[Ancestor] Cope

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Husband [Ancestor] Cope

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Wife

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Children

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1 M Oliver Cope ^{1 2 3 4 5}

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           Born:  - Wiltshire, England
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           Died: Abt May 1697-1701 - Chester Co, PA
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         Spouse: Rebecca [Unk] (      -Abt 1728) 1 2 4 6

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General Notes: Husband - [Ancestor] Cope

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To write of the Copes of Wiltshire, England, and their American descendants, as well as the noble records of the families with whom they are connected, is a task that might well give the historian pause, for Oliver Cope founded a family that has become very numerous in the United States, and the English ancestors allied themselves with at least two lines of the most noted Norman families. At a very remote period the Cope family held, according to Sir Bernard Burke, in his "Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage," "considerable estates" in Northamptonshire, England, but their early history is unwritten, or lost, "Cope in Domesday signifies a hill," says Mr. M. A. Lower, in his "Patronymica Brittanica," and the name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, perhaps that of some sturdy Thane's house, which had weathered the repeated storms of Norman oppression. Thanes they certainly were and not churls, in the remotest period of their written history, "noble and gentle men," "time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary."
The first definite record of those of the name is of John Cope, esquire, of Denshanger, county Northants, England, born in the time of Edward III. He was twice high sheriff of the county and was five times knight of the shire in Parliament. He espoused the cause of King Henry IV., and died in 1417. His wife, Joan, died in 1435. He was the father of three sons, John, Stephen, and William, the latter marrying a daughter of William Gossage, esquire, of Spratton.
Alexander Cope, son of William Cope, had a son, Sir William Cope, who married (first) Agnes, co-heir of her father, Sir Robert Harcourt, through whom the Copes trace to a most honored, brave and valiant Norman line, the mainstay of their ruler in councils of peace and a tower of strength in his powerful army, which lineally descends from Bernard, a nobleman of the blood of Saxony, who came to Normandy with Rollo, the Viking. Sir William Cope, of Hanwell, county Oxon, Knight, married (second) Jane, daughter of Sir J. Spencer, of Hodnell, Knight.
Stephen Cope, son of Sir William Cope, was esquire of Bedhampton, county Hants, and Sergeant of the Poultry to Henry VIII. and Edward VI. He married Anne, daughter and co-heir of William Saunders, esquire, of Banbury, county Oxon.
Sir Anthony Cope, son of Stephen Cope, of Bedhampton, county Hants, Knight, married Anne, daughter of Sir Humphry Stafford, of Blatherwyke, county Northants, Knight, and here the Copes ally with another ancient line, descended from Malahulc, uncle of Rollo. An early member of the family was Roger de Toeni, who invaded Spain about the year 1010, married a daughter of the Countess of Barcelona, and was killed in battle against William, Duke of Normandy, afterwards King of England, his family being taken captive. His son fought with William, the Conqueror, at Senlac, and was made Baron of Stafford, a hereditary title.
Edward Cope, son of Sir Anthony Cope, was the father of John, who died at Marden, county Wiltshire, England, in 1656. John married Margaret and was the father of John, of Chisledon, county Wiltshire, died in 1649. They were the parents of John and Oliver, the latter the American emigrant, with whom the American history of the family begins. [GPHBC, 98]

1 J. Smith Futhey & Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1881), Pg 502.

2 —, Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I (New York: Atlantic Publishing & Engraving Co., 1889), Pg 308.

3 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 370.

4 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1912), Pg 24.

5 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1914), Pg 99.

6 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1914), Pg 100.