2758. Anthony of Shaftsbury Ashley-Cooper
Anthony Ashley-Cooper,First Earl of Shaftesbury,son and heir of Sir John Cooper
and Anne Ashley,born 22 Jul 1621, at Winbourne,St.Giles,Dorsetshire,inherited a
very large estate from his maternal grandgather,yet had the education of a
constitutional lawyer at Grays Inn,from whence he was called from speculation
to action,in the parliament of 1640,for Tewkesbury, at the early age of
nineteen years. On the restoration he was named a commissioner for the trial of
the regicides,and was created Baron Ashley, of Winbourne St. Giles ,1661. In
1670 he became a member of the adminstration called "The Cabal", in which he
was a lored of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer;and on the
sedignation of the Lord Keeper Bridgeman,Nov 1672,he was constituted lord high
chancellor of England, having been created,April preceding Baron Cooper,or
Pawlett, and Earl of Shaftsbury. He married first Margaret,dau. of Thomas Lord
Coventry;secondly Frances,dau.David Cecil,third Earl of Exeton:thirdly 20 Aug 1655, at
St. Paul's Covent Garden. Margaret, dau.William (Spencer) 2nd Baron Spencer of
Wormleighton by Penelope,1st. dau. Henry(Wristhesley 3rd Earl Southampton,who
delivered him two daughters. His son and heir was by thesecond lady. The date
of death of Margaret is unknown. She was living when he was christened 20 apr
1661,Baron Ashley of Wilbournnn St. Giles. in 1662 Lord Ashley and others,being
apprised of the excellent soil of this country, united and formed a projected
for planting a colony on it. Charles II granted them all the lands from Lucke
Island (southern Virginia) to the river Saint Matthias (Florida) and extending
so wst to the Pacific Ocean,which embraced almost the entire "Southern States"
of today. Of the immense region the king constituted them absolute lords and
proprietors.Snthony died 21 jan 1683 at Amsterdam,HollandAnthony Ashley was the most versatile and brillant of the Lords Proprietors.
Like Albermarle , he had served the Parliamentary forces but he also cooperated
with monck in restoring Charles II as the only means of national peace. Anthony
was a pronounced liberal and very much opposed to religious intolerance and
persecution. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, the laws for the new
providence , were the work of Anthony friends and secretary. the philosopher
John Locke, but they contain evidences of Anthony's collaboration,too. The laws
he helped to write produced the greatest measure of political and religious
freeedom in british North America( and indeed, in much of the world) he was the
author of the Habeas Corpus Act whereby an accused man cannot be held
indefinitley in prison without trail,an English law which passed into that of
the United States. Anthony not only had his holdings in Carolina,but he had
been part owner of a sugar plantation on Barbadoes, and a shareholder in the
Hudson's Bay Co. As CharlesII grew more absolute in his rule.and as
Protestantism faced extinction in England if Charles' Catholic brother
JamesII,should succeed him,Anthony opposed the growing political and religious
absolutism he saw approaching fell out of Charles' favor, was exiled to Holland
and died their.