COOPER, Anthony Ashley, first Earl of Shaftesbury, a very able statesman, was the son of Sir John Cooper, Baronet, of Rockburn, in Hampshire, and was born in 1621. He was elected member for Tewkesbury at nineteen years of age, in the short parliament which met in April 1640. He seems to have been well affected to the king's service at the beginning of the civil wars, for he repaired to the king at Oxford with offers of assistance; but Prince Maurice having broken articles with a town in Dorsetshire, which he had got to receive him, this furnished him with a pretence for going over to the parliament, from which he accepted a commission. When Richard Cromwell was deposed, and the Rump again came into power, they nominated Sir Anthony as one of the council of state, and a commissioner for managing the army. At that very time he had engaged in a secret correspondence for restoring Charles II., and, upon the king's return, he was sworn of the privy council. He was one of the commissioners appointed for the trial of the regicides; and was soon afterwards made chancellor of the exchequer, and then a commissioner of the treasury. In 1672 he was created Earl of Shaftesbury, and he was subsequently raised to the office of lord chancellor. He filled this situation with great ability and integrity; and though the short time he was at the helm proved a tempestuous season, it is only doing him justice to say that nothing could either distract or terrify him. The great seal was taken from him in 1673, twelve months after he had received it; but though out of office, he still made a distinguished figure in parliament, for it was not in his nature to remain inactive. He drew upon himself the implacable hatred of the Duke of York, by steadily promoting, if not originally inventing, the project of a bill of exclusion; and when his enemies came into power, he found it necessary to consult his safety by retiring into Holland, where he died about six weeks after his arrival, in 1683. Whilst his great abilities are confessed by all, it has been his misfortune to have his history recorded by enemies who have studied to render him odious. Butler has drawn a severe character of him in Hudibras.