Laurence Stephen Cutler of Newport, Rhode Island, writes of his grandmother, Ethel Copson, who sounds a fascinating person. Laurence is co-founder and CEO of the National Museum of American Illustration and can be reached at lcutler@americanillustration.org. An architect, he worked for many years in Ghana and Nigeria.
“My maternal grandmother was Ethel Copson, who married Abner Edgar Cousins of New Haven, Connecticut. My grandmother always spoke of the Copsons, and told a story that her father came from near Leicester, England and settled in North-Eastern Massachusetts. When living near Boston in the 1960s, I found a William Copson’s grave marker in Lowell, Massachusetts. My kids and grandkids sometimes ask about their great grandparents and family origins, and while I have some scant info on my Dad’s side, I am very interested in further information regarding my grandmother Cousins’ (Copson) side. I noted with some interest that in Derek Copson’s entry from August 11, 1999, that there was a William Copson (name of my great-grandfather) whose wife was named Ethel (name of my grandmother).
“My grandmother was born an Episcopalian. After marriage she converted to Jewish, then after divorce to Christian Scientist, then with true inner happiness to Zen Buddhist, and finally was a follower of Gurdjieff and his explorative movement. An interesting Copson, to be sure, Grandma was an antique dealer in New York’s Greenwich Village in its heyday.”