COOPER, Anthony Ashley (1671-1713)

Even before his accession to the peerage, Shaftesbury, now best known as a literary and philosophical figure and as the patron of John Toland, had been chosen as the bearer of the family flame in preference to his sickly and lacklustre father. This biography is based on R. Voitle, The Third Earl of Shaftesbury, and L. Klein, Shaftesbury and the Culture of Politeness. Although he inherited his father’s appalling health, he proved to be a significant political broker, taking a personal interest in the various boroughs in Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire in which he exercised an interest. J.A. Downie, Robert Harley and the Press, 22; TNA, PRO 30/24/19/(part 1). While undoubtedly a Whig, in Parliament he was a maverick, his political philosophy inspired by the Roman republic.

Towards the end of his life he compiled a set of notes outlining his political credo, admitting to an early interest in the merits of the Tories. For Shaftesbury, both parties had originated as honest associations that sought the country’s best interests, but in time each had been corrupted. By the mid-1690s he had become convinced that the Tories were the more corrupt of the two, causing him to look towards the Whigs. Voitle, Shaftesbury, 72. Even so, he remained an independent in every sense of the word, prepared to co-exist with local Tories and to question the leadership of the Junto. As such he proved consistent in his lack of consistency and an ‘archetypal Country Whig’.

Ashley’s education had been committed to the care of his grandfather Shaftesbury, and early on he came into contact with John Locke. HP Commons, 1690–1715, iii. 70. Following the earl’s exile in 1683 he was sent to the Tory-leaning college at Winchester, where he endured a miserable few years before setting out on his continental tour in company with Sir John Cropley^‡, who was to become a lifelong friend and an important lieutenant in the Commons. Voitle, Shaftesbury, 18; M. de Miranda, ‘The Moral, Social and Political Thought of the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, 1671–1713’ (Cambridge Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1995), 205. On his return from Europe, Ashley was offered a number of seats but he rejected them all, pleading inexperience, and it was not until 1695 that he at last agreed to contest Poole in the by-election triggered by the death of Sir John Trenchard^‡. Add. 70144, Sir E. to A. Harley, 23 May 1695. Returned once more at the general election a few months later, Ashley retained his seat until 1698 when he stood down on the grounds of ill-health. According to at least one source, it was as a result of his activities at late-night sittings and in committee work that Ashley contracted the asthma that would eventually kill him. HP Commons, 1690–1715, iii. 71. Following his decision not to contest his seat, Ashley travelled to Rotterdam, where he stayed with the merchant Benjamin Furly. Voitle, Shaftesbury, 84. However, he had returned to England by the following November, when he succeeded to the peerage as 3rd earl of Shaftesbury.

Although the new earl sought early on to exploit his considerable electoral interest, for the time being the Whig forces in Dorset remained divided as Shaftesbury and the Whig lord lieutenant, Charles Powlett, 2nd duke of Bolton, disliked each other intensely. Shaftesbury took his seat in the House two months after succeeding to the peerage on 19 Jan. 1700, after which he was present on 29 per cent of all sitting days. Post Boy, 23–25 Jan. 1700. According to Thomas Birch, this delay in taking his seat was due to Shaftesbury’s employment with overseeing his estates. Add. 4254, f. 184. On 1 Feb. he was reckoned to be a supporter of continuing the East India Company as a corporation and on 11 July he was marked ‘O’ in a list of Whig peers, possibly indicating that he was a potential supporter of the new ministry.

Shaftesbury offered his tacit support to the Tory candidate, Thomas Freke^‡, in Dorset in January 1701, but he was unsuccessful in attempting to promote challenges at Poole launched by his brother-in-law, Edward Hooper, and by Denis Bond against the sitting members, Sir William Phippard^‡ and William Joliffe^‡. Even though they were Whigs, Shaftesbury considered the two to be unsuitable as they were only merchants and not gentlemen. HP Commons, 1690–1715, ii. 157, 164–5. Shaftesbury’s brother, Maurice Ashley, was more successful at Weymouth, where he secured one of the four available seats, but given his poor relationship with his brother it seems unlikely that Ashley’s success was owing to Shaftesbury’s intervention. HMC Portland, ii. 11.

Shaftesbury took his seat in the House almost a fortnight into the new Parliament, on 18 February. Present thereafter on almost 71 per cent of all sitting days, on 9 May 1701 he wrote to Furly to describe the debates in both Houses about the allies, noting for special mention Henry Paget, later earl of Uxbridge. TNA, PRO 30/24/20, no. 24, Shaftesbury to Benjamin Furly, 9 May 1701. The following month he was appointed vice-admiral of Dorset, the only official post of any consequence that he held during his career. On 17 June he voted in favour of acquitting the impeached Whig peer John Somers, Baron Somers, and six days later he mimicked this by voting to acquit Edward Russell, earl of Orford, as well.

