Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont

Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont

Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont (* 1655 or 1636 in Ireland ; † March 5, 1701 (Julian calendar) in New York City ) was an Irish peer and politician, and colonial governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay , the Province of New Hampshire and the Province of New York .

Life

Richard Coote's year of birth is given as 1636 in some sources and 1655 in others. Not much is known about his youth. He came from a noble family and inherited the title Baron Coote of Coloony when his father Richard Coote died in 1683 . He was first noticed in 1677 when he killed a man in a duel. Coote supported the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was a supporter of the new royal couple Wilhelm III. and Maria II. As a reward for his loyalty he was appointed Treasurer of the Queen's Household ( Treasurer to the Queen ), which he held from 1689 to 1694, and in 1689 toEarl of Bellomont raised and obtained extensive lands in Ireland. This title, like his baron title, belonged to the Peerage of Ireland and was associated with a seat in the upper house of the Irish Parliament .

In addition, Coote was a member of the Lower House of the English Parliament from 1688 to 1695 as a Member of Parliament for Droitwich . There he successfully campaigned for compensation for the son of Jakob Leisler , who was executed in New York in 1691 as a result of the Leisler rebellion . Leisler's son received his father's confiscated goods back in America. From 1698 Coote was appointed colonial governor of three American colonies. He held this office almost simultaneously in the provinces of New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He spent most of the time in New York. He stayed in New Hampshire for only two weeks in the summer of 1699. In New York he had to deal with the still noticeable consequences of the Leisler rebellion. Also, piracy was a big problem in America at the time. Coote's predecessor in the province of New York Benjamin Fletcher had given the pirates a free hand and thus brought golden times to the buccaneers. Coote initially also supported the pirate William Kidd , but then turned against him. He arranged for Kidd's arrest and extradition to England, where he was convicted and hanged. As a result, he fought piracy. Another problem for Coote was preventing a rapprochement between the Iroquois and the French, who could then have jointly taken action against the English bases in New England . In New Hampshire and Massachusetts there was tension with the Abenaki , which Coote was trying to reduce. In all three colonies he also had to deal with internal opposition. During Coote's tenure in New York, the colony's debt also rose sharply. There he had turned the merchants against him in connection with his trade policy. Among his opponents was the later acting colonial governor Rip Van Dam .

Marriage and offspring

On August 19, 1680, he married Catherine Nanfan (1665-1738). With her he had two sons:

• Nanfan Coote, 2nd Earl of Bellomont (around 1681-1708);
• Richard Coote, 3rd Earl of Bellomont (around 1683–1766).

Web links

• Coote at the History of Parliament
• Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont on thepeerage.com
• Coote on the New Hampshire History Blog
• Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont on thepeerage.com , accessed September 11, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Earl of Bellomont 1689-1701	Nanfan Coote
Richard Coote	Baron Coote of Coloony 1683-1701	Nanfan Coote