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Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury

2025-05-17T15:15:16Z

2A00:23C4:54E4:B01:E413:17C3:29B:D790: /* External links */

{{Short description|Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1861 to 1865}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Lord Westbury
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC}}
| image = Lord Westbury LC by John Watkins.jpg
| imagesize =
| order1 = [[Lord Chancellor]]
| term_start1 = 26 June 1861
| term_end1 = 7 July 1865
| monarch1 = [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]]
| primeminister1 = [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|The Viscount Palmerston]]
| predecessor1 = [[John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell|The Lord Campbell]]
| successor1 = [[Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth|The Lord Cranworth]]
| birth_date = {{birth-date|30 June 1800|}}
| birth_place = [[Bradford on Avon]], Wiltshire
| death_date = {{death-date and age|20 July 1873|30 June 1800}}
| death_place = [[Lancaster Gate]], London
| nationality = British
| party = [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]]
| children = 8, including [[Augusta Bethell|Augusta]]
| spouse = {{Plainlist|
* {{Marriage |Ellinor Abraham |1823|1863|end=d}}
* {{Marriage |Eleanor Tennant |1873}}}}
| alma_mater = [[Wadham College, Oxford]]
}}
[[Image:Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury by Michele Gordigiani.jpg|thumb|200px|Lord Westbury by [[Michele Gordigiani]].]]

'''Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|sep=,|PC}} (30 June 1800 – 20 July 1873) was a British lawyer, judge and [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] politician. He served as [[Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain]] between 1861 and 1865. He was knighted in 1852 and raised to the peerage in 1861.<ref name="times">{{cite news |title=Death of Lord Westbury |work=[[The Times]] |page=10 |date=21 July 1873 }}</ref>

==Background and education==
Born at [[Bradford on Avon]], in [[Wiltshire]], he was the eldest son of the physician Richard Bethell of [[Bristol]] and Jane (''née'' Baverstock). He was from an old Welsh family originally named ''Ap Ithel''. His younger brother was [[John Bethell (inventor)|John Bethell]].<ref name="John Bethell">{{cite web|title=John Bethell|website=Grace's Guide to British Industrial History|publisher=Grace's Guide|url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/John_Bethell|access-date=27 August 2016}}</ref>

He was educated in Bath and Bristol before attending [[Wadham College, Oxford]] at only 14 years old. He received a scholarship the next year. He took first-class honours in classics and second class in mathematics, and he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1818 and was elected a fellow of his college.<ref name="times"/><ref name = Dod>{{cite book | last = Dod | first = Robert P. | title = The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland | year = 1860 | publisher = Whitaker and Co. | location = London | pages = 117 }}</ref> In 1823, Bethell was called to the bar at the [[Middle Temple]].<ref name = Dod/><ref name="burke">{{cite book|title=Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage|date=1885|publisher=Burke's Peerage Limited|pages=1384–1385|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6u8_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1384|language=en}}</ref>

==Career==
Westbury was made a [[Queen's Counsel]] in 1840 was appointed [[Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster]] in 1851.<ref name = Dod/> His most important public service was the reform of the then existing mode of legal education, a reform which ensured that students before call to the bar should have at least some acquaintance with the elements of the subject which they were to profess.<ref name="times"/>

In 1847, he ran unsuccessfully for Parliament; contesting [[Shaftesbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Shaftesbury]], he lost to Whig politician [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan (MP)|Richard Brinsley Sheridan]].<ref name="times"/> He was successful in his second attempt in 1851, when he was elected for [[Aylesbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Aylesbury]]. Attaching himself to the liberals, he became [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor General]] in 1852, on which occasion he was made a [[Knight Bachelor]].