Following the dissolution, Shaftesbury was again active in campaigning on behalf of candidates in Dorset and Wiltshire. Having been successful in promoting his former companion Cropley at Shaftesbury, he gloated that he had thereby rescued the town from being entirely Tory and made it once again ‘zealous’. Even so, there appears to have been arrangement with the other member, Edward Nicolson^‡ (a Tory), that held good until 1708. HP Commons, 1690–1715, ii. 167; Speck, Tory and Whig, 58. The following month, he was also successful in securing the return of Thomas Trenchard^‡ for the county of Dorset, in succession to the lately deceased Freke. Although he had previously supported Freke, Shaftesbury now celebrated Trenchard’s return ‘in the room of a constant ill vote for the county.’ HP Commons, 1690–1715, ii. 157. Elsewhere, there was less success. Although Maurice Ashley retained his seat at Weymouth, the remaining seats went to Tories and he subsequently chose to sit for Wiltshire instead.

Shaftesbury took his seat in the new Parliament on 30 Dec. 1701, after which he was present on 47 per cent of all sitting days. The king’s speech to Parliament at the opening of the session proved the inspiration for a pamphlet jointly authored by Toland and Shaftesbury, Paradoxes of State. In it they attributed the nation’s troubles to the ‘insufficiency of our hasty bill of rights’, while being careful to assert their faith in the king. J. Champion, Republican Learning: John Toland and the Crisis of Christian Culture, 1696–1722, 126. Shaftesbury was also interested in the changing character of the Country party, communicating to Furly his thoughts about several of the principal parliamentarians, among them Robert Harley, later earl of Oxford. Although at this point Shaftesbury considered Harley still to be ‘ours at bottom’, he continued to reflect on the reasons why he had thrown in his lot with the Tories:

I cannot call him truly a man of virtue: for then he had not been lost to us by any disobligation or ill-usage which he has had sufficient. He is truly what is called in the world a Great Man and it is by him alone that that party has raised itself to such a greatness as almost to destroy us.

At the same time, he rejoiced in the activities of the Tory party in censuring Charles Mordaunt, 3rd earl of Peterborough, not only because their actions served to confirm Peterborough as a supporter of the Whig interest, but also because it demonstrated to ‘all those of our party who tamper with them, what they have to expect’. TNA, PRO 30/24/20, no. 55 (ff. 135–6), Shaftesbury to Furly, 30 Jan. 1702.

Shaftesbury was unsuccessful in his efforts to persuade Freke’s son, also Thomas Freke^‡, to contest Dorchester in February, following Trenchard’s decision to sit for the county instead. On 8 Mar. he joined the majority of members of the House in being nominated a manager of the conference considering the death of King William and the accession of the new queen. That summer, he joined a number of Whigs in being put out of office and in July he was unsuccessful in his efforts to pair Trenchard with Thomas Erle^‡, which resulted in the Tories carrying both seats in Dorset. Earlier in the year Shaftesbury had confided to Furly his concerns for the Whigs, damaged as they were by Harley’s apostasy. ‘It is he and he alone that wounds us’, he had insisted, ‘for all the strength of the Tories or church party is nothing but by that force which he brings over to them from our side.’ TNA, PRO 30/24/20, no. 57 (ff. 139–40), Shaftesbury to Furly, 27 Feb. 1702.

Shaftesbury took his seat in the new Parliament on 7 Dec. 1702, but he was only marked as being present for three days before quitting the House for the remainder of the session. On 1 Jan. 1703 he was estimated by Daniel Finch, 2nd earl of Nottingham, to be a likely opponent of the bill for preventing occasional conformity, and on 16 Jan. (although missing from the attendance list that day) he was noted among those who had voted in favour of adhering the Lords’ amendment to the penalty clause. That November, Charles Spencer, 3rd earl of Sunderland, echoed Nottingham’s previous assessment, but with the gloss that Shaftesbury was by then ‘absent … possibly for some time’. Poor health was almost certainly the reason for the earl’s prolonged absence from the House. In 1704 he travelled to Holland once more and, although he was said to have returned in August, he failed to resume his place in the House, choosing instead to register his proxy with Somers on 25 October. Add. 61123, f. 64. On 23 Nov. he was excused at a call of the House.

