COPPINGER, Ambrose (c.1546-1604), of Buxhall, Suff.; later of Dawley Court, Mdx.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1546, 3rd s. of Henry Coppinger of Buxhall by Agnes, da. of Sir Thomas Jermyn of Suff. educ. St. John’s, Camb. 1560, BA and fellow 1565, MA 1568; Barnard’s Inn; G. Inn 1575. m. Lettice, da. of Edward Fitzgerald. Kntd. 1603.

Offices Held

Rector of Buxhall 1569-71; collector of the clerical subsidy 1585; ?bursar, St. John’s, Camb.; servant of the Earl of Warwick bef. 1590; receiver to Anne, Countess of Warwick by 1596.

Biography

Coppinger was something of an oddity in this period, entering the church, and being presented by his father to the living of Buxhall, which had been in the family since 35 Hen. VIII. Resigning in 1571, he entered the service of the Earl of Warwick, who bequeathed him 100 marks. Next he appears as receiver to the Countess of Warwick, sister-in-law of the 2nd Earl of Pembroke. It may have been this connexion that obtained him his return for Ludgershall in 1586, his earlier status as a clerk in holy orders having been either forgotten or else considered irrelevant as he no longer held a cure of souls. It was presumably through the opportunities offered by his employment with the Earl and Countess of Warwick that he, a poor younger son, was able to acquire a substantial estate in Kent, Suffolk and Middlesex, including the manor and advowson of Harlington. Despite unspecified ‘offensive matters’ against him in June 1601, he was visited by the Queen in the following year, when ‘because he had been a master of arts’ as John Chamberlain put it, he treated her to a Latin oration. Knighted at the coronation of James I, he died between making his will 10 Mar. 1604 and its proof, 7 Apr. ‘A mystical member of the body of Christ Jesus’, he commended his soul ‘into the hands of the Holy Trinity’.

W. A. Copinger, Hist. Parish of Buxhall, Hist. Copingers or Coppingers, Suff Manors, passim; Nichols, Progresses Eliz.iii. 578-9; Add. 5755, f. 96; Lysons, Mdx. Parishes, 127, 128, 133; Hasted, Kent, vi. 390; Lansd. 46, f. 67; APC, xxxi. 396, 430; Chamberlain Letters ed. McClure, i. 160; PCC 28, 43 Drury, 42 Harte.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes