John Cope

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 22 Jan 1558

Notes:

Or Coope. Sheriff of Northamptonshire 1545-6. Knight of the shire for Northamptonshire, 1547. Knighted May 1549 or Mar 1550 (accounts differ). In 1538 he purchased Canons Ashby from Sir Francis Bryan and became a grazier and wool producer. His History of Parliament entry is here.

John Cope and Bridget Raleigh were:

Great-great grandparents of John Dryden (1631-1700) poet, critic, playwright, and Poet Laureate of England.

Great-great-great grandparents of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), satirist, poet, and author of Gulliver's Travels.

Grandparents of Elizabeth Boyle (d. 1622), who married, as his second wife, Edmund Spenser (d. 1599), author of The Faerie Queene.

And great-great grandparents of Anne Marbury (Anne Hutchinson), (1591-1643), religious visionary and central figure in the Antinomianism controversy that rocked the early Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Family/Spouse: Bridget Raleigh. Bridget (daughter of Edward Raleigh and Anne Chamberlain) died before Jun 1542. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Elizabeth Cope died after 15 Aug 1584.
2. Joan Cope
3. Anthony Cope was born in of Adstone, Northamptonshire, England; died between 6 Jun 1558 and 20 Dec 1558.

John married Margaret Tame after 1548. Margaret (daughter of Edmund Tame and Agnes Greville) died after Jan 1558. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1450, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England

Notes:

Cofferer of the household of Henry VII. Serjeant of Catery, and later of the Poultry. Steward of Worpledon and Witeby, 1510. Constable of Porchester Castle, 1511. Lieutenant of Southbere Forest. Steward and Bailiff of Bedhampton. Secretary to the Duchess of Savoy, 1513.

Alleged in some online sources to have fought at Bosworth, a claim we have been unable to confirm.

Royal Ancestry (vol. III, p. 242) has him as cofferer to Henry VIII rather than VII, but we assume that to be a typographical error.

Cofferer of the household of Henry VII. Serjeant of Catery, and later of the Poultry. Steward of Worpledon and Witeby, 1510. Constable of Porchester Castle, 1511. Lieutenant of Southbere Forest. Steward and Bailiff of Bedhampton. Secretary to the Duchess of Savoy, 1513.

Burgess to Parliament from Ludgershall, Wiltshire, 1491-92.

Alleged in some online sources to have fought at Bosworth, a claim we have been unable to confirm.

Royal Ancestry (vol. III, p. 242) has him as cofferer to Henry VIII rather than VII, but we assume that to be a typographical error.

William married Jane Spencer before 15 Sep 1496. Jane (daughter of John Spencer and Anne Empson) was born about 1462; died on 12 Feb 1526 in Hanwell Manor, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England; was buried in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 12 Feb 1525

Notes:

Also called Joan. She was William Cope's third wife.

John married Anne Empson. Anne (daughter of Peter Empson and Elizabeth Joseph) died before 1483. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Possibly a son of the John Cope who was sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1401 and 1405, knight of the shire for Northamptonshire several times in the late 1300s and early 1400s, and who died in 1417.

William married (Unknown daughter of William Gossage). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Earliest known member of this line. The pedigree in the 1619 Visitation of Warwickshire linking this Spencer family with the Despencers has been disproved.

Henry married Isabel before 1444. Isabel died between 4 Mar 1478 and 3 Mar 1479. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Stott (citation details below) says that they married "before 1444, when together they joined the Guild of the Holy Cross." But Stott also estimates the birth of their jon John as 1438, so presumably they were married in that year or before.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Towcester, Northamptonshire, England

Notes:

"The story that [Richard Empson] was the son of a sieve maker, first recorded by John Stow, was adopted by Francis Bacon but has no known factual basis--Peter Empson was of local consequence in Northamptonshire, holding property at Towcester and in nearby Easton Neston." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Peter married Elizabeth Joseph. Elizabeth died after 1474. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"First mentioned in Sept 1379, when he was granted royal letters of protection pending his departure for Ireland in the service of the King's justiciar. Bought Denshanger Manor in 1397. Sheriff of Northamptonshire, 1400-01; Knight of the Shire for Northampton, 1397, 1399, 1402, 1404 and 1406." [The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, citation details below.]

John married Joan Newenham before 1410. Joan died on 20 Sep 1434. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]