Noted a supporter of the Hanoverian succession in April 1705, soon after this Shaftesbury was approached by Awnsham Churchill^‡ for his interest at Poole, but he declined to act on the grounds of the ill treatment he had received from the town during his previous attempt to set up Hooper. Stowe 224, ff. 330–1. At about the same time, Somers also approached Shaftesbury seeking his support for Maurice Ashley’s candidature in Wiltshire in partnership with William Ashe. Somers also took the opportunity to acknowledge being entrusted with Shaftesbury’s proxy, which he had so far made use of only on one occasion: the division over the occasional conformity bill. Somers concluded that he would be ‘infinitely pleased if your health would allow you to come and vacate it’. TNA, PRO 30/24/20, no. 87 (f. 208), Somers to Shaftesbury, n.d. In the event, Ashley chose not to contest Wiltshire, where he had been unsuccessful in the summer of 1702, Ashe was driven into third place and, although Shaftesbury rallied to resume his seat in the House on 9 Nov., the following day he again registered his proxy with Somers, which was vacated by the close. On 12 Nov. he was again excused at a call of the House. The following year found Shaftesbury once again covering his continued absence with a proxy entrusted to Somers.

In spite of his neglect of Parliament, Shaftesbury continued to maintain a high profile and remained committed to the cultivation of his interest. In 1706 he attempted to clear the way for Whig candidates in Dorset by recommending that a Tory be pricked sheriff and the same year he made a start on repaying £7,000 that he had borrowed three years before towards electioneering expenses. In 1707 he turned his attention to the town of Shaftesbury by providing the local school with an endowment of £30 per annum. That April, he wrote to Thomas Jervoise^‡ to assure him of his assistance in Hampshire, insisting that he would be ‘sorry to hear the honest interest divided anywhere: but in any case as far as I have power shall be glad of any occasion to serve you’. Speck, Tory and Whig, 83; Voitle, Shaftesbury, 260; Hants. RO, Jervoise mss, 44M69/G2/248/16, Shaftesbury to Jervoise, April 1707. During the summer, the corporation of Poole also made a concerted effort to woo Shaftesbury by promising him them their backing for Hooper. Although Shaftesbury accepted their ‘kind, free offer’ gratefully and Sunderland undertook ‘to do all in my power to serve this gentleman’, the Junto leadership as a whole was concerned that the corporation’s offer involved setting up Hooper with William Lewen^‡ (a Tory). TNA, PRO 30/24/20, no. 135 (f. 341), Sunderland to Shaftesbury, 31 July 1707. In November 1707 the earl’s resurgent political interest enabled him to secure the nomination for the next recorder of Shaftesbury. He was, unsurprisingly, noted a Whig in a list of May 1708. The same month he was forced to appeal to Somers for his assistance in shoring up Hooper’s candidacy at Poole, but neither Somers nor Sunderland were able to declare themselves able to exert any interest in the area. TNA, PRO 30/24/21/158, Somers to Shaftesbury, 18 May 1708. Left unsupported, Hooper was defeated and the seat went to his Tory rivals, Lewen and Thomas Ridge^‡.

By the autumn of 1708 Shaftesbury had attracted the attention of the lord treasurer, Sidney Godolphin, earl of Godolphin, who employed a mutual friend, Robert Molesworth^‡ (later Viscount Molesworth [I]), to attempt to recruit him for the ministry. HP Commons, 1690–1715, iv. 833. There ensued a friendly correspondence between Shaftesbury and Molesworth, which was later published, but Shaftesbury’s uncertain health stood in the way of all but the most tacit support for ‘our lord’ Godolphin. The Late Earl of Shaftesbury’s Letters to the Right Honourable the Lord Molesworth (1721 edn.), 15–16. Missing at the opening of the new Parliament, on 20 Nov. Shaftesbury wrote to Molesworth from Chelsea expressing his pleasure at the improvement in relations between Godolphin and Somers, but a few days later he was compelled to retreat to Cropley’s seat at Beachworth in Surrey. Ibid. 15–17. He rallied to return to town the following month and sat for the final time on 10 December. He then seems to have returned to Cropley’s house, where he remained until at least the middle of January. TNA, PRO 30/24/21/(part 1), f. 77.

Clearly exasperated by his dealings with Poole, in February 1709 Shaftesbury refused to respond to George Lewen’s request for his assistance in the town, which had been badly affected by the loss of Newfoundland. Although Shaftesbury acknowledged that the loss of the colony was one that he deplored ‘as the greatest blow to our trade and seafaring interest in general, and in particular to our town of Poole’, he complained that ‘by the unkindness and indirectness of my pretended friends’ there his reputation had been damaged and his interest wrecked. TNA, PRO 30/24/21/181, Shaftesbury to [mayor of Poole], 14 Feb. 1709.

