Thomas Coplestone

Thomas Coplestone (1688–1748) of Bowden, Yealmpton, Devon, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons for 29 years from 1719 to 1748.

[citation needed] From the 15th century until 1748 Bowden was for 8 generations[1] the seat of a junior branch of the prominent and ancient Copleston family of Copplestone in the parish of Colebrooke, Devon.

He was elected a Member of Parliament for Callington in Cornwall, a pocket borough owned by the Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, Devon, at a by-election on 4 December 1719 in succession to Samuel Rolle (1646–1719) of whose estates he was a trustee.

In 1730, he was appointed Clerk of quit-rents and forfeitures in Ireland and held the post for the rest of his life.

[3] After his death his executors sold Bowden to William Pollexfen Bastard[4] (1727–1782) of nearby Kitley in the parish of Yealmpton,[5] who was gazetted as a baronet in 1779 but as he took no steps towards passing the patent the title was not used by him or his descendants.