Anthony Cope (author)
Sir Anthony Cope (c.1486 – 5 January 1551) of Hanwell, near Banbury, was an English author. Origins. He was a younger son of William Cope (c.1440–1513), Esquire, Cofferer of the Household to King Henry VII, by his second wife Jane (or Joan) Spencer. According to most sources, William Cope had two wives: By his second wife, Jane Spencer, William Cope had three sons: The monument to William Cope in Banbury church records the death of his widow, Jane, on 12 February 1525. According to other sources, however, William Cope had three wives. Chambers says he married 'twice if  not three times', and that his monument names his second and third wives Agnes and Jane, while a 'troublesome pedigree' from the "Visitation of Hampshire" shows a first wife, Barbara Quarles, daughter of George Quarles of Ufford, Northamptonshire, as the mother of his son, Stephen Cope. The online "Dictionary of National Biography" does not name William Cope's first two wives, but states that Anthony Cope was his 'second recorded son... by an unknown second wife', and that Anthony had 'at least one elder half-brother, Stephen, one brother, and four younger stepsisters (one of whom became Stephen's wife ) who were the daughters of William Cope's third wife, Johane Spencer'. Career. Anthony Cope attended Oxford, perhaps Oriel Oxford as Anthony Wood states, but does not appear to have taken a degree. He subsequently travelled to France, Germany and Italy. During his time on the continent he visited several universities, and is said to have written a number of books at that time, which may have included translations from Galen and Hippocrates mentioned by Erasmus in 1516. Wood states that his writing were the subject of an epigram by Johannes Baptista Mantuanus, seen at the one time by John  Bale, but now lost. He was twenty-six years of age when his father died on 7 April 1513. He was heir to 'the manor of Hanwell, near Banbury, and other property near by'. He completed the building of Hanwell Hall, begun by his father. The Hall was later described by John Leland as 'a very pleasant and gallant house'. In 1536 he was granted the lands of the dissolved Brooke Priory in Rutland, which he afterwards sold, and bought more property in Oxfordshire. He was engaged in a dispute with the vicar of Banbury in 1540, and received the  commendation of the council for his conduct. He was first vice-chamberlain, and then principal chamberlain to Catherine Parr. Cope's duties for Catherine Parr included paying her goldsmiths, embroiderers, mercers, and her silkwoman Mistress Shakerley. He was knighted by Edward VI on 24 November 1547, being appointed in the same year one of the royal visitors of Canterbury and other dioceses. In 1548 he served as sheriff of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Marriage and issue. He married Jane Crewes, a daughter of Matthew Crewes of Pynne in the parish of Stockleigh English, Devon, by whom he had a son and  daughter: Death and burial. He died on 5 January 1551, probably at Hanwell Hall, and was buried in the chancel of the parish church. His wife, to whom he bequeathed £100 and an annuity of 100 marks, survived him. Works. Cope was the author of: Among manuscripts at Bramshill were two ascribed to Cope—an abbreviated chronology and a commentary on the first two gospels dedicated to Edward VI.