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 power to set aside the sale, and, exasperated by repeated failure, he took occasion to publicly insult his opponent by striking him within the precincts of the court at Whitehall, on 9 July 1685. The assault was witnessed by Evelyn (Diary, 1850-2, ii. 227). For this offence Colepeper was imprisoned in the marshalses, and subsequently condemned to lose his hand. His wife's devotion alone saved him. Her letters to him during his imprisonment (Harl. MS. 7005) and the account of her efforts to procure his release are deeply pathetic. At her entreaty Lord Danby used his influence with the king, and Colepeper was pardoned. After Monmouth's defeat Colepeper for some reason was encouraged to show himself at court, where he would in all probability have obtained some minor office. But on the evening of 26 April 1687 the Earl of Devonshire, encountering him in the Vane Chamber at Whitehall, while the king and queen were in the presence, challenged him to walk out, and on Colepeper's refusal struck him with his cane (, Autobiography, Camd. Soc., pp. 275, 278-9). It was now the earl's turn to be imprisoned and tried. In the result he was fined 30,000l. (Lord's Journals, April-May 1689), and in default of payment was committed to the king's bench, from which, however, he soon managed to escape, and in the next reign the fine was remitted (, Peerage, ed. Brydges, i. 343). The sequel is recorded by Luttrell, who under the date of 1 July 1697 writes : 'Yesterday the Duke of Devon meeting Coll. Colpepper at the auction house in St. Albans Street, caned him for being troublesome to him in the late reign' (Relation of State Affairs, iv. 246).

Colepeper had now lost all hope of preferment at court, and, having sold his family estate in 1675, was left without provision in his old age. His wife had died on 3 Dec. 1698, leaving no issue. The rest of his life is a dismal record of want and sickness, of perpetual schemes for the amendment of his fortunes, by pretended discoveries of mines, and of various projects for the improvement of the army, navy, and revenue, besides inventions without number. He died at his lodging in Tothill Street, Westminster, in December 1708, and was buried on the 28th in the neighbouring church of St. Margaret (Burial Register).

Although flighty and eccentric even to Colepeper was possessed of undoubted abilities and knowledge. His scientific attainments had procured his election to the Royal Society on 28 May 1668. He was the familiar friend of, the engineer [q. v.] (Westminster Abbey Registers, Harl. Soc., pp. 183-4n.) Many of his manuscripts are preserved in the British Museum. The more important are his transcript of the 'Frecheville Evidences,' from a copy 'made by some herald,' probably Richard St. George (Harl. MS. 7435), and the eighteen volumes of what he called 'Adversaria' (Harl. MSS. 7587-7605). 'In these volumes,' writes Sir F. Madden, 'is contained an immense mass of information relative to the lands and descent of the Frecheville family, and more particularly to the claims advanced by Col. Colepeper, in right of his wife, to the title and estate of Lord Frecheville, and to his own various schemes and undertakings; but the whole is written so negligently, and with so many errors, as to make these collections of less value than they otherwise would be' (, Collectanea, iv. 218). Other manuscripts are 'Collections from Public Records, &c.' (Harl. MS. 6833), 'Commonplace Books' (ib. 0817-18), 'Memorandum Book' (Addit. MS. 11205). At the end of Harl. MS. 7560, ff. 293-7, are some sheets of a petition to the court of chancery, a most extraordinary document, detailing a secret marriage between the colonel and the widow of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, and told with a graphic vigour and minute references to dates and persons which make us think that Colepeper would have excelled as a writer of fiction.



COLEPEPER, WILLIAM (d. 1726), poet and politician, was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Colepeper, knight, of Hollingbourn, Kent. On account of a quarrel with Sir George Rook an attempt, at the instance he affirmed of Hook, was made upon his life, and after trial before Lord-justice Holt. 14 Feb. 1701, certain persons were fined for attempts to do him injury. He was one of five gentlemen who on 8 May 1701 delivered a petition to the House of Commons from the deputy-lieutenants, justices, and grand jurors of Kent, desiring that the house would turn their loyal addresses into bill of supply, &c. which petition being voted insolent and seditious they were ordered into the custody of the serjeant-at-arms, and thence sent as prisoners to the Gatehouse, where they remained till the end of the session. 