View source for Godfrey Copley ca.1653-1709

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===[[personal title::Sir]] [[name::Godfrey]] [[name::COPLEY]], 2nd [[personal title::bart]]  ca.[[date of birth::1653]]-[[date of death::1709]]===
[[file:P1210034(1).JPG|thumb|Copley's bookplate (from a copy of F. Bacon, ''The historie of ... Henry the seventh'', 1642, private collection)]]
====Biographical Note====
Son of [[family::Sir Godfrey Copley]], 1st baronet, of [[location::Sprotborough, Yorkshire]], who he succeeded as [[personal title::2nd baronet]] in 1678.  Admitted to [[organisations::Lincoln's Inn]] 1674, to the [[organisations::Inner Temple]] 1681.  [[occupation::fellow|Fellow]] of the [[organisations::Royal Society]] 1691, and an active member of the Society, to whom he left a [[bequest::bequest]] of [[monetary value::£100]] which became the Copley medal, still awarded today.  [[occupation::MP]] for [[location::Aldborough]] 1679-81, for [[location::Thirsk]] 1695-1709; "politically, a country tory back-bencher" (''ODNB'') although he engaged in debates around financial and religious affairs, and was a parliamentary [[occupation::commissioner for accounts]] from 1701, and [[occupation::comptroller of army accounts]] from 1704.

====Books==== 
Copley's estate was left in trust for the benefit of his wife and descendents, and it passed after his wife's death to his cousin [[family::Lionel]] (1677-1720).  The will has no mention of books, and we do not know the extent of the collection left at his death (de Ricci believed it to be a "fine library"), but it was augmented by successive generations of the family and eventually sold at [[organisations::Sotheby's]], [[date of sale::23 November 1925]].  [[associates::Ralph Thoresby]], visiting Copley at [[location::Sprotborough]], noted his paintings and mathematical instruments.
[[file:P1210035(1).JPG|thumb|Copley's dated inscription, from the same copy of Bacon, ''Henry the seventh'']]
====Characteristic Markings==== 
Copley used an armorial bookplate, whose Jacobean style suggests it must have been made towards the end of his life. An example of his inscription is shown here. Peterhouse, Cambridge I.5.4 (B. Varenius, ''Geographia'', 1672) has a similar inscription on the flyleaf, "Godfrey Copley Junior", dated 8 April 1674.

====Sources====
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*[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/copley-sir-godfrey-1653-1709 History of Parliament]. 
*McGrath, C. I. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/6269 "Copley, Sir Godfrey, second baronet (c. 1653–1709), politician."] ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.
*de Ricci, S. ''English collectors of books and manuscripts'', 1930, p.31. 
*Young, T. ''Some Yorkshire bookplates'', 1991, no.43.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copley, Godfrey, Sir}}

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