COXE, John (?1695-1783), of Lower Lypiatt, Glos.

Coxe was put up by his cousin, Thomas Master, for Cirencester at a by-election in 1749. Though ‘not agreeable to many of the electors’, he was returned without a contest owing to inability to find an alternative candidate. He was so unpopular that some of the chief supporters of the Master interest declared ‘that they could never think of him any more for the town’. When asked by his constituents why he had not voted against the bill for naturalizing the Jews, he replied that he had ‘retired into the country, imagining, as was the general opinion, that nothing of any consequence would be attempted so late’.The Cirencester Contest, 1753, pp. 3, 35-36, Gloucester City Lib. In August 1753 he was re-nominated by his cousin, but his candidature met with so powerful an opposition that he withdrew, never to stand again. He died 27 Jan. 1783.