In 1854, Westbury was appointed to the [[Royal Commission for Consolidating the Statute Law]], a [[royal commission]] to consolidate existing statutes and enactments of [[English law]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Ilbert |first=Courtenay |author-link=Courtenay Ilbert |url=https://archive.org/details/legislativemetho00ilbeiala/page/56 |title=Legislative methods and forms |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |year=1901 |location=Oxford |pages=57 |language=en |access-date=9 September 2024}}</ref>

Westbury was nominated [[Attorney-General]] in 1856 and again in 1859, serving both times for two years. He represented [[Wolverhampton (UK Parliament constituency)|Wolverhampton]] from 1859 to 1861.<ref name="times" />

On 26 June 1861, on the death of [[John Campbell, 1st Baron Campbell|Lord Campbell]], he was appointed [[Lord Chancellor]] and raised to the peerage as '''Baron Westbury''', of [[Westbury, Wiltshire|Westbury]], in the [[County of Wiltshire]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=22524 |date=28 June 1861 |page=2689}}</ref> Owing to the reception by parliament of reports of committees nominated to consider the circumstances of certain appointments in the Leeds [[Court of Bankruptcy|Bankruptcy Court]], as well as the granting a pension to a Mr Leonard Edmunds, a [[patent clerk|clerk]] in the patent office, and a [[clerk of the parliaments]], the Lord Chancellor felt it incumbent upon him to resign his office, which he accordingly did on 5 July 1865, and was succeeded by [[Robert Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth]]. After his resignation he continued to take part in the judicial sittings of the [[House of Lords]] and the [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Council]] until his death. In 1872 he was appointed arbitrator under the European Assurance Society Act 1872.

==Character==
Perhaps the best known of his decisions was the judgment delivering the opinion of the judicial committee of the privy council in 1863 against the heretical character of certain extracts from the well-known publication ''[[Essays and Reviews]]''.

His principal legislative achievements were the passing of the [[Matrimonial Causes Act 1857]], and of the [[Land Registry Act 1862]] (generally known as Lord Westbury's Act), the latter of which in practice proved a failure. What chiefly distinguished Lord Westbury was the possession of a certain sarcastic humour; and numerous are the stories, authentic and apocryphal, of its exercise. In fact, he and [[William Henry Maule|Sir William Henry Maule]] filled a position analogous to that of [[Sydney Smith]], convenient names to whom good things may be attributed.

==Family==
Lord Westbury married Ellinor Mary, daughter of [[Robert Abraham (architect)|Robert Abraham]], in 1825. His younger brother John married another daughter of Abraham, Louisa Sarah, in 1833.<ref name="John Bethell"/> They had four sons and four daughters:

*Ellen (1826–1880)
*Eliza (1828–1916)
*Richard Augustus, 2nd Baron (1830–1875)
*Slingsby (1831–1896)
*Arthur Howard (1833–1834)
*Emma Louisa (1835–1877)
*[[Augusta Bethell|Augusta]] (1839–1931)
*Walter John (1842–1907)

After Ellinor Mary's death in March 1863, Richard Bethell married Eleanor Margaret, daughter of Henry Tennant, in January 1873.<ref name="burke"/> After an illness, Westbury died six months later on 20 July 1873, within a day of the death of Bishop [[Samuel Wilberforce]], his special antagonist in debate. He was buried in the Great Northern Cemetery (now the [[New Southgate Cemetery]]). He was succeeded in the barony by his son from his first marriage, Richard, who committed suicide two years later. Lady Westbury died in December 1894.

Lord Westbury's daughter [[Augusta Bethell]] was a children's author and translator who was sought in marriage by [[Edward Lear]] before marrying Henry Charles Adamson Parker and then barrister Thomas Arthur Nash.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lodge |first=Sara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YHhyDwAAQBAJ&dq=augusta+bethell&pg=PA178 |title=Inventing Edward Lear |date=2019-02-04 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-97115-8 |pages=178–80 |language=en}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{EB1911|wstitle=Westbury, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons category|Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury}}
* {{find a Grave|7469055}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury}}
* {{Hansard-contribs | sir-richard-bethell | Lord Westbury }}
* {{cite book |last1=Hutchinson |first1=John |title=A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices |date=1902 |publisher=the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple |location=Canterbury |page=20 |edition=1 |chapter=[[s:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices/Bethell, Richard|Bethell, Richard]]}}

