in obtaining a loan of twenty thousand roubles in corn and furs. An account of his reception at Moscow (May 1650) is printed in the 'Nicholas Papers' (182-5). Shortly after his return he was, by the influence of Lord Jermyn and the queen, to whose party he still belonged, sent to Holland as agent for Charles II, in the hope of obtaining armed support from the United Provinces, then (June 1652) at war with England (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 106). It was also intended to despatch him to Scotland in 1654, but this mission came to nothing (ib. iii. 225). By the treaty of August 1654 between Cromwell and Mazarin (Guizot, Cromwell, ii. 468) it was stipulated that Colepeper should be expelled from French territory, and he seems to have spent the rest of his exile in Flanders. From occasional notices in Clarendon's correspondence he appears to have been in more prosperous circumstances than most of the royalists. On the death of Cromwell, Colepeper wrote a remarkable letter to Hyde (20 Sept. 1658) on the policy to be adopted by the royalist party (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 412). He urged that the English royalists should be kept quiet until the divisions of the republicans brought the true season for activity; meanwhile he advised him to apply secretly to the discontented officers and statesmen, but especially to Monck. 'The person that my eye is chiefly on, as alone able to restore the king and not absolutely averse to it neither in his principles nor affections, is Monk;' and he went on to point out the way to deal with him, and to predict with astonishing foresight the probable course of events. In September 1659 Colepeper followed the king to the south of France during the unsuccessful attempt of Charles to obtain some advantage from the treaty of the Pyrenees. Several letters written by Colepeper during this journey are among the Egerton MSS. (Eg. 2536). At the Restoration he returned to England, but died in the same summer (11 June 1660; Kennet, Register).
Colepeper's character is described at length by Clarendon (Life, ii. 10; Rebellion, iv. 122) and Sir Philip Warwick (Memoirs, 195). Both agree in praising his ability in debate and his fertility in counsel, and complain of a certain irresolution and changeableness which prevented him adhering to his first conclusions. Both agree also in the statement that the uncertainty of his temper greatly diminished his usefulness. Clarendon in his correspondence frequently sneaks of the difficulty of doing business with him. Nicholas echoes the same charge (Nicholas Papers, 315), and Warwick talks of his 'eagerness and ferocity.' This was largely the result of his education. When he came to court, says Clarendon, 'he might very well be thought a man of no good breeding, having never sacrificed to the Muses or conversed in any polite company.'
Colepeper's estates were restored by a private act passed after his death (Kennet, Register, 255). By his first wife he had one son, who died young, and a daughter, Philippa, who married Sir Thomas Herlackenden. By his second wife, Judith, daughter of Sir T. Colepeper of Hollingbourn, Kent, he had seven children, of whom Thomas, the eldest, became his successor in the title, which passed to his two younger brothers John and Cheney, and became extinct on the death of the last in 1725 (Hasted, Kent; Collins, Peerage, ix. 422).
[Clarendon's Life, History of the Rebellion, and State Papers; Nicholas Papers, Camden Society, 1886; Rushworth's Historical Collections; Gardiner's History of England; Sanford's Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion.]
COLEPEPER, THOMAS (1637–1708), colonel, was the only son of Sir Thomas Colepeper, knt., lieutenant of Dover Castle, and of St. Stephen's, otherwise Hackington, Kent, by his wife, Lady Barbara, daughter of Robert Sydney, earl of Leicester, and widow of Sir Thomas Smythe, K.B., first viscount Strangford (Hasted, Kent, fol. ed. iii. 595-6, iv. 76). Born, according to his own statement, on the Christmas day of 1637, he lost both his parents six years later. He lived as steward with the Strangford family. With his half-brother, Philip, viscount Strangford, he busied himself in promoting the king's return, and was imprisoned by the council of state in August and September 1659 (State Papers, Dom. 1659-60). In 1662 he married Frances, third and youngest daughter of John, lord Frecheville, of Staveley, Derbyshire, by his second wife, Sarah, daughter and heiress of Sir John Harrington, knt. It was a stolen match, and so displeasing to Lord Frecheville, that, while outwardly reconciled, he refused to make his daughter any settlement. At his death, in March 1682, he left her an annuity of 300l., which owing to the reduced state of his fortune was probably never paid. Lord Frecheville had in fact been obliged to sell his manor of Staveley and other lands appurtenant thereto to the Earl of Devonshire [see Cavendish, William, 1640-1707] in the October previous to his death for the sum, it is stated, of 2,600l. (Harl MS. 6820, f. 100). This was afterwards made the subject of much litigation by Colepeper. He used every means in his
