Coppingers of Barryscourt Descriptive List (Ref. U405)

U405

27 October 1747

Letter to William Coppinger ‘in Dublin’, from Joseph Coppinger, Corke, regarding the proving of a will. He expresses bewilderment that William’s latest letter ‘leaves me as much in the dark as your former ones’, as it makes no mention of proving the will, taking out administration, or of their sister taking out a writ of dower. He comments ‘there’s scarce one of the town but what knows more of the affairs of the family than we do’ . He asks that William be present when Mr Wall inspects the accounts kept by Joseph at the request of their sister ‘as you could remove any objection she should make’, adding ‘I know my transactions for my poor brother to be true and honest’. He hopes the matter can be discharged that day ‘as I would chuse to have it quite over without any second hand inspection, & have them closed with honour’. Joseph expresses the wish that William had taken the advice of cousin Kearney ‘by making the judicious friend he recommended you, a Confident of all your proceedings & those of the family, and by whom you ought entirely to be governed’. He states that on receipt of William’s authority to receive rents he shall ‘take care & oblige these backward gentlemen to pay’. He expresses his gladness that William and his sister like the dirge, and that they ‘continue in such harmony’. He adds ‘I have no doubt of her good intentions to save the family, but am sorry to hear the hint you give, that the Law is likely to deprive her o f the means’.

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5 November 1747

Letter to William Coppinger from Joseph Coppinger, Cork, beginning ‘I wrote you the last post & then remitted you John Herns bill for £30 @ 15 days sight on Thomas Egan in Dublin, which I hope you received, as I find it is chiefly what causes your delay in Dublin’. He states his sister refuses to call on him as she will not leave the care of William’s children and business in Barry’s Court: ‘she thinks neither in safety but in her presence’. He is sorry that William’s letter ‘promises no kind of comfort to our familly’, but encourages him not to dwell on the ‘bare apprehension of misfortunes’ and to bear up against those it may be God’s will to send. He adds ‘I greatly fear you are quite overcome’. ‘To divert you’ he tells William of a clerical dispute involving Messrs Butler, Walsh, and O’Bryan, declaring ‘never was a campaign in Flanders so warm’. Having recited the dispute in detail, Joseph states ‘no time is certainly to be lost for your presenting him [O’Bryan?] t o the parish which right now actually invests in you for if 6 months expire without a formal presentation then your right is lost’. [The letter is frayed along the bottom edges, causing some loss of text]. [See also U229/100/21, 34]

3pp