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| with = [[Quintin Dick]] 1851–1852
| with2 = [[Austen Henry Layard]] 1852–1857
| with3 = [[Thomas Tyringham Bernard]] 1857–1859
| years = 1851 – [[1859 United Kingdom general election|1859]] }}
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{{Lord chancellors}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethell, Richard}}
[[Category:1800 births|Westbury, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:1873 deaths|Westbury, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Attorneys general for England and Wales]]
[[Category:Barons Westbury|1]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Lord chancellors of Great Britain|Westbury, Richard Bethell, 1st Baron]]
[[Category:Members of the Middle Temple]]
[[Category:People from Bradford-on-Avon]]
[[Category:19th-century King's Counsel]]
[[Category:Solicitors general for England and Wales]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1847–1852]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1852–1857]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1857–1859]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1859–1865]]
[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages|Westbury]]
[[Category:Burials at New Southgate Cemetery]]
[[Category:English people of Welsh descent]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]]
[[Category:Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria]]

Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield

2025-05-17T14:36:26Z

2A00:23C4:54E4:B01:E413:17C3:29B:D790: /* External links */

{{Short description|English Whig politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Earl of Macclesfield
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC|FRS}}
| image = Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Portrait after [[Godfrey Kneller|Sir Godfrey Kneller]] (1712).
| office = [[Lord Chancellor]]
| monarch = [[George I of Great Britain|George I]]
| primeminister = Sir [[Robert Walpole]] {{small|(1721–1725)}}
| term_start = 12 May 1718
| term_end = 7 January 1725
| predecessor = ''In Commission''
| successor = ''In Commission''
| birth_date = {{birth date|1666|7|23|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Staffordshire]], [[England]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1732|4|28|1666|7|23|df=yes}}
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| spouse =
| children =
| occupation = Politician
| alma_mater =
| religion =
| signature =
}}
[[File:Arms of Parker.svg|thumb|200px|Arms of Parker, Earls of Macclesfield: ''Gules, a chevron between three leopard's faces or''<ref>Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.723</ref>]]
'''Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|PC|FRS}} (23 July 1666 – 28 April 1732) was an [[England|English]] [[Whig (British political faction)|Whig]] politician who sat in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] from 1705 to 1710. He was Lord Chief Justice from 1710 to 1718 and acted briefly as one of the [[regent]]s before the arrival of [[George I of Great Britain|King George I]] in Britain. His career ended when he was convicted of corruption on a massive scale and he spent the later years of his life in retirement at his home, [[Shirburn Castle]] in Oxfordshire.

==Early life==
Parker was born in [[Staffordshire]], the son of Thomas Parker, an attorney at [[Leek, Staffordshire|Leek]] and his wife Anne, daughter of Robert Venables of Nuneham, Cheshire. [[Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet]], a leading figure in Irish public life for three decades, was his first cousin. He was educated at [[Adams' Grammar School]] at Newport, Shropshire, [[Derby School]] in 1680 and at Rev. Samuel Ogden's school at Derby. He was admitted at [[Inner Temple]] in 1684 and at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]] as a pensioner in 1685.<ref name=CU>{{acad|id=PRKR685T|name=Parker, Thomas}}</ref> On 23 April 1691, he married Janet Carrier, whose sister was the wife of William Anson and mother of the future [[George Anson, 1st Baron Anson|Admiral Lord Anson]]. He was called to the bar in 1694.<ref name=HOP/> Together they had two children:

*Lady Elizabeth Parker (d. 21 Feb 1747) married [[Sir William Heathcote, 1st Baronet]]. They had six sons and three daughters.
*[[George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield]] (circa 1697 – 17 Mar 1764)

