Maurice Coppinger

Maurice Coppinger (1727–1802) was an Irish lawyer and politician, who sat in the Irish House of Commons for many years, and held the office of King's Serjeant.[1] His name is commemorated in Coppinger Row, a side street in central Dublin city.

He was born in Dublin, the elder son of John Coppinger and Mary Ann Crosbie, daughter of Maurice Crosbie, 1st Baron Brandon and Lady Elizabeth Fitzmaurice, and sister of William Crosbie, 1st Earl of Glandore. His father belonged the well-known Coppinger (or Copinger) family of County Cork. John's principal estate was at Glenville, a few miles from Cork city; he also owned property in County Kildare. John spent his later years in Dublin and died there in 1752. His death caused a lawsuit between Maurice, who was executor of the will, and his brother Robert. Maurice married Anne Mitchell, daughter of Henry Mitchell, banker, of Dublin, and Margaret Webber in 1766.

Maurice was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he took his degree in 1743, and entered Middle Temple in 1747.[2] He was called to the Bar in 1754.[3] He sat for many years in the Irish House of Commons: as MP for Ardfert 1758–83, for Roscommon 1783–90 and for Belturbet 1790–97.[4] He was appointed Third Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) in 1770[5] and promoted to Second Serjeant in 1774.[6] He went as an extra judge on the Leinster circuit in 1774.[7] He was dismissed from office in 1777, but was asked to serve as an extra judge of assize in 1776.[8] He wrote at least one legal text book, "Coppinger's Abridgment".

He sold Glenville in 1779: this may have been because his wife, after 13 years of marriage, had still not produced an male heir, but it is more likely that he needed money to pay the costs of a protracted lawsuit against him by Theobald Wolfe, which resulted in a Court decree against him in 1778. He and his wife had one son, John James Coppinger (1780–1813).

His Dublin house was in South William Street, and nearby Coppinger Row was named after him. He died in 1802: his wife Anne Mitchell, who was an aunt of the distinguished Army officer Hugh Henry Mitchell, survived him. In 1785 she was granted a Government pension of £300 a year.[9]