Richard Coote was born in Ireland in 1636. He was the son of Richard Coote and Mary, daughter of Sir George St. George, Bart. He succeeded his father as Baron Coote of Coloony, in the Irish peerage, in July 1683. His father, uncle, and grandfather had distinguished themselves as soldiers in Ireland, and as supporters of the Restoration in 1660.
In corresponding fashion Richard, the second baron, was an early and warm supporter of the movement in favor of the Prince of Orange in 1688, attained to friendly personal relations with William, and received substantial marks of his favor. He was sworn treasurer and receiver-general to the Queen, March 27, 1689, and having been attainted by the Jacobite Parliament at Dublin, was advanced, November 2, 1689, to the dignity of Earl of Bellomont, in the Irish peerage, receiving also extensive grants from the Irish forfeited estates. By his marriage to the daughter of Bridges Nanfan, landowner, of Birtsmorton, he acquired an interest in Worcestershire, and he was member of Parliament for Droitwich from 1688 to 1695.
His appointment in 1697 to be governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, with command of the militia during the war in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and the Jerseys, was said to have been due to the King’s high estimate of his integrity and resolution. A more unified conduct of the affairs of the English plantations on the northern frontier of the American continent, particularly in matters of defense, was regarded as imperative, while scarcely less pressing were the problems presented by the American disregard of the imperial trade laws, and the encouragement said to be given to piracy, especially in New York. Bellomont’s administrations in New England, where he spent fourteen months, May 1699 to July 1700, were comparatively uneventful, and through no fault of his own the cause of intercolonial union cannot be said to have been advanced by his lordship’s tri-provincial governorship.
The situation in New York, where he arrived on April 2, 1698, after a long and stormy passage, was one of extreme difficulty. In that province evasion of the trade regulations and complicity with piratical operations were complicated with the political consequences of the passionate Leislerian feud, which had been raging for over seven years. This internal disturbance was of perilous significance for all the English colonies on the American continent by reason of the close connection of the New York government with the Iroquois confederacy, the pivot upon which turned the fate of the issue between the French and the English in North America. The precipitate vigor of the Earl’s proceedings soon aroused the antagonism of the mercantile community, the landed interest, and the few but highly placed Anglicans of the province. Though personally of aristocratic bearing, he found himself maneuvered into the appearance of leading the Leislerian “democracy” against the pillars of provincial society as that had hitherto developed. Moreover his opponents had powerful friends in England, and spared no efforts in their attempt to undermine the Earl’s support from home. In this they failed, but Bellomont was obliged, as indeed was every governor who tried to realize the imperial ideal, to carry on a struggle on two fronts.
By unrelenting exercise of executive prerogatives he was able to put a considerable restraint on the dealings of New York merchants with pirates. But for the enterprise of promoting an orderly development of provincial affairs in accordance with the aims of the English government, it would seem that he was not especially well fitted. Free from personal avarice, high-spirited, prone to quick judgment and action, he was lacking in the deliberate prudence, the capacity for indirect methods, and especially the patience, which the conditions in New York at that time seemed to require. On the other hand, the observations expressed in his voluminous correspondence with the English authorities displayed alertness of perception and far-sighted imagination in estimating the potentialities of the “plantations, ” and on several important features of colonial policy his representations bore fruit in orders later issued from Whitehall.
Regulations for the granting of land and for facilitating the policy of naval-stores production are cases in point. Especially comprehensive and far-seeing were his ambitions for the development of Indian relations, but, in this matter, as in regard to his whole administrative career, the shortness of his time in America precludes definitive judgment. For the student of English colonial administration in America Bellomont’s administration is exceedingly significant and suggestive, but its actually permanent results elude exact estimate.
Bellomont died on March 5, 1701, and was buried with public honors in the chapel of the fort, near the site of the present Bowling Green in New York. When this building was demolished in the late eighteenth century, his coffin was interred in St. Paul’s churchyard, but without monumental notice.
Coote was tall, good looking and industrious, looking much younger than he was. He was a man of fair character, upright, courageous, and independent.
In 1680 Coote married Catherine, the daughter of Bridges Nanfan and the eventual heir to Birtsmorton Court in Worcestershire. They had two sons.
