COOPER, Antony Ashley, first Earl of Shaftesbury, was the son of Sir John Cooper, Bart., of Rockburn, Hampshire, and was born at Wimborne, St Giles, July 22, 1621. He inherited the patrimonial estates when only ten years of age, and was entered at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1636. After studying law for a short time at Lincoln's Inn, he was chosen one of the representatives of Tewkesbury, when only nineteen, and took his seat in the short parliament of 1640. Although zealously attached to the royal interest, he did not sit in the long parliament. Having incurred the suspicions of the court during his government of Weymouth, he joined the parliamentarian party, accepted a commission during the civil war, and signalized himself by storming Wareham and reducing the surrounding country. As member for Wiltshire he took his seat in Barebone's parliament; and though avowedly hostile to the measures of the protector, he formed one of his council of state. He continued his opposition unmolested for several parliaments, and after the death of Cromwell he joined his enemies in depreciating his memory. After the deposition of Richard Cromwell, Sir Antony lent his whole energies to the party who favoured the Restoration, and was one of the commissioners sent over to Breda with an invitation to the king. For his services on this occasion he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer, and made a privy-councillor; and these honours were quickly followed by his elevation to the peerage as Baron Ashley of Wimborne, St Giles. In his new situation he made himself conspicuous by the indelicate zeal with which he prosecuted his duties as commissioner for the trial of the regicides; but his fortunes, which rose with every tide of politics, gained him admiration even from the party which he had betrayed. With Clarendon he stood in the same relation in which he had formerly stood to Cromwell, resisting the favourite measures of the ministry, but never with such violence as to endanger his office or damage his chance of promotion. In this way, though opposing the Uniformity Bill, the French connection, and the Dutch war, he secured to
himself a seat in the treasury; and ultimately sacrificing his views on the question of the French alliance to the inclination of Charles, he became one of the most powerful members of the famous Cabal administration. (See BRITAIN, vol. v., p. 425.) In 1672 he was created Earl of Shaftesbury, and soon after raised to the post of lord high chancellor; but in 1673 he was dismissed from office, and on the fall of the Cabal he, along with Buckingham, made peace with the opposition, and appeared at the head of the stormy democracy of the city. Throwing himself into the current of the anti-popish agitation, he made the alleged martyrdom of his dismissal from office a means of swelling his influence with the people; and in the following sessions of parliament he found himself surrounded by a band of faithful supporters. The government, outvoted in the house, had recourse to frequent prorogations; and when at length compelled to meet for pressing business, Shaftesbury contended that such frequent interruptions amounted to a virtual dissolution. For this he was ordered humbly to beg the king's pardon, and refusing, was committed to the Tower. At the intercession of the lords he was soon after released, and in the trials of Titus Oates and his confederates he found a golden opportunity of gratifying his revenge, and extending his popularity. In the new council formed under Temple, Shaftesbury was appointed lord president, and had the honour of carrying through parliament the famous Habeas Corpus Act. He was, however, soon after dismissed from office; and placing himself at the head of the exclusionist party, he cited the Duke of York before the court of king's bench as a popish recusant. The trial failed, but the commons eagerly took up the cause, and the danger was averted only by repeated prorogations, which allowed time for a Tory reaction. In 1681 the government resolved to strike a decisive blow by bringing Shaftesbury to trial for his life. Fortunately for him the jurymen before whom he was arraigned were citizens of London, where the Whigs were still dominant, and the bill was thrown out. Foreseeing, however, that the ruin of his party was at hand, after a fruitless effort to raise an armed rebellion, he retired to Holland, where he died Jan. 21, 1683. In regard to the character of Shaftesbury we have the contemporary portraits of Butler and Dryden. The one depicts his wondrous versatility and perfidious restlessness; and dwells especially on his dexterity at every change of fortune in extirpating himself from the snares in which he left his associates to perish. The other, writing at the close of his career, has blended these with the equally characteristic traits of implacable revenge, and boldness amounting to temerity.
Of these the false Achitophel was first;
A name to all succeeding ages cursed;
For close designs and crooked counsels fit;
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Restless, unfixed in principles and place;
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace;
A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy-body to decay,
And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.
Abealom and Achitophel, 159-162.
Shaftesbury left behind him the Memoirs of his own Time; but the MS. is said to have been destroyed by his friend Locke, to whom it was confided. His Life was drawn up and published by his grandson, under the editorial care of Dr Kippis and B. Martin. It has since been reprinted.