| Authorised form of name | Cooper; Anthony Ashley (1621 - 1683); 1st Earl of Shaftesbury; politician |
| Dates | 1621 - 1683 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Wimborne St Giles, Dorset, England, Europe |
| Date of birth | 22 July 1621 |
| Place of death | The house of Abraham Keck, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Europe |
| Date of death | 21 January 1683 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Baptism:
3 August 1621
Burial:
Wimbourne St Giles, Dorset, England, Europe (26 January 1683) |
| Occupation | Politician; colonial administrator; plantation and slave owner |
| Activity | Education:
Exeter College, Oxford (matriculated 1637); Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1638)
Career:
MP for Tewkesbury in the Short Parliament (1640); after initially avoiding taking sides in the civil war raised a regiment of foot and a troop of horse for the King in support of the Royalist cause (1643); Governor of Weymouth and Portland Island (1643); President of the King's Council of War for Dorset (1643); went over to Parliament (1644); Dorset County Committee (1644-1645); Commander-in-chief of Parliamentary forces in Dorset (1644); on conclusion of civil war appointed High Sheriff for Wiltshire (1646-1648); invested in commerce and overseas plantations, purchasing a share of a sugar plantation in Barbados (1646) which he sold (1655) for £1020, and a share of slave ship 'the Rose' trading between Guinea and the West Indies; JP of the quorum for the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset and of oyer and terminer for the western circuit (1649); Commissioner to regulate the contribution paid by the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset (1649); Member of the Hale Commission, for the reform of the law (1652); Judge for the Probate of Wills (1653); Committee for the business of the law (1653); Member of the Lord Protector's Council (the council of state under the new consitutution of the Commonwealth, 1653-1654); MP for Wiltshire (1653-1660) in the 'Barebones Parliament' and parilaments of the Protectorate, first parliament (1654-1655), second parliament (1656-1658) though initially excluded with a number of other members disputing Cromwell's control, third parliament (1658-1659); Council of State (1659-1660), which continued to meet secretly as the rightful instrument of Government after being replaced by the army with a Committee of Safety; resisted the army and was given command of the opposing forces in London who wished to restore the Rump parliament; on restoration of the Rump parliament was made one of seven commissioners with control of the armed forces (1659) and re-elected to the Council of State; after ignoring initial advances from the King in exile was one of the deputation to Breda to invite Charles II to return (1660); Privy Council (1660-1674); Member of Special Commission for the Trial of the Regicides (1660); Member of the Council for Foreign Plantations (1660, 1668); Chancellor of the Exchequer (1661-1672); Under-Treasurer (1661-1667); appointed one of eight Lords Proprietors of the province of Carolina (1663) meaning he owned a share of Carolina territory and was involved in sending the first puritan English settlers there in 1670; collaborated with John Locke FRS in writing the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669) sent out with the first settlers; Cooper River and Ashley River in, South Carolina are named after him; Commissioner of the Treasury (1667-1674); Member of the 'Cabal'; Lord Lieutenant of Dorset (1672-1674); High Steward of Salisbury (1672); Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations (1668, President 1672-1676); Lord Chancellor (1672-1673); Member of the Royal African Company (1672); Lord Proprietor of Bahama; founder of the Bahama Adventurers Company for the purpose of developing the island (1672); shareholder in the Bahama Adventurer Company (1672-1676); invested in the Hudson's Bay Company; Deputy Governor, Hudson's Bay Company (1674); imprisoned in the Tower of London (1677-1678); introduced the exclusion bill to the House of Commons with the intention of excluding the King's brother, James II (then Duke of York), from the succession on the grounds of his Catholicism (1679) leading to the dissolution of the parliament and the fracturing of politicians along the lines of allegiance and into something like political parties for the first time; leader of the Whig faction of politicians whose origins were in the opposition of absolute monarchy and Roman Catholicism; President of the Privy Council (1680); supported the Monmouth rebellion; imprisoned and tried for high treason but acquitted (1681); fled to Amsterdam (1682); died of 'gout in the stomach'.
Honours:
Baron Ashley of Wimborne St Giles 1661; Earl of Shaftesbury and Baron Cooper of Pawlet 1672 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 05/08/1663 |
| Age at election | 41 |
| Proposer | William Brouncker |
| RSActivity | Royal Society roles:
Council: 1664, 1667, 1673 |
| Other Royal Society activity | Proposed on the same day he was elected;
Admitted on 30 December 1663 |
| Relationships | Parents: Sir John Cooper, baronet, and Anne Ashley
Siblings: Philippa Cooper; George Cooper
Married: 1) Margaret Coventry; 2) Lady Frances Cecil; 3) Margaret Spencer
Children: 2) Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury
Additional relatives: grandson Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury |
| OtherInfo | Shaftesbury's shifting allegiances and priorities politically did not always put him in good stead with his contemporaries and by opponents he was on occasion branded an opportunist. By more modern biographies, he is considered a believer in the sovereignity of parliament who was willing to make personal and financial sacrifices to further his own beliefs and goals. While he was not particularly active in the Royal Society and likely held few interests in the development of natural philosophy, Shaftesbury did act as a friend and patron to John Locke (FRS 1668).
The Earl of Shaftesbury was a member and shareholder in The Royal Adventurers into Africa, later Royal African Company (RAC). The RAC was a British trading company established by Royal Charter in 1660 which enslaved and sold African people. The company was chartered by Charles II, the founding royal Patron of the Royal Society, which was also chartered in 1660. The RAC was made up of and funded by members of the Stuart royal family and London merchants many of whom were, or went on to become, Fellows of the Royal Society. The Royal Society itself held shares in the company from 1682 until 1699.
Shaftesbury was also an investor in the Hudson's Bay Company. Charles II granted the charter establishing the Hudson's Bay Company, officially "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay," on May 2, 1670. The charter aimed to establish a trade monopoly on the Eastern coast of what is now Canada and claimed 1.5 million square kilometres of land inhabited by Inuit and First Nations communities (everything in the Hudson river network of waterways), this grew to eight million square kilometres which was dubbed Rupert's Land. The 'adventurers' and traders employed by the HBC did the work of colonizing and nation-building, such as mapping British Columbia's interior and charting the Arctic coast, almost always with the help of Indigenous guides.
Shaftesbury was instrumental in securing the establishment of the joint Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations in 1672, which carried the responsibility for trade and plantation affairs and contributed to furthering the government's colonial interests. The Council's orders and tasks fell within a broad remit and included finding ways in which to take and enslave people to bring to the colonies, mediating between the Royal African Company and the colonies, as well as enforcing the 'reeducation' of Native Americans and enslaved people in the colonised regions. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Foster; GEC; Hunter; Henning; Encylopaedia Britannica; ODNB
References:
R. Hutton, 'The Restoration: a political and religious history of England and Wales, 1658–1667' (1985)
Mark Govier, 'The Royal Society, Slavery and the Island of Jamaica: 1660-1700' in NR 1999 vol 53 pp 203-217 for information on the Royal African Company and the Royal Society
Notes:
Styled 1st Baron Ashley 1661. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/25404031 |
| Code | NA8095 |