Sir John Hippisley, 1st Baronet

Sir John Coxe Hippisley, 1st Baronet (c. February 1746 – 3 May 1825), was a British diplomat and politician who pursued an 'unflagging, though wholly unsuccessful, quest for office' which led King George III of Great Britain to describe him as 'that busy man' and 'the grand intriguer'.

Born John Cox Hipsley in Bristol in 1746, he was the son of William Hipsley, a haberdasher, and Ann Webb. His middle name derived from his paternal grandmother, Dorothy Cox. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and at Hertford College, Oxford, becoming a Doctor of Civil Law in 1776. He became a student at the Inner Temple in 1766 and was called to the bar in 1771. He was Treasurer of the Inner Temple from 19 November 1813 to 17 November 1814 and his monogram can be seen above the doorways of Nos. 10 and 11 King's Bench Walk.

In 1779 Hippisley travelled to Italy where he became the British government's man in Rome. He married his first wife Margaret Stuart in Rome in February 1780. Margaret was the second daughter of Sir John Stuart, third Baronet of Allanbank. They had four children together – Margaret Frances, born 1780; Windhamina Barbara (probably named after Hippisley's friend William Windham), born 1787; John Stuart, born 1790, and Louisa Anne.

In 1781 Hippisley secured an appointment with the East India Company and moved to Madras, eventually becoming paymaster in Tanjore. He resigned from the Company in 1787 and returned to England in 1789. In the following year he was returned as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sudbury. At the general elections of 1796 and 1801 he was not returned to Parliament, but he was successful in 1802 and retained his seat until 1818 when he retired from the House of Commons.

In 1792 Hippisley returned to Italy and remained there until 1795, during which time he served as a semi-official representative of the British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger at the Court of Pope Pius VI. Upon returning to England he was called upon to negotiate the marriage between Prince Frederick of Württemberg (later Frederick I of Württemberg) to Charlotte, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of George III. After bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion, Hippisley finally received his long-sought baronetcy on 10 May 1796

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