Rev. ____ Coppinger

The Coppingers, another Danish family, which amassed great wealth from trading and manufacturing in Cork City, overlapped with the Cotters.
In 1677 Stephen Coppinger of Ballyvolane owned 247 acres of profitable land at Killacloyne and 74 at Garrancloyne. His lands had been taken in the Cromwellian con?scation. The story of their return, variations notwithstanding, underlines the value of friends in high places. One account has the Louvain educated Stephen bailing Cromwell out at a card game in Holland. Whatever about the card game the incurrence of a debt seems to be true. Cromwell is said to have lost the address of his creditor and it was not until some years subsequently the debt was repaid by the restoration of Coppinger’s lands on Cromwell’s direct orders.
Stephen’s son, Thomas, was outlawed for his loyalty to King James II, and ?ed to France. One of Thomas’s sons, Edward, died from wounds received fighting with Sir James Cotter at the Battle of Bottle Hill in 1696. Two other sons, another Stephen and John, later returned to Ireland.
Stephen obtained the lease of Barryscourt from the Earl of Barrymore and in 1716 a house was built next to Barryscourt Castle. While the exact occupancy is unclear, for at least part of the period following the Barrymore departure Barryscourt was “leased to Edward Morley, Oliver Parsons, Henry Parr etc., at a rent of £200 yearly”. At some point Barryscourt reverted from the Earl of Cork to the Barrymores. John settled in Garrancloyne and there built “The Three Chimney House”, the remains of which can still be seen. A third Coppinger house was built at Rossmore.
The following generations of Coppingers were well connected and added to the family wealth and prestige. William (1753 to 1831) was Bishop of Cloyne and Ross for forty years. His sister, Elizabeth, in 1760, helped Nano Nagle found a convent of the Ursuline Order in Cork. Thomas of Rossmore, is said to have been involved in the establishment of Maynooth College in 1795. The last Barryscourt Coppinger, William, was a highly progressive farmer, politically conservative, and a brother in law of the Liberator Daniel O’Connell’s brother. He played a prominent part in the Catholic movement in the nineteenth century. He died in 1863 and was buried in Templecurraheen cemetery.²