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Shaftesbury, Earl of (Anthony Ashley Cooper) 1621-

Statesman; born in Wimborne, Dorsetshire, England, July 22, 1621; represented Tewkesbury in the Short Parliament in 1640; first supported Charles I. in the civil war, but in 1644 joined the Parliament troops, acted with vigor, served in Cromwell's Parliaments, [143] and was one of the councillors of state. He retired in 1654, and in Parliament was a leader of the opposition to Cromwell's measures. Active in the overthrow of the Second Protectorate, he was one of the commissioners who went to Breda to invite Charles II. to come to England. The grateful King made him governor of the Isle of Wight, chancellor of the exchequer, and one of the privy council. In 1661 he was created Baron Ashley, and was one of the commission for the trial of the regicides, whom he zealously prosecuted. Charles had granted to him and several other favorites the vast domain of Carolina (1663), and he was employed with Locke in framing a scheme of government for it. He was created Earl of Shaftesbury in 1672, and made lord-chancellor, for which he was unfitted. Opposing the government, the King dismissed him (1673) Accused of treason, he fled to Amsterdam, Holland, in 1682, where he died, June 22, 1683.

Harper and Brothers Publishers. . New York. 1902.

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