Thomas Coteel

This article deals with the English politician and businessman. For his father of the same name see Thomas Coteel (knight) .

Thomas Coteel (also Cotteel ) (* after 1579; † between August 31 and September 6, 1640 in Litchfield ) was an English businessman and politician who was once elected as a member of the House of Commons .

origin

Thomas Coteel was the eldest son of his father of the same name, Sir Thomas Coteel, and his wife Susanne Stecher. His father came from Flemish merchants, his mother's family came from Augsburg . As Protestants, his parents fled Antwerp during the Dutch uprising in 1576 . By 1579 at the latest, they lived in London, where his father worked as a merchant and where Coteel was probably born. Because of its origins, Coteel was not only proficient in English, but also Dutch and French, and presumably fluent in Italian. At his death he had an extensive book collection with almost 70 books in several languages, which proves his humanistic education .

Activity as a businessman

The younger Coteel started out as a moneylender. His father provided him with the necessary capital. In 1611 he bought Gilbert Lee's right to trade and export sheepskin for £ 1,000 . In 1614, however, he was charged with illicit trade in the Court of Commons Pleas , whereupon he was banned from trading sheepskins. Coteel tried to get the renewal of the export permit from Lee, but the latter did not respond and resumed trading himself in 1616. In 1619 Coteel was charged again. He was believed to have smuggled £ 4,000 worth of gold and silver, but that charge was dropped for lack of evidence. After that, Coteel continued to work as a businessman. In 1622 he exported cloth to Spain and in 1629 he lent money to a group around Nicholas Tufton, 1st Earl of Thanet , but apparently he did not achieve the economic importance of his father.

Political activity

In addition, Coteel was also involved as a politician. His sister Mary had married Sir Richard Edgcumbe , a Cornish nobleman , in 1608 or 1609 . The heavily indebted Edgcumbe put Coteel as trustee of his pledged lands, which Coteel came into contact with other country nobles, including the Edgcumbe related Peter Speccott and Ambrose Manaton . Through these relationships, and probably above all with the support of Sir Nicholas Prideaux , a cousin of Edgcumbe, Coteel was elected in the general election in 1625 as a member of Parliament for the Borough of Camelford . However, nothing is known about his activity in the House of Commons, and he did not run again in the 1626 general election and in subsequent elections.

Building a larger land estate

After Coteel's father bequeathed most of his fortune to him during his lifetime, Coteel invested in real estate from the mid-1620s. First he acquired mortgaged lands, such as an estate owned by Sir Bowyer Worseley on the Isle of Wight in 1624 . In 1625 he bought Steventon Estate in Hampshire for £ 5,300 , which became his country house. He acquired other properties in Lancashire , Essex and London, but the focus of his possessions was Hampshire, where he acquired another estate in 1628 in Litchfield , not far from Steventon . This resulted in Coteel being appointed Sheriff of Hampshire for one year in November 1630 . Since he was obliged to live in Hampshire, he appealed against this appointment. He feared that he would have to neglect his business in London. However, King Charles I had no objection if Coteel went about his business despite his office. As a result, Coteel transferred most of the duties as sheriff to a representative, which led to the fact that the cooperation between Coteel and the judges in Hampshire no longer worked. The judges viewed Coteel as an upstart and from March 1631 almost completely stopped working together. As a result, Coteel had to pay a fine of £ 300 to the Privy Council in May 1631 . In December 1631 he was finally able to hand over the office of sheriff to a successor to his relief. After that, he did not take on any other offices and apparently lived mainly in London. In 1633 he sold Steventon again and acquired other properties on the Isle of Wight.

Dispute over his inheritance

Since Coteel had not married and his younger brother Daniel was also childless, he planned to bequeath his property to his nephew Piers Edgcumbe . As early as 1630 he entrusted this with the administration of parts of his possessions. After the death of his father in 1635, Coteel became his main heir and executor. This led to a dispute, especially with his nieces, which lasted until 1637. In his will of June 13, 1639, however, Coteel bequeathed £ 300 each to his eight nieces, with whom he had previously argued over his father's inheritance. Richard Edgcumbe, a younger son of his sister, was also to receive £ 300. He bequeathed £ 500 to his surviving sister and £ 100 to go to his relatives in Brabant . After the death of his brother Daniel, Coteel finally declared on August 31, 1640 Piers Edgcumbe also formally as his main heir and executor. A few days later he died. Edgcumbe and the pastor had a long argument about the fees for his burial in the crypt of the Church of St Martin Orgar in London, where his father had also been buried.

Web links

• Paul Hunneyball: COTEEL, Thomas (aft. 1579-1640), of Martin Lane (St. Martin's Lane), London; later of Litchfield, Ashe and Steventon, Hants. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1604–1629)