Here’s a message from Nigel Bond in England proposing a scientific method for establishing the links among the global Copson community. Who’s game? The editor is. Replies to copsons@gmail.com.
I have the good fortune to be married to a Copson. My Copson is descended from a James Copson who lived in Wolston, Warwickshire in the late 18th/early 19th century. My brother-in-law is currently waiting for results of a Y-DNA test by Family Tree DNA and I see there are 2 other Copson DNAs on the Family Tree DNA database. They could be the first members of a new Copson Y-DNA Surname Project which would aim to establish the genetic relationships between the global Copson community. Do you think there would be interest in this? FTDNA offers tests at discounted rates for Surname Project members - see http://www.familytreedna.com/projects.aspx
My wife is descended from James’s son Edward who was a glover in Wolston and also owned a some land there. In the 1840’s he was one of two Edward Copsons living in the Wolston area. The other lived in the nearby hamlet of Brandon and was a more affluent landowner and farmer. He was descended from Thomas Copson of Sheepy Magna, Leicestershire. Thomas’s descendants include a Lt.Col Edward Copson who served in the Peninsula War and in America in 1814. He died at St.Lucia in the West Indies. The Colonel’s sister Ann married Henry Windsor 8th Earl of Plymouth.
James Copson married Comfort Parson at Wolston in 1781 and their ten children were baptised there. He may be son of Caleb Copson who had four children baptised at Wolston in the period 1768 - 1778. Caleb was a glover of Lutterworth Leicestershire (approximately 10 miles from Wolston as the crow flies). He married Eliza(beth) Powers at Catthorpe Leicestershire in 1760. I have yet to research Caleb’s roots and to find James’s baptism.
We enjoy reading your Copson Chronicle - thank you for publishing it.
Best wishes
Nigel Bond
jnigelbond@yahoo.co.uk