Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/180

 , ii. 482–3), and a prologue to ‘The Castell of Pleasure,’ W. de Worde, n.d.



COPLAND, WILLIAM (fl. 1556–1569), printer, is believed by Dibdin (Typogr. Antiq. iv. 127) to have been the younger brother of Robert Copland [q. v.] He worked in his office until the death of the latter, and continued as printer in the same house. An original member of the Stationers' Company, he was named in the charter of 1556 (, Transcript, i. xxviii). The first book for which he is recorded to have had license was an edition of Isocrates' ‘Admonition to Demonicus,’ in 1557 (ib. i. 79), but it does not seem ever to have been printed. The earliest dated volume bearing his imprint is ‘The Understandinge of the Lordes Supper. … Jmprinted at London, in Fletestrete, at ye signe of the Rose Garland,’ in 1548. In 1561 he was in Thames Street, ‘in the Vyntre upon the Three Craned Warfe,’ and at one time had an office in Lothbury, ‘over against Sainct Margarytes church.’ Among the noteworthy books issued from his press were ‘The xiii bukes of Eneados’ (1553, 4to), ‘The foure Sonnes of Aimon’ (1554, folio), ‘Kynge Arthur’ (1557), folio, and the following without a date: ‘Syr Isenbras,’ 4to, ‘Howleglas’ (three editions), 4to, ‘The Knyght of the Swanne,’ 4to, ‘Jyl of Breyntford's Testament’ (two editions, 4to), Borde's ‘Introduction of Knowledge,’ 4to, ‘Valentyne and Orson,’ 4to, and other popular romances. Dibdin knew of no book printed by Copland after 1561, although ‘A Dyaloge between ij Beggers’ is registered for him between 1567 and 1568 (Transcript, i. 355).

He compiled ‘A boke of the Properties of Herbes,’ 1552, 4to, issued from his own press. Both Robert and William Copland used the same kind of worn and inferior types, and their workmanship shows little of the beauty that marks the productions of Wynkyn de Worde, but the memory of William deserves respect as one who printed many interesting specimens of popular English literature, all of which are now extremely rare. The titles of many of them are in the list of Captain Cox's library, and it is extremely likely that Copland's actual editions were those in that famous collector's cabinet. William Copland died between July 1568 and July 1569 (, Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), i. 353). The fact that the Stationers' Company ‘Payd for the buryall of Coplande vjs’ must not be considered to mean that they were called upon to bear his funeral expenses, but rather that the company had in some way honoured the last ceremonies of a benefactor and original member. 

COPLESTON, EDWARD (1776–1849), bishop of Llandaff, was born 2 Feb. 1776 at Offwell in Devonshire, of which parish his father was the rector. He was descended from one of the most ancient families in the west of England, which was said to have been in possession of its estates before the Conquest. The remains of them were all lost in the cause of Charles I by the bishop's direct ancestor, John Copleston; and his descendant was not a little proud of the family tree, which he spent much time in tracing backwards to its roots. He was educated at home, and at the age of fifteen he gained a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and two years afterwards the chancellor's prize for Latin hexameters upon ‘Marius amid the ruins of Carthage.’ His Latin poetry was remarkably good, and a Latin epistle which he addressed to a friend in his seventeenth year will bear comparison with Gray's or Milton's. After proceeding B.A. in 1795 he was invited by the authorities of Oriel to fill a vacant fellowship for which none of the candidates were considered good enough. In 1796 he won the prize for an English essay on the subject of agriculture, and in 1797 graduated M.A. and succeeded to a college tutorship, which he held for thirteen years. At this time he commanded a company in the Oxford volunteers, and was celebrated for his bodily strength and activity. He once walked all the way from Oxford to Offwell; and his biographer thinks he must be nearly the last man who was robbed by a highwayman near London, a calamity that befell Copleston between Beaconsfield and Uxbridge on 12 Jan. 1799. As tutor of Oriel he made the acquaintance of John William Ward (after