APPENDIX E.
COLONEL CHRISTOPHER COPLEY.
Sufficient has been said respecting Copley in the “Life, Times, &c.,” pages 214, 215, to give interest to any matter that can afford information respecting him.
We here supply his autograph, from MSS. in the British Museum, which may be useful to collectors; and have also to offer the account he gives of himself and his affairs during the Commonwealth, derived from Cole’s MSS. also in the British Museum, No. 5832, volume 31, page 209, as follows:—
I. (The following Case, wrote on half a sheet of paper, and was the first draught as seems to me, by the alterations and scratchings out of several words, and additions over them. I know not how I came by it.)
Col. Christopher Copley his Case.
Humbly sheweth,
That the said Colonel Copley did, in the year 1642, at his own charge raise a troop, and in 1644, a regiment of Horse, and supplied the Parliament with Bar-iron and Bullets, which with other things due amounted to the value of £1,843, whereof £1,500 was granted unto him as by an order of the 19th of July 1656, may at large appear; but is still unpaid.
That during the greatest part of the years 1644, and 1645, he had the command and care of several regiments of Horse, and by the blessing of God upon his conduct and resolution, several pieces of service were done, and victories obtained, whereby diverse of the counties of England were settled in peace, to the great advantage of the nation.