John Cope (British Army officer)

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Sir John Cope, KB (1690 – 1760) was a British general. He was in command of the government forces at the Battle of Prestonpans, and was defeated by the Jacobite Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) there in 1745. This is commemorated by Adam Skirving's heavily mythologized song Heigh! Johnnie Cowp, are ye wauken yet? (Hey Johnnie Cope, are you awake yet?).

It has been alleged that when John Cope surveyed the forces that Bonnie Prince Charlie had amassed against him, Cope chose to gain the dubious honor as the first English general to deliver the news of his own defeat by fleeing the battle and leaving his men without a commander. This seems unlikely, as Cope was later court-martialed, and exonerated.

The Report of the Board's proceedings was published in 1749. Anyone who scrutinizes it closely can only conclude that the Board was correct. 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.

-Martin B. Margulies, History of Scotland magazine.

The Battle of Prestonpans lasted approximately 15 minutes as the Jacobites under Prince Charlie routed the hapless Hanoverian force. Eventually, Cope was appointed Knight of the Bath (KB).

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.