Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury ( 1621 - 1683 )

Birth: Wimborne St Giles, Dorset, England, Europe (22 July 1621) Baptism: 3 August 1621 Death: The house of Abraham Keck, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Europe (21 January 1683) Burial: Wimbourne St Giles, Dorset, England, Europe (26 January 1683) Occupation: Politician; colonial administrator; plantation and slave owner Education: Exeter College, Oxford (matriculated 1637); Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1638) Career: MP for Tewkesbury in the Short Parliament (1640); after initially avoiding taking sides in the civil war raised a regiment of foot and a troop of horse for the King in support of the Royalist cause (1643); Governor of Weymouth and Portland Island (1643); President of the King's Council of War for Dorset (1643); went over to Parliament (1644); Dorset County Committee (1644-1645); Commander-in-chief of Parliamentary forces in Dorset (1644); on conclusion of civil war appointed High Sheriff for Wiltshire (1646-1648); invested in commerce and overseas plantations, purchasing a share of a sugar plantation in Barbados (1646) which he sold (1655) for £1020, and a share of slave ship 'the Rose' trading between Guinea and the West Indies; JP of the quorum for the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset and of oyer and terminer for the western circuit (1649); Commissioner to regulate the contribution paid by the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset (1649); Member of the Hale Commission, for the reform of the law (1652); Judge for the Probate of Wills (1653); Committee for the business of the law (1653); Member of the Lord Protector's Council (the council of state under the new consitutution of the Commonwealth, 1653-1654); MP for Wiltshire (1653-1660) in the 'Barebones Parliament' and parilaments of the Protectorate, first parliament (1654-1655), second parliament (1656-1658) though initially excluded with a number of other members disputing Cromwell's control, third parliament (1658-1659); Council of State (1659-1660), which continued to meet secretly as the rightful instrument of Government after being replaced by the army with a Committee of Safety; resisted the army and was given command of the opposing forces in London who wished to restore the Rump parliament; on restoration of the Rump parliament was made one of seven commissioners with control of the armed forces (1659) and re-elected to the Council of State; after ignoring initial advances from the King in exile was one of the deputation to Breda to invite Charles II to return (1660); Privy Council (1660-1674); Member of Special Commission for the Trial of the Regicides (1660); Member of the Council for Foreign Plantations (1660, 1668); Chancellor of the Exchequer (1661-1672); Under-Treasurer (1661-1667); appointed one of eight Lords Proprietors of the province of Carolina (1663) meaning he owned a share of Carolina territory and was involved in sending the first puritan English settlers there in 1670; collaborated with John Locke FRS in writing the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (1669) sent out with the first settlers; Cooper River and Ashley River in, South Carolina are named after him; Commissioner of the Treasury (1667-1674); Member of the 'Cabal'; Lord Lieutenant of Dorset (1672-1674); High Steward of Salisbury (1672); Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations (1668, President 1672-1676); Lord Chancellor (1672-1673); Member of the Royal African Company (1672); Lord Proprietor of Bahama; founder of the Bahama Adventurers Company for the purpose of developing the island (1672); shareholder in the Bahama Adventurer Company (1672-1676); invested in the Hudson's Bay Company; Deputy Governor, Hudson's Bay Company (1674); imprisoned in the Tower of London (1677-1678); introduced the exclusion bill to the House of Commons with the intention of excluding the King's brother, James II (then Duke of York), from the succession on the grounds of his Catholicism (1679) leading to the dissolution of the parliament and the fracturing of politicians along the lines of allegiance and into something like political parties for the first time; leader of the Whig faction of politicians whose origins were in the opposition of absolute monarchy and Roman Catholicism; President of the Privy Council (1680); supported the Monmouth rebellion; imprisoned and tried for high treason but acquitted (1681); fled to Amsterdam (1682); died of 'gout in the stomach'. Honours: Baron Ashley of Wimborne St Giles 1661; Earl of Shaftesbury and Baron Cooper of Pawlet 1672 Membership: Fellow Election Date: 05/08/1663 Proposers: William Brouncker Council: 1664, 1667, 1673.