William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper

William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper (13 August 1709 – 18 September 1764), styled Viscount Fordwich between 1718 and 1723, was a British peer and courtier.

William Clavering-Cowper 2nd Earl Cowper, 1730s portrait

Born William Cowper, he was the eldest son of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, and his second wife Mary, daughter of John Clavering of Chopwell, County Durham. He later assumed the additional surname of Clavering on the death of his maternal uncle.[1]

He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, matriculating in 1725 aged 16, created DCL in 1728.[2]

He succeeded his father in the earldom in October 1723, aged 14.[3] In 1744 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, a post he held until his death.[4] He was also a Lord of the Bedchamber to George II.[3]

Lord Cowper was twice married. He married firstly Lady Henrietta, daughter of Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham, in 1732. After her death in September 1747 he married secondly Lady Georgiana Caroline Carteret, daughter of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, and widow of John Spencer, on 1 May 1750. He died on 18 September 1764, aged 55, and was succeeded in the earldom by his son from his first marriage, George Clavering-Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper. The Countess Cowper died on 21 August 1780.[5]

Relatives

Arms
Coat of arms of William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper
Crest
A lion's jamb erased Or holding a cherry branch Vert fructed Gules.
Escutcheon
Argent three martlets Gules on a chief engrailed of the last three annulets Or.
Supporters
Two dun horses close cropped (except a tuft on the withers) and docked a large blaze down the face a black list down the back and three white feet viz both hind and the near fore foot.
Motto
Tuum Est (It Is Thine) [7]

References
  1. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cowper, William Cowper, 1st Earl" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 349.
  2. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Cowper, William, Earl Cowper" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  3. thepeerage.com William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper
  4. leighrayment.com Peerage: Cowper to Cutts of Gowran[Usurped!]
  5. L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 87.
  6. Gittings, Clare (January 1997). "The hell of living: Reflections on death in the diary of Sarah, Lady Cowper, 1700-1716". Mortality. 2 (1): 26. doi:10.1080/713685853.
  7. Debrett's Peerage. 1869.
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