four volumes: 1. ‘Catalogue of the Copinger Collection of Editions of the Latin Bible,’ 1893. 2. ‘Corrections and Additions to the Catalogue of Incunabula in the Mazarin Library,’ 1893. 3. Reprint of Leland's ‘New Year's Gift to Henry VIII,’ 1895. 4. ‘On the Authorship of the First Hundred numbers of the “Edinburgh Review,”’ 1895. Nos. 3 and 4 bear the serial title ‘Bibliographiana.’
Copinger was quite as keenly interested in genealogy, heraldry, and manorial history. In 1882 he published his ‘History of the Copingers or Coppingers’ (new enlarged edit. 1884), in which he traces the descent of his family from the Danes in the tenth century, when they appear to have settled in Suffolk and in the south of Ireland. The energies of his last years were devoted almost exclusively to the history of Suffolk. In 1902 he issued the ‘History of the Parish of Buxhall,’ of which he was lord of the manor. Between 1904 and 1907 the ‘History of Suffolk as described by Existing Records’ (in 5 vols.) made its appearance together with the ‘Manors of Suffolk: Notes on their History and Devolution’ (7 vols. 1905–11). He also found time to compile the ‘History of the Smith-Carrington Family’ (2 vols. 1907), and to write ‘Heraldry Simplified,’ which appeared in the year of his death.
In religion Copinger was an Irvingite, and for a number of years was the angel of the Catholic Apostolic church in Manchester. His interest in theology was wide and deep. The work which he valued most among his writings was a huge treatise from his pen on ‘Predestination, Election, and Grace’ (1889). His other theological writings were: ‘Testimony of Antiquity … being a Reprint of the Homily by Elfric,’ edited by himself, 1877; ‘Thoughts on Holiness, Doctrinal and Practical,’ 1883; ‘Contributions to Hymnody,’ 1886; ‘The Bible and its Transmission,’ 1897; A new translation of ‘Imitatio Christi,’ 1900; and Law's ‘Serious Call adapted to the Requirements of the Present Day,’ 1905.
Copinger mainly found all the relaxation which he allowed himself in a change of work; but music always attracted him. He played several instruments, including the pianoforte and violin, and found time to compose a number of musical pieces, amongst which is a collection of seventy-five original hymn tunes.
Copinger was an ardent book-collector, and accumulated a considerable library. It was rich in early printed books, Bibles, manuscripts, and printed editions of the ‘Imitatio Christi,’ hymn books, Elzevirs, and general works of reference. Genial and affable with every one, he was always ready to place not only the rich stores of his knowledge but the resources of his library at the disposal of any student.
He died at his residence in Manchester on 13 March 1910 from pneumonia following an attack of influenza. He was buried at Birch, Rusholme, Manchester. On 3 Sept. 1873 Copinger married Caroline Agnes, eldest daughter of Thomas Inglis Stewart, vicar of Landscove, Devon. She predeceased him, leaving two sons and three daughters.
[Manchester Faces and Places, viii. 8–12 (portrait); Manchester Univ. Mag., vii. 182–4; Copinger's History of the Copingers, 1884; Manchester Guardian, 14 March 1910; Athenæum, 26 March 1910; Dr. Copinger's own and other notes communicated by Mr. C. W. Sutton; private information and personal knowledge.]
COPPIN, GEORGE SELTH (1819–1906), actor and Australian politician, born at Steyning, Sussex, on 8 April 1819, was only child of George Selth Coppin (1794-1854) and his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Jackson. His father, of a Norwich family, gave up medical practice for the stage and became a theatrical manager.
As a child the son showed proficiency on the violin, became a musical prodigy at the age of four, and played juvenile characters on the stage a year or two later. At seventeen he took to his profession seriously, and in November 1837 he was a minor member of the Sheffield stock company, playing at that period Osric to the Hamlet of the young starring tragedian Gustavus Vaughan Brooke [q. v.]. Developing into a capable low comedian, he was engaged at the Queen's Theatre, Manchester, early in 1841, and on 7 August in that year (when he was described as 'from the Strand Theatre') began an engagement at the Abbey Street Theatre, Dublin. For a tune he sang comic songs nightly between the pieces, accompanying himself on the violin. Here he met a fascinating American actress, Mrs. Watkins Burroughs, the wife of a provincial actor-manager, with whom he eloped to Australia, landing at Sydney on 10 March 1843. There Coppin acted on sharing terms at the Victoria Theatre, and frequently made 501. a night. But the money thus amassed was lost in commercial enterprises, and he left Sydney in debt. On 5 January 1845 Coppin began a
