He is now chiefly remembered for his defeat at Prestonpans, the first significant battle of the Jacobite rising of 1745 and which was commemorated by the tune "Hey, Johnnie Cope, Are Ye Waking Yet?

While Cope's date of birth is often given as 1690, parish records show he was baptised on 7 July 1688 at St Giles in Camden; he had two siblings, Mary (1679–1758) and a brother Henry, who died young.

[5] In July 1758, he wrote to Sir Robert Wilmot (1708–1772), referring to the 'malice and abuse' of his relatives and asking him to act as trustee for John and Elizabeth, his two children by a Mrs. Metcalf.

In 1707, Raby arranged for Cope to be commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Dragoons, then fighting in Spain under James Stanhope, part of the War of the Spanish Succession.

This gave officers like Cope regular contact with highly influential people, while being in London made it easier to combine political and military careers.

Most of Cope's 3,000–4,000 men were inexperienced recruits, but his main handicap was the poor advice he received from local experts, particularly John Hay, 4th Marquess of Tweeddale, the Secretary of State for Scotland.

[12] Leaving his cavalry at Stirling under Thomas Fowke, Cope and the infantry marched on Corrieyairack Pass, the key connection point between the Western Highlands and the Lowlands.

[16] The two armies made contact on the afternoon of 20 September; Cope's forces faced south, with a marshy area immediately in front, and park walls protecting their right (see Map).

[17] During the night the Jacobites moved onto his left flank and Cope wheeled his army to face east (see Map); his dragoons panicked and fled, exposing the infantry in the centre.

[19] Several hours after the battle, Cope wrote to Tweeddale; I cannot reproach myself; the manner in which the enemy came on was quicker than can be described...and the cause of our men taking on a destructive panic...[20] He was replaced as commander in Scotland first by Roger Handasyd, then Henry Hawley, who was also over-run by the Highland charge at Falkirk Muir in January 1746.

What emerges from the pages is not, perhaps, the portrait of a military genius but one of an able, energetic and conscientious officer who weighed his options carefully and who anticipated - with almost obsessive attention to detail - every eventuality except the one which he could not have provided for in any case: that his men would panic and flee.

[24]In 1751, Cope was appointed Governor of Limerick, and deputy to Viscount Molesworth, commander of the army in Ireland; neither post required residence, and he seems to have quietly accepted the end of his career.

He also suffered from severe gout, a common illness at the time; another letter dated 8 July 1755 mentions his residence in Bath, whose Spa waters were a favourite remedy for invalids.

[26] Gardiner also features in Walter Scott's 1817 novel Waverley, his heroic death convincing the English Jacobite hero the future lies with the Union, not the Stuarts.

[27] The suggestion attributed to Lord Mark Kerr, governor of Berwick, that Cope fled so fast, he brought news of his own defeat, appears to be yet another embellishment by Scott.