was a son named John, born in 1396. John’s Stony Stratford Inquisition Post Mortem tells us that his son and heir John was a minor of 18 years at the death of his father in December 1414.12 Some pedigrees have John married to second wife Joan in 1393 but wrongly call her Joan Newenham, so this period in John’s pedigree can be confusing. Joan survived John and died in 1434.13 It had been said in one pedigree that the son John ‘died before his mother.’14

John and Joan had two more sons.The naming of Stephen, second born, as heir in 1434 confirms that his elder brother John was already deceased. Joan’s Inquisition Post Mortem tells us that Stephen was 24 and more at her passing in 1434,15 so he was born in 1410. Stephen died on 29 July 1445 …

The last son of John and Joan was William, born between 1410 and 1414, who married the daughter and heir of William Gossage of Spratton. Spratton is a village north of Northampton, 22 miles from Deanshanger.William Gossage acquired Spratton in its entirety, and his daughter carried it in marriage to William Cope, who according to Victoria County History, held it in 1488.19 This succession makes some sense, but the date is problematic in that it makes this William a contemporary of his grandson, William Cope of Hanwell, Oxfordshire. For this, VCH cites George Baker in The History and Antiquities of the county of Northampton and Baker cites Knightley’s Evidences.20 William and wife Gossage had one son, named either Stephen or Alexander, of whom there is sparse documentary evidence. Other than his listing, by either name, in various Cope family pedigrees, nothing is known of his birth or death dates, marriage, domicile, or occupation. In Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, he is purported to have died ‘temp HenryVII’.This is possible, but he did not leave a documentary footprint. There is much confusion over his name and he is listed as either father or grandfather of William Cope of Hanwell, cofferer to Henry VII. I come down on the side of Alexander and father.Adding proof ofAlexander’s early demise,upon the death ofAlexander’s father, William Cope, the manor of Spratton passed to his nephew, John Cope, son of his elder brother Stephen. Consequently, we must assume that Alexander had already died earlier than ‘temp Henry VII’.

Notes

According to researches made in England by a member of the American branch of the Cope Family, the earliest known ancestor was John Compe, Esquire, of Denshanger, in the county of Northampton, who was twicemhigh sheriff of the county and five times knight of the shire inmparliament; he espoused the cause of Henry IV, and died in 1417, Joan,mhis widow, died in 1435.

• SOURCE:Gilbert Cope, _Historic Homes and Institutions and,Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties,:Pennsylvania_, 1904.

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Death was second year of reign of Henry V. Family supported house of Lancaster throughout the war of the Roses and fortunes rose and fell as a result.

• SOURCE: Copes of Wiltshire by J. C. Biddle-Cope 1881, in collection of PA Historical Society

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The MEMOIRS OF THE COPES OF WILTSHIRE (James B. Cope) tells of the success of John Cope. in 1398, he has considerable estate,was a member of Parliment, owner of tenements in Wickham, and doing well with a troubled King. However, a new King, CONT Henry IV, cancelled John's debts, and in 1400 appointed him a high sheriff for a long term. Giftys came his way for his faithfullness to the House of Lancaster, including a shield of three roses and the fleur-de-lis of France.,Bought Denshanger, Northamptonshre, 1397.

• SOURCE: Records of the Family Cope, compiled by Emma Elizabeth Cope 1901, in PA Historical Society

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High Sheriff Of Northamptonshire

BIOGRAPHY: Twice High Sheriff of the County and five times Knight of the Shire in Parlaiment. Espoused the cause of King Henry IV.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/COPE/1999-05/0926788923

An eminent man in the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. Received from Richard II the manor of Denshanger, Northants and other rents in Wickden, Wickhammon, Pesenham, Stony-Stratford, Pokesley, Witefield and Moghemoncotes. Henry IV confirmed the grants and added the manor of Westbury, Bucks.

He was Sheriff of Northampton in 1378,1396,1400,1404 and was Knight of the
Shire 1396,1399,1402,1404, 1406. He fought on the side the House of Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses

http://sibertancestry.org/Alphabet/P/Palmer/AnneMarbury.htm

John Cope was born about 1355. [271] He died in December 1414. He married Joan [sic: Elizabeth], the daughter and heir of John Newenham, by his wife Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of Baron Hausted (Hansted) of Hausted.[272]

'Parishes : Adstock', in A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4, ed. William Page (London, 1927), pp. 140-144. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol4/pp140-144 [accessed 13 July 2023].

… William de Hausted died without issue before 1346, and his lands passed to his sister Elizabeth. (fn. 59) Joan de Den, who may possibly be her daughter, held this fee in 1346. (fn. 60) In 1393 John Cope and Elizabeth his wife held Adstock Manor (here called Hausted for the first time), (fn. 61) and it seems likely that it had passed to the Cope family by marriage, for Adstock certainly follows the same descent as Denshanger (Northants), which John Cope held by the courtesy of England in 1397. (fn. 62) …

http://www.teachergenealogist007.com/2010/05/cox-131920-131921.html

1/26/1401, Writ for IPM of Anne wife of William Haustede. Northampton: She held in dower a third part of the manor of Deanshanger, … annual value 40s. All, together with the two parts of the manor which John Cope holds, are held of the king in chief as a fortieth part of a knight’s fee. The reversion belongs to John Cope and his heirs. (S) CIsPM. [Revision by letters patent of 1397, held of his 1st wife.]

References

• History of Parliament Online - COPE, John (d.1414), of Adstock, Bucks. and Denshanger, Northants. < link >; (document attached)
• http://sibertancestry.org/Alphabet/P/Palmer/AnneMarbury.htm cites
  • [280] “Cope, John (d.1414), of Adstock, Bucks. and Denshanger, Northants.,” online article, The History of Parliament, reprinted from J.S. Roskell et al., The History of Parliament.
  • [281] Howard, Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, vol. 4, 208.
  • [282] Howard, Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, vol. 4, 208.
• Northamptonshire Past and Present (2017) Number 70. John Cope of Deanshanger (c.1355 – 1414)...an eminent person. By William Cope. Page 9-15. < PDF >
  • 6 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Series 3, volume 4, p. 208. < Archive.Org >. (document attached). Comment: Elizabeth Newenham is confabulated with John Cope’s 2nd wife Joan (unknown).
  • 7 Victoria County History - Buckinghamshire, volume 4, pp 140-144 (British History Online
  • 8 Feet of Fines abstract,TNA CP 25/1/21/108, No 12.
  • 9 Clark, Linda, ed., History of Parliament Project. Special thanks for the detailed explanation of ‘by the courtesy’.
  • 10 Calendar of Patent Rolls, Richard II,Vol 6, 1396 – 1399, p. 210.
  • 11 Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry IV, Vol 1, 1399 – 1401, p. 18.
  • 12 Inquisition Post Mortem, John Cope, Stony Stratford, 2 Henry V, #20.
  • 13 E-CIPM 24-307 & 308: Joan, wife of John Cope; (www.inquisitionpostmortem.ac.uk). 14 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Series 3,Vol 4, p. 208.
  • 15 E-CIPM 24-307 & 308: Joan, wife of John Cope.