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The University of Southampton
Special Collections

MS 5 Manuscripts from the Cope Collection, relating to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

About Sir William Cope

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight collections of Sir William Cope (1811-92), twelfth Baronet, of Bramshill, Hampshire, were bequeathed to the Hartley Institution in 1892. Cope was the son of Lieutenant General E.R.Cope. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he obtained his BA in 1831 and subsequently at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he took his MA in 1840. He was a minor canon of Westminster Abbey from 1842 until 1852 and chaplain of Westminster Hospital from 1843 to 1851. He was the author, with Revd H.Stretton, of Visitatio infirmorum and editor of Sir Anthony Cope's Meditations on twenty select psalms (London, 1848). Cope's library contained a notable collection of medieval manuscripts and family papers, which have now been dispersed, as well as manuscripts relating to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, which have passed to the University Library along with the printed books, maps and engravings from Cope's Hampshire collection.

Cope's manuscript collections

Cope's manuscript collections are described (including MS 5/6-7) in HMC Third report (C673 of 1872) p. xvi and Appendix pp. 242-4; present locations are given (in part) in HMC Guides to sources for British history 3: the location of the collections described in the reports and calendars series 1870-1980 (London, 1982) p. 14. A description of the bequest of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight collection is given in R.V.Turley, 'Sir William Cope and his remarkable collection', Hampshire magazine  16 no. 4 (Feb 1976) pp. 45-7. The Cope family muniments are in HRO 43M48/1-2847; 13M50/1-57; and 2M55/1-18. The manuscripts listed here fall into several categories:

Date range:

c. 1655-1889

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