[Manchester Guardian, April 1872; Manchester Examiner, April 1872; Autobiographical Notes from his Works; J. F. Smith's Register of Manchester Grammar School (Chetham Soc.).]
BAMPFIELD, Sir COPLESTONE (1636–1691), the eldest son of Sir John Bampfield (created baronet in 1641), of Poltimore, Devon, was born at that place in 1636. He was sent to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and distinguished himself, according to Prince in his 'Worthies of Devon,' by his 'splendid way of living,' and by his munificent present of plate. On settling in his native county he took an active part in promoting the restoration of Charles II. When the gentlemen of Devon met at Exeter in 1659 and declared for a free parliament, Sir Coplestone Bampfield was one of the number. When Monk advanced into England with his army, Sir Coplestone presented to him a petition for right on behalf of the county, and for this action was confined to the Tower for a short time. In the parliament summoned for 27 Jan. 1659, he was member for Tiverton; and from 1671 to 1679, and from 1685 to 1687, he sat for his native county. He was one of the twenty-seven Devonshire justices who determined, in 1681, to put the laws in execution against all dissenters, and next year he joined with those who expressed their desire to harass the dissenting ministers in boroughs. Under James II he was ejected from the commission of the peace, but he was so dissatisfied with the succeeding government that he refused the payment of any new-made rates and taxes, and they were levied on his goods. He died at Warlegh, not far from Plymouth, in 1691, and was buried at Poltimore. His first wife was Margaret, daughter of F. Bulkeley, of Burgate, Hampshire; his second wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Courtenay Pole. His grandson succeeded him in the baronetcy. The family name is now spelt 'Bampfylde,' and his descendant, Sir George Warwick Bampfylde, was in 1831 created Baron Poltimore.
[Prince's Worthies, pp. 121–5; Burke's Peerage; Hamilton's Quarter Sessions, Elizabeth to Anne, pp. 185, 191.]
BAMPFIELD, FRANCIS (d. 1683), divine, was the third son of John Bampfield, of Poltimore, Devon, and brother of Sir John, first baronet. He was from his birth designed for the ministry by his parents (A Name, an After One, p. 7). In 1631, at about the age of sixteen, he entered Wadham College, Oxford, where he remained seven or eight years, taking his M.A. degree in 1638. He was ordained in 1641, and preferred to a living in Dorsetshire, worth about 100l. a year. This sum he spent upon his parishioners, supplying his own wants out of a small private income. He was also collated to a prebend in Exeter Cathedral, in which he was reinstated at the Restoration. A conviction that the church stood in urgent need of reform induced him to take steps distasteful to his parishioners, and, after much solicitation, he accepted the less valuable living of Sherborne. Here he remained until, in 1662, the Act of Uniformity drove him from his preferments. In the September of that year he was arrested at home, and compelled to find sureties for his good behaviour. Soon afterwards he was again arrested, and detained for nearly nine years in Dorchester gaol. At his discharge in 1675, he travelled through several counties preaching, and finally settled in London. After ministering in private for some time, he gathered a congregation of Sabbatarian Baptists at Pinners' Hall, Broad Street. Whilst conducting service there, in February 1682–3, he was arrested and carried before the lord mayor. After several appearances at the Old Bailey sessions, Bampfield was convicted and returned to Newgate, where he died on 16 Feb. 1683–4. Large crowds of sympathisers attended his funeral at the Anabaptists' burial-ground in Aldersgate Street. His works are:
- 'The Judgment of Mr. Francis Bampfield for the Observation of the Jewish or Seventh-day Sabbath,' 1672.
- 'All in One: All Useful Sciences and Profitable Arts in the One Book of Jehovah Elohim,' 1677.
- 'A Name, an After One,' 1681.
- 'The House of Wisdom,' 1681.
- 'The Lord's Free Prisoner,' 1683.
- 'A Just Appeal from the Lower Courts on Earth to the Highest Court in Heaven,' 1683.
- 'A Continuation of the former Just Appeal,' 1683.
- 'The Holy Scripture the Scripture of Truth,' 1684.
[The Conformist's Fourth Plea for Nonconformity, 1683, p. 44; Crosby's History of the English Baptists, 1738–40, i. 363, ii. 355, iii. 7; Calamy's Nonconformists' Memorial, ed. Palmer, 1802, ii. 149; Hutchins's Hist. and Antiq. of Dorset, 1774, ii. 385; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 126]
BAMPFIELD, JOSEPH (fl. 1639–1685), a royalist colonel, was, according to Clarendon, an Irishman, his real name being Bamford; but the assertion is not corroborated by any other authority. Bampfield himself states that he began to serve Charles I at seventeen years of age, entering the army as ‘ancient’ under
