Life

He was the second son of William Cope of Hanwell

Hanwell

Hanwell is a town situated in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, between Ealing and Southall. The motto of Hanwell Urban District Council was Nec Aspera Terrent...

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, cofferer to Henry VII, by his second wife Joan, daughter of John Spencer of Hodnell, Warwickshire. He was a member of Oriel College

Oriel College

Oriel College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford...

, Oxford, but does not appear to have graduated.

After leaving Oxford, he travelled in France, Germany, and Italy, visiting various universities, and became ‘an accomplished gentleman;’ according to Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

, his works were spoken of in an epigram by Baptista Mantuanus

Baptista Mantuanus

Baptista Spagnuoli Mantuanus was an Italian Carmelite reformer, humanist, and poet.-Biography:Mantuan was born of a Spanish family that had settled in Mantua, the northern Italian city that gave him his most commonly used English name...

, now lost. At the age of twenty-six he succeeded to his father's estates, inheriting an old manor house near Banbury called Hardwick, and the mansion of Hanwell left incomplete by his father, which he finished, and which is described by John Leland as ‘a very pleasant and gallant house.’

In 1536 he had the grant of the dissolved Brooke Priory in Rutlandshire, which he afterwards sold, and bought more property in Oxfordshire. He was engaged in a dispute with the vicar of Banbury

Banbury

Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...

 in 1540, and received the commendation of the council for his conduct. He was first vice-chamberlain, and then principal chamberlain to Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr ; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him...

, and 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. He died at Hanwell on 5 January 1551, and was buried in the chancel of the parish church.

Family

He married Jane, daughter of Matthew Crews, or Cruwys, of Pynne in Stoke English, Devonshire, and by her had a son Edward (who married Elizabeth, daughter of Walter Mohun of Wollaston, Northamptonshire, and had two sons, Anthony

Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet

-Life:He was a grandson of Anthony Cope the author. He was member of Parliament for Banbury in seven parliaments , and then represented Oxfordshire from 1606 until 1614...

 and Walter), and a daughter Anne, who married Kenelm Digby

Kenelm Digby (of Stoke Dry)

Kenelm Digby was an English MP and High Sheriff.He was born in Stoke Dry in Rutland, the eldest son of Sir Everard Digby and Margery Digby and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and the Middle Temple...

 of Drystoke, Rutlandshire.

Works

He wrote:

• ‘The Historie of the two moste noble Capitaines in the Worlde, Anniball and Scipio … gathered and translated into Englishe out of T. Livius and other authorities’ (black letter), Thomas Berthelet, London, 1544, also 1561, 1568 with date of colophon 1548, 1590, with three stanzas prefixed by Berthelet, and dedicatory preface to the king, in which reference is made to ‘youre most famous subduynge of the Romayne monster Hydra.’
• ‘A Godly Meditacion upon XX. select and chosen Psalmes of the Prophet David … by Sir Anthony Cope, Knight’ (black letter), J. Day, 1547, reprinted with biographical preface and notes, 1848, by William H. Cope.

Among manuscripts at Bramshill were two ascribed to Cope—an abbreviated chronology and a commentary on the first two gospels dedicated to Edward VI.