General Notes

(Research):Note:
[5479] Second surviving son of his generation, he makes hi
s first appearance
on the existing record as 'my brother John Colepipir's son
, my
godson,' in the 1581 will of his maternal uncle, John Sidle
y of
Southfleet (P.C.C. Darcy, 31; Waters' Gleanings, ii, 969)
. In October,
1587, or soon after the death of his brother William, when
, according
to the later testimony of his tombstone, he would be 17 yea
rs of age,
he was entered at the Middle Temple under the description '
late of New
Inn, gent... second son of John Colepeper of Wigsell, Susse
x, esq.'
(Hopwood, i, 293). Unlike his eldest brother, whose recor
d so far runs
parallel, he had entered upon a professional career. Duly c
alled to
the bar, by 1595 he was having his youthful kinsmen 'bound
' with him,
and in 1599 is listed as a Bencher. Frequenting the househo
ld of his
uncle Francis at Greenway Court, he there met and married h
is first
wife, and after Francis' death established her at Greenwa
y Court (then
the property of his younger brother Alexander), as appear
s from the
baptism of one of his children in Harrietsham; but later h
e occupied a
house in Salehurst, as appears from his elder brother's inq
. p.m.
already cited.
.
That his law practice was profitable, despite his reputatio
n, recorded
on his MI., for composing more litigation that he fomented
, appears
from his ability to subscribe to the Virginia Company unde
r the
charter of 1609; and a year later, under the third charter
, to make
one of the largest individual subscriptions (£37, 10s. 6d.
) to the
'supply' which saved the colony at Jamestown from death b
y inanition
(Brown, Genesis, 218, 407, 546).
.
Having been designated, by the will of his uncle Martin, th
e
contingent remainderman of Astwood in Feckenham, he remove
d his family
to Astwood after the inheritance had become certain by th
e death
without issue of his cousin Sir Stephen12; and there burie
d his first
wife in June, 1612. This occupancy was by arrangement wit
h Dr. Martin
Culpeper's widow, who had a life estate but had meanwhile r
e-married
and removed her residence elsewhere. In 1616 he bought ou
t that aunt's
interest, and then gave over his law practice to become a c
ountry
gentleman. Being now 'of Feckenham,' he became a diligent p
residing
magistrate at quarter sessions; being included, a generatio
n ahead of
Sir Roger de Coverley, of the quorum in the Worcestershir
e commission
from 1618-1628; again, like Sir Roger, in 1624 he served th
e office of
Sheriff of that county 'with music before me, a feather i
n my hat and
my horse well bitted' (Bund, Cal. Quarter Sessions Papers,
Worcestershire, 1591-1643, 1900; Sheriff Lists in Fuller'
s Worthies).
.
But when he was nearly seventy years of age, for what reaso
n does not
appear, he sold Astwood to one Thomas Rich, and returned t
o Greenway
Court to die. There, on December 14, 1635, he made his wil
l and on
December 18th following, as the parish register testifies
, 'Mr. John
Culpeper, Armiger,' was buried in the chancel of Hollingbou
rne church.
- Fairfax Harrison
[5478] [S580] Sussex Colepepers-I