==Political career==
Parker was returned as Whig [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Derby (UK Parliament constituency)|Derby]] at the [[1705 English general election]] and was appointed QC and serjeant-at-law and [[knight]]ed on 9 July 1705. He was returned unopposed for Derby at the [[1708 British general election]]. Like other Whigs, he voted for the general naturalization of foreign Protestants in 1709. Being one of the leading Whig lawyers in the House of Commons, he was deeply involved in the moves to impeach Dr Sacheverell. He was appointed to the committee to draw up the articles of impeachment on 14 December 1709. The committee was later given the management of the trial. In 1710 he refused the office of [[Lord Chancellor|Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain]], but was made a [[Privy Council of Great Britain|Privy Counsellor]]. The office of [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Lord Chief Justice]] fell vacant in 1710 and the administration wanted a quick replacement. Parker was appointed on 11 March 1710 and vacated his seat in the House of Commons.<ref name = HOP>{{cite web| url = http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/parker-thomas-1667-1732| title=PARKER, Thomas (1667–1732), of Bridge Street, Derby, and Essex Street, London | publisher= History of Parliament Online| access-date = 3 June 2019 }}</ref>

==Lord Chief Justice==
[[Image:1stEarlOfMacclesfield.jpg|thumb|left|The Earl of Macclesfield, by [[Godfrey Kneller|Sir Godfrey Kneller]].]]
From 1710 to 1718 Parker was involved in the prosecution of [[Henry Sacheverell]]. He made a vehement attack on Sacheverell and the high church clergy. He defended Whig propagandists and harried Tory publicists, including Defoe and Swift, on the slightest suspicion of favouring the Pretender. He spoke against the peace in the Privy Council in April 1713. In June 1714 he was given evidence of the recruiting activity of Jacobite agents which resulted in a price being placed on the Pretender's head.<ref name=HOP/> On 1 August 1714, [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] died, and her successor, [[George I of Great Britain|King George I]], was in [[Electorate of Hanover|Hanover]], so Baron Parker was designated as one of the regents of Great Britain, Ireland and the realms beyond the seas until the new monarch arrived in Britain. His support for the Hanoverian succession was appreciated by [[George I of Great Britain|King George I]] who reappointed him lord chief justice in 1714, and raised him to the peerage as '''Baron Parker of Macclesfield''' in 1716, in which year he purchased, and then commenced to restore, [[Shirburn Castle]] in Oxfordshire, which was to be the seat of the house of Macclesfield for the next 300 years. In 1718, because the King could not speak English, Parker read the [[speech from the throne|King's Speech]] in the [[House of Lords]].

==Lord Chancellor==
In 1718, Parker became Lord Chancellor, and was given a pension for life. In 1721, he was advanced to the title '''[[Earl of Macclesfield]]''' with the additional subsidiary title of '''Viscount Parker'''.

==Impeachment==
In 1724, Parker was implicated in financial irregularities, but he did not resign as [[Lord Chancellor|Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain]] until 1725. In 1725, he was [[impeachment in the United Kingdom|impeached]] and tried in the [[House of Lords]]. He was, unanimously, convicted of corruption for taking more than £100,000 in bribes (the equivalent of more than £11,000,000 today). He was fined £30,000 and placed in the [[Tower of London]] until payment was received. He was also struck off the roll of the [[Privy Council]]. He was a fabulously wealthy man, possibly because of his corruption, but as this money was confiscated, he had no resources to pay a fine. He spent most of the rest of his life at Shirburn Castle. He died in [[Soho Square]], London on 28 April 1732 and was buried at Shirburn.<ref name=HOP/>

Parker was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1713. He was a friend of [[Bernard Mandeville|Bernard de Mandeville]], whose satirical ''Fable of the Bees'' became highly controversial in the 1720s. He was patron of a grammar school built at [[Leek, Staffordshire|Leek]], his home town. In 1727, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of another friend, Sir [[Isaac Newton]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040821170715/http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts/HITS0001.ASP?VPath=c%21%2Finetpub%2Fwwwroot%2Fmss%2Fdata%2Fmsscat%2Fhtml%2F20846.htm&Search=Stowe.+750&Highlight=F Manuscript reference]
* [http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1725806 'everything'] on-line reference
* [http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/frames/fulldesc?inst_id=13&coll_id=3645&full=1&template=1 document] relating to his impeachment.
* [http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/ How Much Is That Worth Today?]

