1810
– 1890
author and Goldhanger resident
Henry
Coe Coape was the son of the wealthy Maldon sugar refiner and property owner
Charles Coe. His best known literary works include The Ringwoods of Ringwood
(1873) and What Will Society Say? (1880). Fourteen works, covering
novels, plays, operas and short stories, have been identified to date. He
occasionally used the pseudonym Mervyn Merriton for his literary works.
H C Coape seems to have had a tempestuous lifestyle, he was involved in a complex
legal case to resolve a dispute about family Wills in 1837/8, he was prosecuted
for deception and fraud in 1855 and was made a bankrupt. He was also
“scandalously divorced” in 1861 for adultery. These incidents and the court
cases were all widely reported in national newspapers at the time.
There are various deeds of
the Coape family properties from the ninetieth century in the Essex Records
Office (D/DU 627), including those of: Vaulty
Manor,
Follyfaunts, Cobbs Farm, Gardners Farm, Barrow mill Farm, Osea
Island, the Heybridge salt office, yards and salt
cote. These deeds indicate that his father Henry Coe passed all his properties
and lands over to his eldest son Henry Coe Coape in 1841. White's Directory of
1848 records: George Nottidge, Esq., is lord of the manor, called
Totham-with-Goldhanger, but a great part of the soil belongs to H.C. Coape
Esq., the Rev. T. Leigh, Sir R.M. Rolfe, and several smaller owners. The Essex Standard of 20 August
1847 lists him as one of the “resident
or non-resident landowners of Goldhanger” who voted in the 1847 general
election. The 1892 Kelly’s Directory lists his son Henry F J Coape-Arnold as
the principle landowner of the Parish.
Although he also had
property in London at York Place, Portman Square, he seemed to use a Goldhanger
address for business purposes. Here is an example of one of the many newspaper
advertisements associated with his involvement in railway company shares in the
mid 1800s…
A detailed study of the
history of Follyfaunts, produced by historian Peter Bushell in the 1970s does
not identify any members of the Coape family having resided there, so it is
likely that he spent his time between Vaulty Manor and his Portman Square
residence. Vaulty
Manor is within
the parish of Goldhanger on the Goldhanger Road between Heybridge and
Goldhanger, and today is a wedding venue.
Vaulty
Manor
today
Henry Coe Coape’s son,
James, who was born in Goldhanger, married Georgeane Arnold of Wolvey
Hall, in Warwickshire, and the surname was changed to Coape-Arnold. That family owned many
properties in Goldhanger until the 1920s and family members still reside at Wolvey
Hall.
There is more about the
family at... The Coe-Coape and Coape-Arnold families
Here
is an extract from… “At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian
Fiction” by Dr. Troy J. Bassett, Indiana
University-Purdue University…
Author:
Henry Coe Coape (1810–1890), Alternate
Name(s): Mervyn Merriton (pseudonym)
Biography:
Henry Coe Coape was born in 1810 in London, the eldest son of Henry Coape of
York-place and Maldon, Essex, who had made a large fortune in the
sugar-refining business (upwards of £300,000). Coape moved in the best of
society and in 1835 married Sidney Jane King, the daughter of Major-General Hon. Henry King and
granddaughter of the 2nd Earl of Kingston. The marriage collapsed in the space
of a few years due to Coape's adultery, cruelty, and desertion (chronicled in
great detail in the divorce proceedings). The couple separated in 1847. Coape
took up with Ann Maguire (died 1850), an actress, and wrote some plays. In
1854, he was insolvent and fled to the continent. His wife sued for divorce in
1861 and it was granted. In the 1870s, presumably for money, Coape turned to
writing novels, including The Ringwoods of Ringwood (1873) and What Will
Society Say?: A Story of Society and the Stage (1880). He remarried and died in
1890.
A list of known literary works
by Henry Coe Coape / Mervyn
Merriton
The fairy Oak: a romantic opera by H C Coape,
music by Henry Forbes, 1845
A Conspirator in Spite of
Himself: a drama in two acts, by Henry C Coape 1852
The queen of the market: a grand drama in 3 acts and a prologue,
Adelphi Theatre, by H.C. Coape & B
Webster 1852
Our new lady's maid: a
comedietta in one act by Henry C Coape
1852
The Roman Question, by Edmond About, translated into English
by H C Coape 1859
Clarinda, or, Love and
friendship: a comic drama in two acts, Henry C Coape, date not known
Samuel in Search of
Himself: play, a farce in one act by J.
