William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper

William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper

William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper PC KC (born June 24, 1665 , † October 10, 1723 in Colne Green , England ) was a British lawyer and politician who, among other things, was a member of the House of Commons and Lord Guardian of the Great Seal for several years ( Lord Keeper of the Great Seal ) was the last Lord Chancellor of England and became the first Lord Chancellor of Great Britain on November 4, 1707 . He held the office of Lord Chancellor until 1710 and then again between 1714 and 1718 and acted as such as Lords High Steward of England in the trials against members of the nobility such as William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale in 1716 and Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer 1717.

Life

Member of the House of Commons and last Lord Chancellor of England

Cowper, son of William Cowper, 2nd Baronet , was admitted to the bar in 1688 as a barrister at the Middle Temple and in 1689 was crown attorney (King's Counsel) . In addition, he was appointed city judge ( recorder ) in 1694 .

As a candidate for the liberal Whigs , Cowper was first elected to the House of Commons in 1695, where he represented the Hertford constituency until 1700 . 1701 he was re-elected to the House of Commons, where he now represented the interests of the Bere Alston constituency for the Whigs .

In 1705, Cowper succeeded Nathan Wright as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal , making him de facto the last Lord Chancellor of England. At the same time he was appointed a member of the Privy Council and in 1706 was a member of the commission for negotiating a union with Scotland . After the death of his father, he inherited the title of Baronet Cowper , of Ratlin Court, in the County of Kent on November 26, 1706 . Shortly thereafter, he was by a Letters Patent of 14 December 1706 Baron Cowper , of Wingham in the County of Kent, in the hereditary nobility (Hereditary peerage) appointed by England and was as such, the House of Lords as a member.

First Lord Chancellor of Great Britain

After the Act of Union 1707 on May 1, 1707 for the unification of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to the Kingdom of Great Britain, Cowper became its first Lord Chancellor (Lord High Chancellor) on May 4, 1707 and held this office until his Replacement by Simon Harcourt in 1710.

He then succeeded the late Algernon Capell, 2nd Earl of Essex , as Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire in 1710 and held this post for two years before he was succeeded in 1712 by James Cecil, 5th Earl of Salisbury .

After he had briefly been Lord Justice of the Realm in 1714, he was again Lord Chancellor in 1714 as the successor to Baron Harcourt and held this office until his replacement by Thomas Parker, Baron Parker , in 1718. At the same time he was the successor of Earl of Salisbury from 1715 until he was replaced by William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex , again Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.

As Lord Chancellor, he also served as Lord High Steward in the trials of the members of the nobility James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater , William Widdrington, 4th Baron Widdrington , William Maxwell, 5th Earl of Nithsdale , Robert Dalzell, 5th Earl of Carnwath , William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure , William Murray, 2nd Lord Nairne and George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton in 1716 and against Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer in 1717.

Cowper, who was temporarily governor of the traditional, elite private school Charterhouse School , was named Earl Cowper , of Wingham in the County of Kent, with the subordinate title Viscount Fordwich , of Wingham in the County of Kent by a letters patent from March 20, 1718 .

family

Cowper has been married twice. While the first marriage with Judith Booth in 1686 remained childless, the second marriage in September 1706 resulted in two sons and two daughters, including William Clavering-Cowper , who inherited his title after his death and from 1733 to 1747 Gentleman of the Was bedchamber of King George II .

His younger brother Spencer Cowper , who also received his admission as a barrister of Middle Temple, was his successor as Member of the House of Commons for Bere Alston from 1705 to 1710 and later represented the constituency of Truro in the House of Commons between 1715 and 1727 .

Web links

• Entry on cracroftspeerage.co.uk
• Entry in leighrayment.com
• William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, on thepeerage.com , accessed August 17, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baron Cowper 1706-1723	William Clavering-Cowper
New title created	Earl Cowper 1718-1723	William Clavering-Cowper