Disappointed in his efforts to marshal his local interest, in August 1709 Shaftesbury turned instead to family politics, with a resolution that he should at last marry. He seems to have been considering the move for some time. Rumours that he had married Lady Elizabeth Hastings had circulated in September 1707, though this proved not to be the case. HMC Rutland, ii. 186. In 1708 he had embarked on negotiations with John Vaughan, 3rd earl of Carbery [I] (2nd Baron Vaughan), for a match with Carbery’s daughter, Anne. By June 1709 Shaftesbury had given up on the Carbery marriage and resolved to look elsewhere. His eventual choice of bride, Jane Ewer, granddaughter to Henry Montagu^†, earl of Manchester, but the daughter of a merchant of only modest means, was met with dismay by some of his friends. Shaftesbury justified his choice, explaining how he had renewed his acquaintance with ‘a sober good family … of good extract and good principles’ and had ‘determined to make my choice here, where I have nothing deficient but fortune only’. Voitle, Shaftesbury, 285; HMC Rutland, ii. 189–90.

Shaftesbury was noted as ‘absent in the country’ at the time of the trial of Henry Sacheverell. Add. 15574, ff. 65–8. That summer he sold his town house at Chelsea to the brother-in-law of John Verney^‡, Viscount Fermanagh [I], for £1,300 and conveyed the remainder of his estates to Cropley, Sir Robert Eyre and James Stanhope^† (later Earl Stanhope) in trust. Verney ms mic. M636/54, Viscountess Fermanagh to Viscount Fermanagh, 29 June 1710; R. Palmer to R. Verney, 1 July 1710; TNA, PROB 11/532. The reason for the sale of the Chelsea house and of the settlement of the estate was probably not because of any particular financial difficulties but because of ill-health. He appears to have resolved to retreat from the foul air of London to the comparatively fresh climes of Surrey and wished to resign the management of his property to others. Despite his previously sympathetic attitude towards Harley, by the advent of the new ministry in October 1710, Shaftesbury had long-since distanced himself from Harley’s brand of Country Whiggism and that month he was noted by Harley as a likely opponent of the new administration. On 9 Oct. Cropley proved to be one of a number of Whig candidates to suffer the changed circumstances when he was defeated at Shaftesbury, his discomfiture no doubt exacerbated by Shaftesbury’s retreat from active campaigning through ill-health. HP Commons, 1690–1715, iii. 794.

Although Shaftesbury played no further active part in the House or in electioneering, he continued to make a mark on politics and as a natural philosopher. In 1708 he had commenced publishing a series of works including the letter addressed to Somers, Concerning Enthusiasm. 1711 witnessed the publication of his Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions Times, which, among others things, caused shock by propounding the heterodox view that an innate sense of right and wrong was something that developed without divine assistance. Swift Works, ed. H. Davis, ix. 114–15. Aside from putting his efforts into print, Shaftesbury also remained willing to use what remaining interest he had on behalf of his friends. His dislike of the Harley regime did not prevent him from approaching his old associate for his assistance on behalf of his kinsman, Thomas Micklethwaite^‡ both directly and through Cropley’s mediation. Add. 70278, Sir J. Cropley to R. Harley, 2 Sept. 1710; Add. 70221, Cropley to Harley, 17 May 1711; Add. 70027, f. 202. Curiously, on 20 Feb. 1711 Shaftesbury was recorded as being the recipient of the proxy of George Brudenell, 3rd earl of Cardigan. Cardigan may have been unaware that Shaftesbury had no intention of attending the session. Equally this may have a scribal error: indeed it seems more likely that the intended recipient was Cardigan’s kinsman, Charles Talbot, duke of Shrewsbury.

By the summer of 1711 Shaftesbury’s health, precarious for the last half dozen years, was in ruins. Certain that another winter in England would be the end of him, he resolved instead to seek a cure abroad. HMC Portland, ii. 697; TNA, PRO 30/24/46A/83. In July it was reported that he had embarked for Calais with the intention of making for Montpelier. Bath mss at Longleat, Thynne pprs. 47, ff. 269–70. From there he continued his journey into Italy, eventually settling at Naples. From his exile he viewed with concern the wasted condition of the Whigs, who seemed able to field no-one – except perhaps the enfeebled Somers – capable of challenging Harley (now promoted earl of Oxford). Downie, 4.

Weakened by his exertions, Shaftesbury finally succumbed to his condition in February 1713. His body was embalmed and shipped back to England. He had made his will soon after his sale of Chelsea, eager ‘to preserve the peace of my family and to prevent all differences and controversies about my estate after my death’. In it he nominated Eyre, Cropley and Stanhope as his executors and made a series of bequests, including annuities amounting to £305 and gifts of £450. He also made provision for the erection of a monument to the memory of his grandfather in the church at Shaftesbury. TNA, PROB 11/532. He was succeeded in the peerage by his son, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th earl of Shaftesbury, then not quite two years old. British Mercury, 18 Mar. 1713.