John Cope Freeman

1. Eldest son of Cope Freeman of Salisbury and Catherine Margaret Hampson who married c. 1721. Cope Freeman and his wife died at sea in 1734 when returning from the West Indies. John Cope Freeman married Susanna Tophill of Rickmansworth in 1756; they had one son who predeceased them.

2. John Cope Freeman was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 1194 acres of land in St Catherine, 1000 acres in St James and 2511 acres in St John, total 4705 acres.

3. He bought Langley House on his retirement in the 1750s. In 1763, he was Sheriff of Hertfordshire.

1. Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen's Letters, 4th ed. (Oxford, OUP, 2011) pp. 525-526. Will of Cope Freeman of Salisbury, Wiltshire, proved 09/12/1734, PROB11/668/280.

2. 'A list of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the Quit Rent Books in the year 1754', http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1/1754lan2.htm [accessed 31/03/2014].

3. http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/places/places-a/abbots-langley/abbots-langley-langley-house.htm [accessed 31/03/2014). Copy of legal document confirming his role as Sheriff of Hertfordshire sent by email by Jeff Lightfoot 09/04/2014.

We are grateful to Patricia Noble and Jeff Lightfoot for their assistance in compiling this entry.