Lionel Copley

Background

Lionel Copley was born in Wadsworth, Yorkshire, England. He was the son of Lionel Copley and Frisalina Ward.

Education

Lionel entered the Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1665.

Career

Copley was commissioned a captain of royal foot-guards in 1676. When first stationed at the fortress of Hull, about 1681, he was commended by the Duke of York as an honest man. He was a Protestant. The governor of the fortress was a Catholic. During the English revolution of 1688 the governor purposed to fill all the offices with Catholics. Copley, hearing of this, sent for the other Protestant officers, and they unanimously agreed to call the Protestant soldiers privately to arms to seize the governor and his principal adherents. The plan was successfully executed, the town and fortress were secured for King William, and Copley, promoted to the rank of colonel, was made lieutenant-governor.

He was commissioned as the first royal governor of Maryland on June 27, 1691, but his earliest instructions are dated two months later, and he did not arrive in the province until late in March or early in April 1692. He was sworn in at a meeting of the Provincial Council April 6, 1692, and met the Assembly on the 10th of the following month. In his brief address to this body he urged that the heats and animosities which had been rife during the overthrow of the proprietary government be laid aside and that adequate provision be made for his salary.

He approved bills for the establishment of the Church of England, for granting the Governor an annual revenue, for the limitation of officers’ fees, for the administration of justice, for regulating the militia and providing for defense, and for regulating trade with the Indians. He refused to permit one of the nominees for the Council to take a seat in that body on the ground that he was the leader of a small hostile faction. Three separate treaties of peace were concluded by him with the Piscataway, Mattawoman, and Choptico Indians, all dated May 14, 1692. In a dispute between the Governor and the Secretary of the Council over the right to the fees derived from the appointment of county clerks and over the right of their removal, the home government decided in favor of the Secretary. The Secretary also claimed the fees derived from the sale of ordinary licenses, but the assembly gave these to Copley as part of his annual revenue as governor. Copley stated that it was morally impossible for one in his position to serve the king without bringing complaint from Lord Baltimore, who under the royal government was supposed to enjoy all the territorial rights that had been his under the proprietary government. Lord Baltimore’s chief grievance was that, by Copley’s permission, the Assembly had passed an act depriving him of a fourteen-pence tonnage duty.

Achievements

• Lionel Copley became the first official royal governor appointed by the British crown after the colony was removed from the proprietary control of the Calvert family during the Glorious Revolution. During his administration, he rewrote the legal code of the colony, adopted many laws and passed the new laws.

Religion

Copley was a member of the Protestant Church.

Connections

Copley was married to Ann Boteler of Walton Woodhall, Hertfordshire. They had two sons, Lionel and John, and a daughter, Ann.

Father:

Lionel Copley

Mother:

Frisalina Ward

Spouse:

Ann Boteler

daughter:

Ann Copley

Son:

John Copley

Son:

Lionel Copley

References

• Maryland: A Middle Temperament, 1634-1980