thumb|The Earl Cowper.

William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, ( ; 10 October 1723) was an 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 Whig member of parliament of some mark in the two last Stuart reigns.

Career and titles

Cowper was educated at 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 Prince of Orange on his landing in England in 1688, and was made King's Counsel and 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.

Lord Keeper of the Great Seal

On 11 October 1705 he was sworn to the Privy Council, 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.

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 Dr Sacheverell in 1710, but resigned the seal when Harley and Bolingbroke took office in the same year. and though she was reluctantly persuaded to accept his resignation, continued to consult him unofficially for the remainder of her reign. On the death of Queen Anne, 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. The 1st Earl left two sons and two daughters by his second wife:

  • Lady Sarah Cowper (1707–1758)
  • William Clavering-Cowper (1709–1764), succeeded as 2nd Earl
  • Spencer Cowper (1713–1774), Dean of Durham
  • Lady Anne Cowper (died 1750), married James Colleton

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. Jonathan Swift referred to Cowper as "Will Bigamy". In his diary, Thomas Hearne recorded that Cowper was "well known to have had two wives at a time". 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.

Later years and death

In his last years Cowper was accused, but probably without reason, of active sympathy with the Jacobites. 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.

Footnotes

References

  • Private Diary of Earl Cowper, edited by 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 E. Cokayne, Complete Peerage (London, 1889).
  • UK Parliamentary Archives, The Cowper Books of Standing Orders