COPPYN (COPPING), Robert (by 1521-75), of Dunwich, Suff.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553
Oct. 1553
Nov. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1521, 1st s. of George Coppyn. m. (1) by 1544, Christian, wid. of Nicholas Baldwin of Dunwich, (2) Anne; 3s. inc. Gregory. suc. fa. 1544/45.3

Offices Held

Bailiff 1542, 1546, 1547, 1550, 1553, 1554, 1558, 1562, 1564, 1570.4

Biography

Robert Coppyn followed his father in both occupation and municipal preferment, and by his father’s death he had already served the first of his many terms as bailiff of Dunwich. His Membership was an extension of his local career, and he sat in all the Parliaments between 1545 and 1554, save the second of Mary’s reign when the outsider George Jerningham was returned with the help of his brother-in-law the sheriff. Neither Coppyn nor his partner Sir Edmund Rous was present when the House was called early in January 1555, and for this dereliction the pair were informed against in the King’s bench in the following Easter term: the only further process against them was a distraint of 12d. each recorded three years later. Coppyn did not sit in the last two Parliaments of Mary’s reign but he was re-elected twice under Elizabeth, dying early in 1575.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

  • 1. Huntington Lib. Hastings mss Parl. pprs.
  • 2. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 3. Date of birth estimated from first reference. PCC 31 Pynnyng, 15 Pyckering, 31 Leicester; C1/984/1-3.
  • 4. T. Gardner, Dunwich, 82.
  • 5. E122/210/5; Coke, Institutes, iv. 20; KB27/1186; PCC 15 Pyckering.