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{{Lord chancellors}}
{{Walpole/Townshend ministry}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macclesfield, Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of}}
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William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper

2025-05-17T14:35:21Z

2A00:23C4:54E4:B01:E413:17C3:29B:D790: /* External links */

{{short description|17th- and 18-century English politician and first Lord Chancellor of Great Britain}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
|name = The Earl Cowper
|honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|PC|KC|FRS}}
|image = William Earl Cowper LC by Jonathan Richardson.jpg
|imagesize =
|alt =
|caption = Portrait by [[Jonathan Richardson]]
|order = [[Lord Chancellor]] {{small|[[Lord High Steward]] for the trials of:{{Collapsible list|[[James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater|The Earl of Derwentwater]]|[[William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington|The Lord Widdrington]]|[[William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale|The Earl of Nithsdale]]|[[Robert Dalzell, 5th Earl of Carnwath|The Earl of Carnwath]]|[[William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure|The Viscount of Kenmure]]|[[William Murray, 2nd Lord Nairne|The Lord Nairne]]|[[George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton|The Earl of Winton]]|[[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer|The Earl of Oxford and Mortimer]]}}}}
|office =
|term_start = 4 May 1707
|term_end = 23 September 1710
|monarch = [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]]
|predecessor = himself {{small|as [[Lord Keeper of the Great Seal|Lord Keeper]]}}
|successor = ''In Commission''
|term_start1 = 21 September 1714
|term_end1 = 15 April 1718
|monarch1 = {{unbulleted list|[[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]]|[[George I of Great Britain|George I]]}}
|predecessor1 = [[Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt|The Lord Harcourt]]
|successor1 = ''In Commission''
|order2 = [[Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England]]
|term_start2 = 11 October 1705
|term_end2 = 4 May 1707
|monarch2 = [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]]
|predecessor2 = [[Sir Nathan Wright]]
|successor2 = himself {{small|as Lord Chancellor}}
|birth_date = {{circa|1665}}
|birth_place =
|death_date = 10 October 1723
|death_place = Panshanger, [[Hertfordshire]] [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
|restingplace =
|restingplacecoordinates =
|children = {{plainlist|
*[[William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper|William Clavering-Cowper]]
*[[Spencer Cowper (priest)|Spencer Cowper]]
}}
|mother = [[Sarah Cowper]]
|father = [[William Cowper, 2nd Baronet|William Cowper]]
|relatives = {{plainlist|
*[[Spencer Cowper]] (brother)
*[[Judith Madan]] (niece)
}}
}}
[[File:William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper by Jonathan Richardson.jpg|thumb|The Earl Cowper.]]
'''William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|PC|KC|FRS}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|uː|p|ər}} {{respell|KOO|pər}}; {{circa|1665}}{{snd}}10 October 1723) was an [[Kingdom of England|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 [[British Whig Party|Whig]] member of parliament of some mark in the two last Stuart reigns.

==Career and titles==
Cowper was educated at [[St Albans School (Hertfordshire)|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 [[William III of England|Prince of Orange]] on his landing in England in 1688, and was made [[King's Counsel]] and [[Recorder (judge)|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.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Cowper, William Cowper, 1st Earl |volume=7 |pages=348–349 }}</ref>

===Lord Keeper of the Great Seal===
On 11 October 1705 he was sworn to the [[Privy Council of England|Privy Council]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Privy Counsellors 1679 – 1835|url=http://www.leighrayment.com/pcouncil/pcouncil1.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607022452/http://leighrayment.com/pcouncil/pcouncil1.htm|archive-date=7 June 2008|publisher=leighrayment.com|url-status=usurped|access-date=16 January 2011}}</ref> 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.<ref name="EB1911"/> 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 should wear a wig to lend him gravity.<ref>Gregg, Edward ''Queen Anne'' Yale University Press 2001 p. 206</ref>

