Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/406

 COPLEY

COPPEE

eleven prints from Copley's works, the gift of Gardiner Greene. His "Siege of Gibraltar" was jjainted about 1789-90 for the council cham- ber of Guildhall, London, and the figures are all portraits. "The Red Cross Knight," painted about 1788-90, gives excellent full-length por- traits of Mr. Copley's son and two daughters, and became the property of S. G. Dexter of Boston, who married a great-granddaughter of the artist. "The Family Picture "* became the proijerty of Charles Amory of Boston, and "Mrs. Derby as St. Cecilia "' of W. Appleton of the same city. "The Daughter of George III." is in Bucking- ham Palace, and his other liistorical English subjects include " Offer of the Crown to Lady Jane Grey" ; " Charles Demanding in the House of Commons the Five Impeached Members " ; " King Charles Signing Strafford's Death War- rant " ; " Assassination of Buckingham " ; " Bat- tle of the Boyne " ; " The Five Impeached Members Brought Back in Triimiph," and " The King's Escape from Hampton Court." His eldest child, Elizabeth Clarke, born in Boston in 1770, was educated in England, became her father's reader and companion, and in 1800 was married to Gardiner Greene of Boston, and died in that city in 1866 at the age of ninety-six years. The third child, Susannah, died in 1785, when nine years old, of scarlet fever, and the fourth, Jonathan, died the same year, an infant, while May, the youngest child, lived unmarried, attaining the age of ninety-five years, dying at Hampton Court palace, April 23, 1868. John Singleton, Jr., the second child, born on Beacon Hill, Boston, May 21, 1772, was educated at Trin- ity college, Cambridge, England, and visited Boston in 1796, where he failed to obtain a settlement of his father's affairs, resulting from a sale by the agent of his estate on Beacon Hill, after his father's departure for Italy. He visited Mount Vernon, was a guest of General Washing- ton, and became enamored of Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Bishop White of Philadelphia, whom he wished to marry, but the bishop would not allow his daughter to make her home in England. He travelled on horseback through the wilderness of the Middle States and expressed a wish to settle in his native land. He returned to England, how- ever, in 1798, where he became a lawyer in 1804 and entered political life as a Tory member of parliament in 1818. He became Lord Chancellor in 1827 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Lyndhurst of Lyndhurst, April 27, 1827. He was twice married, but left no male issue and the title lapsed with his death, which occurred at Tunbridge Wells, England, Oct. 12, 1863, he having reached the age of ninety-one years and nearly six months. John Singleton Copley, R.A., died in London, England, Sept. 9, 1815.

COPPEE, Henry, educator, was born in Savan- nah, Ga., Oct. 13, 1821. His parents, natives of Santo Domingo, had been driven thence in their childhood by the negro insurrection. The son entered Yale college in the class of 1839, remained there about two years and then engaged as a civil engineer in railroad work in Georgia until 1841, when he was appointed a cadet in the U.S. mili- tary academy. He Avas graduated in 1845 and served in garrison at Fort Colimabus, N.Y., until the outbreak of the war with Mexico in 1846, when he was pro- moted second lieu- tenant, 1st artil- lerj'. He engaged in most of the bat- tles on General Scott's line of march from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico ; and on Aug. 20, 1847, he was promoted 1st lieutenant and brevetted cap- tain " for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco." He was assistant professor of French at the U.S. military academj-, 1848^9; in garrison at Fort McHenry, Md., 1849-50, and principal assistant professor of geography, history and ethics at the academy, 1850-55. He resigned his commission in the armj-, June 30, 1855, and held the chair of English literature and history in the University of Pennsylvania, 1855-66. In 1866 he accepted the presidency of Lehigh university, holding also the professorship of English literature, interna- tional and constitutional law, and the philosophy of history. He resigned the presidency in 1875, but retained his professorship until his death. He was lecturer on the philosophy of history at Hobart college, Geneva, N.Y., 1888-95. He was a member of the American philosophical society, an honorary member of the Pennsylvania histori- cal society, and of several other scientific and historical organizations. He was appointed a regent of the Smithsonian institution in 1874 and was elected a regent by congress, in 1880 and 1886. He was U.S. commissioner on government assay of coin in 1874 and 1877. He received the degree of A.M. from the University of Georgia in 1848, and that of LL.D. from the University of Penn- sylvania, and from Union college in 1866. He edited, the United States Service Magazine (1864- 66) ; a translation of Marmot's Spirit of Military Institutions (1862) ; and a translation of Comte de