Gilbert Cope
Gilbert Cope (August 17, 1840 – December 17, 1928) was an American historian and genealogist who authored numerous publications on the history and prominent families of Chester County, Pennsylvania. His magnum opus was the History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches (1881), coauthored with J. Smith Futhey. He collected enormous quantities of historical materials and manuscripts, now held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Biography Cope was born on August 17, 1840, in East Bradford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, two miles west of the county seat of West Chester. He was the youngest of eight children born to Joseph Cope Jr. (1794–1870) and Eliza (Gilbert) Cope (1799–1862). His father- a strict disciplinarian in contrast to his kindly mother- was a wealthy Quaker farmer of English descent, whose paternal ancestor, Oliver Cope, was one of William Penn's First Purchasers, settling in the region in 1683 having previously been a tailor in Wiltshire. An Orthodox Friend like his ancestors, Gilbert attended the West Chester Friends School and the Westtown School. From a young age, Cope was fascinated by botany and genealogy, using his own hand printing press to produce genealogical pamphlets and publishing his first book, a genealogy of