The Right Honourable The Earl Cowper PC KC FRS
Portrait byJonathan Richardson
Lord Chancellor Lord High Steward for the trials of: List The Earl of Derwentwater The Lord Widdrington The Earl of Nithsdale The Earl of Carnwath The Viscount of Kenmure The Lord Nairne The Earl of Winton The Earl of Oxford and Mortimer
In office 4 May 1707 – 23 September 1710
Monarch	Anne
Preceded by	himself asLord Keeper
Succeeded by	In Commission
In office 21 September 1714 – 15 April 1718
Monarchs	Anne George I
Preceded by	The Lord Harcourt
Succeeded by	In Commission
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England
In office 11 October 1705 – 4 May 1707
Monarch	Anne
Preceded by	Sir Nathan Wright
Succeeded by	himself as Lord Chancellor
Personal details
Born	c. 1665
Died	10 October 1723 Panshanger,Hertfordshire Great Britain
Children	William Clavering-Cowper Spencer Cowper
Parents	William Cowper (father) Sarah Cowper (mother)
Relatives	Spencer Cowper (brother) Judith Madan (niece)

William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper,PC, KC, FRS (/ˈkuːpər/KOO-pər;c. 1665 – 10 October 1723) was anEnglish politician who became the firstLord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Cowper was the son of Sir William Cowper, 2nd Baronet, of Ratling Court,Kent, aWhig member of parliament of some mark in the two last Stuart reigns.

Cowper was educated atSt 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 toMiddle Temple on 18 March 1681/82, wascalled to the bar on 25 May 1688, and built up a large practice. He gave his allegiance to thePrince of Orange on his landing in England in 1688, and was madeKing's Counsel andrecorder ofColchester 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 brotherSpencer Cowper on a charge of murder.^[1]

On 11 October 1705 he was sworn to thePrivy Council,^[2] was appointedLord Keeper of the Great Seal, and took his seat on thewoolsack 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 asBaron Cowper of Wingham, Kent.^[1] He was the youngest Lord Keeper for many years: the Queen, who had taken a great liking to him, joked that "she had given the Seals to a boy" and suggested that in future he should wear a wig to lend him gravity.^[3]

When the union with Scotland came into operation in May 1707 the Queen in Council named CowperLord High Chancellor of Great Britain, he being the first to hold this office. He presided at the trial ofDr Sacheverell in 1710, but resigned the seal whenHarley andBolingbroke took office in the same year.^[1] Queen Anne, who had high regard for him, "begged him with tears in her eyes" not to resign,^[4] and though she was reluctantly persuaded to accept his resignation, continued to consult him unofficially for the remainder of her reign.^[5] On the death ofQueen 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.^[1]

A paper which Cowper drew up for the guidance of the new king on constitutional matters, entitledAn Impartial History of Parties, marks the advance of English opinion towards party government in the modern sense. It was published by Lord Campbell in hisLives of the Lord Chancellors. Cowper supported the impeachment ofLord Oxford forhigh treason in 1715, and in 1716 presided asLord High Steward at the trials of the peers charged with complicity in theJacobite rising, his sentences on whom have been censured as unnecessarily severe. He warmly supported theSeptennial Bill in the same year.^[1]

On 18 March 1718 he was createdViscount Fordwich andEarl Cowper, and a month later he resigned office on the plea of ill-health, but probably in reality because George I accused him of espousing thePrince of Wales's side in the prince's quarrel with the king. Taking the lead against his former colleagues, Cowper opposed the proposedPeerage Bill brought forward in 1719 to limit the number of peers, and also opposed thebill of attainder againstAtterbury in 1723. Cowper was not a great lawyer, but Burnet says that he managed theCourt of Chancery with impartial justice and great despatch; the most eminent of his contemporaries agreed in extolling his oratory and his virtues.^[1] It is notable that Queen Anne, despite her prejudice against theWhigs in general, came to have great respect and liking for Cowper, and continued to seek his advice even after he left office as Lord Chancellor.

His younger brother,Spencer Cowper (1669–1728), was tried for the murder of Sarah Stout in 1699, but was acquitted; the lady, who had allegedly fallen in love with Cowper, having committedsuicide on account of his inattention—at least according to Cowper's lawyers. Spencer was one of the managers of the impeachment ofHenry Sacheverell, was Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales (1714),Chief Justice of Chester (1717), andJudge of the Common Pleas (1727). He was great uncle ofWilliam Cowper, the poet.^[1]

William Cowper was twice married: first, in about 1686, to Judith, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Booth, a London merchant; and secondly, in 1706, toMary, daughter of John Clavering, of Chopwell, Durham. The latter marriage seems to have been based on Cowper's admiration of her beauty although he demanded to see her undressed before the wedding.^[6] 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), marriedJames ColletonMP

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 inSt 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 atHertingfordbury. 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. InThe New Atalantis byDelarivier Manley, the married Hernando eloquently persuades an impressionable young woman that double marriage is lawful, seducing her with a sham marriage ceremony.^[7]Jonathan Swift referred to Cowper as "Will Bigamy".^[8] In his diary,Thomas Hearne recorded that Cowper was "well known to have had two wives at a time".^[9] 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.^[10]

In his last years Cowper was accused, but probably without reason, of active sympathy with theJacobites. He died at his residence, Cole Green nearPanshanger inHertfordshire on 10 October 1723. Mary, who was devastated by his death, outlived him by only a few months.^[1]

Coat of arms of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper

Crest A lion's jamb erased Or holding a cherry branch Vert fructed Gules. Escutcheon Argent three martlets Gules on a chief engrailed of the last three annulets Or. Supporters Two dun horses close cropped (except a tuft on the withers) and docked a large blaze down the face a black list down the back and three white feet viz both hind and the near fore foot. Motto Tuum Est (It Is Thine)[12]

• Private Diary of Earl Cowper, edited byE. C. Hawtrey for theRoxburghe 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).^{[volume & issue needed][pages needed]}

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•  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Cowper, William (d.1723)".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 12. London:Smith, Elder & Co.
• Treasure, Geoffrey (January 2009)."Cowper, William, first Earl Cowper (1665–1723)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1 (online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6511. (Subscription,Wikipedia Library access orUK public library membership required.)
• UK Parliamentary Archives, The Cowper Books of Standing Orders

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