===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 [[Henry Sacheverell|Dr Sacheverell]] in 1710, but resigned the seal when [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer|Harley]] and [[Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke|Bolingbroke]] took office in the same year.<ref name="EB1911"/> Queen Anne, who had high regard for him, "begged him with tears in her eyes" not to resign,<ref>Gregg, p.323</ref> and though she was reluctantly persuaded to accept his resignation, continued to consult him unofficially for the remainder of her reign.<ref>Gregg p.331</ref> On the death of [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]], [[George I of Great Britain|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.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===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 [[Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer|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 of 1715|Jacobite rising]], his sentences on whom have been censured as unnecessarily severe. He warmly supported the [[Septennial Bill]] in the same year.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===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 [[George II of Great Britain|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 [[Francis Atterbury|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.<ref name="EB1911"/> It is notable that Queen Anne, despite her prejudice against the [[Whig (British political party)|Whigs]] in general, came to have 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 [[Court of Common Pleas (England)|Judge of the Common Pleas]] (1727). He was great uncle of [[William Cowper]], the poet.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==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 Cowper|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.<ref name=parl>[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/cowper-william-1665-1723 William Cowper], History of Parliament, Retrieved 12 February 2017</ref> The 1st Earl left two sons and two daughters by his second wife:

* Lady Sarah Cowper (1707–1758)
* [[William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper|William Clavering-Cowper]] (1709–1764), succeeded as 2nd Earl
* [[Spencer Cowper (priest)|Spencer Cowper]] (1713–1774), [[Dean of Durham]]
* Lady Anne Cowper (died 1750), married [[James Colleton (died 1790)|James Colleton]] {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MP}}

===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.

Tory writers satirised Lord Cowper as a bigamist. In ''[[The New Atalantis]]'' by [[Delarivier Manley]], the married Hernando eloquently persuades an impressionable young woman that double marriage is lawful, seducing her with a sham marriage ceremony.<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Manley|author-first=Delarivier|title=Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of both Sexes, From The New Atalantis|year=1709|pages=218–229|url=https://archive.org/details/secretmemoirsman00manl/page/218/mode/2up|access-date=2 May 2023}}</ref> [[Jonathan Swift]] referred to Cowper as "Will Bigamy".<ref>{{cite wikisource|author-last=Swift|author-first=Jonathan|year=1710|title=The Examiner, No. 17|wslink=The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 3/The Examiner, Number 17}}</ref> In his diary, [[Thomas Hearne (antiquarian)|Thomas Hearne]] recorded that Cowper was "well known to have had two wives at a time".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Bliss|editor-first=Philip|title=Reliquiae Hearnianae: The Remains Of Thomas Hearne|year=1869|orig-year=1705|volume=1|page=43|publisher=John Russell Smith |url=https://archive.org/details/reliquiaehearnia028618mbp/page/n53|access-date=2 May 2023}}</ref> The rumours may have gained traction because Elizabeth Culling was of a station in life that perhaps would, in other circumstances, have led to her becoming Cowper's wife, rather than his mistress. 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.<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=046-dep_3&cid=-1#-1 National Archives]</ref>

==Later years and death==
In his last years Cowper was accused, but probably without reason, of active sympathy with the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]]s. 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.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Relatives==
{{Cowper family tree|collapsed=yes}}

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Earl.svg|centre|150px]] [[File:Cowper Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]]
|escutcheon = Argent three martlets Gules on a chief engrailed of the last three annulets Or.
|crest = A lion's jamb erased Or holding a cherry branch Vert fructed Gules.
|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) <ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=1869}}</ref>}}

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*''Private Diary of Earl Cowper'', edited by [[Edward Craven Hawtrey|E. C. 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)
*T. B. Howell, ''State Trials'', vols xii–xv. (33 vols, London, 1809–1828)
*[[George Cokayne|George E. Cokayne]], ''Complete Peerage'' (London, 1889).{{volume needed|date=October 2020}}{{pages needed|date=October 2020}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category|William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper}}
* {{DNB|prescript=|wstitle=Cowper, William (d.1723)|volume=12|ref=none}}
* {{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6511|title=Cowper, William, first Earl Cowper (1665–1723)|last=Treasure|first=Geoffrey|date=January 2009|volume=1|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/6511}}
* [https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_COW UK Parliamentary Archives, The Cowper Books of Standing Orders]

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{{Lord chancellors}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowper, William Cowper, 1st Earl}}
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