COPE, Jonathan I (1664-94), of Ranton Abbey, Staffs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1690 - 14 Sept. 1694

Family and Education

b. 9 July 1664, 3rd s. of Jonathan Cope of Ranton Abbey by Anne, da. of Sir Halton Farmer of Easton Neston, Northants.  educ. Christ Church, Oxf. 1681.  m. settlement 19 Oct. 1688, Susannah, da. of Sir Thomas Fowle*, 3s.  suc. bro. 1675.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Staffs. 1685–6.

Biography

Cope’s father, a younger son of Sir William Cope, 2nd Bt.†, of Hanwell, Oxfordshire, had inherited the family’s Staffordshire estates: Cope himself, also a younger son, succeeded his elder brother in 1675 to this property and then became the likely heir of the main branch of the family following the decision of his cousin Sir Anthony Cope, 4th Bt.†, to disinherit any children born to Sir Anthony’s brother John (Sir John Cope, 5th Bt.*). He was thus a man of considerable actual and potential standing, the estate in Staffordshire being estimated at £800 p.a. (plus another £300 after his mother’s decease), in a court case in 1698–9.2

Cope was elected to the 1690 Parliament after a sharp contest with Philip Foley* at Stafford. The Marquess of Carmarthen (Sir Thomas Osborne†) was in no doubt of his political affiliation, marking him as a Tory and a probable Court supporter on a list of the new House. His name appears on another list drawn up by Carmarthen in December 1690 probably denoting likely support for the minister in the event of an attack upon him in the Commons. In April 1691 Robert Harley* marked his name with a ‘d’, denoting doubtful or dead. Cope did not play a significant role in the House, acting as a teller only once, against an adjournment motion on 14 Apr. 1694, in order to allow discussion of a clause in the tunnage and poundage bill to limit the trading activities of the Bank of England. Cope died on 14 Sept. 1694, although reports of his impending death had reached Foley by the 11th. His will, dated 15 July 1694, made provision for his three sons, and directed that his body be buried in Ellenhall church, where it was interred on 22 Sept. His eldest son was created a baronet while a Member for Banbury and inherited the Hanwell estates in 1721.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Stuart Handley

Notes

  • 1. Ellenhall Par. Reg. (Staffs. Par. Reg. Soc. 1944–5), 17, 20–21; Misc. Gen. et Her. ser. 3, iv. 222; T. E. Sharpe, Royal Dissent, 15.
  • 2. Sharpe, 15; A. Beesley, Hist. Banbury, 261; PCC 12 Bence; HMC Lords, n.s. iii. 270.
  • 3. BL, Verney mss mic. 636/47, John Verney* (Ld. Fermanagh) to Sir Ralph Verney†, 15 Sept. 1694; Hereford and Worcester RO (Hereford), Foley mss, Foley to ‘Mr P.’, 11 Sept. 1694; PCC 217 Plymouth; Ellenhall Par. Reg. 30.