Stirling Coyne and H.C. Coape, 1860
The Ringwoods of
Ringwood, novel by Mervyn Merriton in 3
volumes, totalling 998 pages 1873
The Mistakes of a Day, a
short story, listed in Wellesley Index
to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900
Vol-2 1874
What Will Society Say?: A Story of Society and the Stage, in 3
volumes. 1880
The Mountain Mill, a
Pastor's Story, H C Coape 1881
What's in a Name? short story by H. C. Coape, published in the
New Zealand Evening Post in 1885
In a Jesuit Net, A Story of
the Time of Louis XIV, H C Coape, 1888
From the Enemy's Hand, or The Chateau De Louard…
…a story of France at the
period of the Evocation of the Edict of Nantes, H. C. Coape 1890
Past reviews of Henry Coe Coape’s work
The
opera The Fairy Oak was reviewed
in the ladies magazine New Monthly Belle Assemblée in 1845, this is an extract…
Amusements
of the Month - Drury Lane: The principal event of the last month which has
occurred at Drury-Lane, is the production of an opera, of which the libretto
and the music are each from the pen of an English author and musician. The
author is Henry Coe Coape, Esq., and the composer is Henry Forbes, Esq., for
many years conductor of the Societa Armonica of this country. The
opera—which went off well, though with no very brilliant success—is named The
Fairy Oak, and in its performance the principal strength of the company was
engaged. The scene is laid in Bohemia, in one of its so-very-convenient castles
designated Lownenstein. As to the date of the opera it is difficult to
determine, though we should be inclined to fix it somewhere in the reign of
Francis the First. As usual the "eye-delighting" Mr. Bunn has
produced this opera with scenery of the most incomparable beauty and splendour,
and the audience expressed themselves not a little delighted by this super-abundance—this
over-loading of an accessory run mad; a little more and it would have
killed the performance, and the audience have been entertained with a gallery
of moveable pictures in lieu of a musical entertainment. The music is,
undoubtedly, weak and heavy….
Ringwoods of Ringwood was reviewed by The
Graphic in October 1873, here is an extract…
We
have here the story of a lady who poisons her first husband, attempts to poison
her second, and believes she has succeeded, and finally poisons her third, Mr.
Ringwood, of Ringwood, after having induced him to disinherit his grandson
Hugh, and leave his £15,000 a year to her…Then she becomes repentant and is
eager to make restitution and do justice to Hugh's claims, … her second
husband… is disposed to let her down gently, she retires from the scene with
quite an odour of self sacrifice about her, and enjoys an ample income, and
general respect daring the years of life that remain to her. … much of the
story is lively and spirited; the attempts on the life of Rudolph Elsenfeldt,
the second husband, and the way they are foiled by the skilful private
detective, who has been engaged as butler for that very purpose, forming an
especially interesting episode. The story would have gained by the omission of
the love business…
Ringwoods of Ringwood was also reviewed in The
Spectator
magazine In April 1874, this is an extract…
A bold, vulgar, wicked
woman, and an equally unscrupulous attorney, are not pleasant subjects for a
picture…these, however, are the people whose machinations we are expected to
follow in the three volumes before us. Mrs. Honey- glass, afterwards
Elsenfeldt, afterwards Ringwood, marries, and poisons … three husbands
successively, in the most deliberate and cold-blooded manner…. The second
husband- does not, however, die, but makes. his escape to France, in
consequence of which she is, unknown to herself, guilty of bigamy ; this
doubtless would be regarded as a very venial offence by a woman who makes
murder an every-day practice. In addition to this, she causes her last husband
to disinherit an only grandson, and to leave the whole of his property to her
absolutely. In some of these odious transactions, she is assisted by her
attorney cousin, who is to share in the plunder.
We have the story of
disinherited Hugh Ringwood, and some love- making between him and the daughter
of a wealthy self-made man ; but these people, who in real flesh and blood
would probably be pleasant and respectable members of 'society, are here vague
and shadowy, or are mere lay figures… The author before us is not a great
master. We are unable to say whether or not the plot is a possible one…
In a Jesuit Net was reviewed by The
Spectator
magazine in December 1888, here is an extract…
Mr. Coape writes interesting
stories, and his style is graphic and picturesque... No one who reads his book
will fail to be interested in the perils and adventures of the two fair sisters
of the Chateau de Soissy. Still, we cannot help feeling rather dissatisfied
with his work. Mr. Coape is a little too bitter… The tale of Protestant
persecution cannot, it is true, be well forgotten. It has been written in
indelible letters... We would not for a moment have these tales of heroism and
martyrdom avoided. What we would have is more moderation shown in dealing with
the other side. Besides, can a Protestant afford so well to recall these
stories of the past? Were there no
persecutions of the Roman Catholics?
A summary of What's in a
Name published as a Christmas Supplement in the New Zealand Evening
Post, 24 Dec 1885…
This short story is about an
Australian originally from Liverpool, who takes temporary accommodation in
lodgings in Torrington Square, Euston where a young actress is also in
residence. The Australian becomes infatuated with her and secretly attends all
her performances at the Pantechnic Theatre. He believes their friendship is
developing, however the actress receives a telegram and suddenly departs for
Liverpool. A month later the actress returns and plans a small party to which
the Australian is invited. To his amazement she introduces him to her new
husband who he immediately recognises as his long lost brother from Liverpool.
In a further coincidence it transpires the actress’s brother is the man he has
left in charges of his properties in Australian. The story ends with a
conversation about the benefits of sheltering ones identity under an alias.
There is possibly biographical content in this story, because as indicated
above, the author “took up” with actress Ann Maguire for a several years after
separating from his first wife.
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