William Taylor Copeland

Infobox MP| honorific-prefix = Alderman, Lord Mayor
name = William Taylor Copeland
honorific-suffix = MP

constituency_MP = Coleraine

constituency_MP1 = Coleraine

constituency_MP2 = Stoke on Trent

term_start2 =
term_end2 =
predecessor2 = Hon. George Anson
successor2 = John Ricardo
birth_date = 1797
birth_place = London, England
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
party = Conservative
otherparty =

constituency_MP3 = Stoke on Trent

residence = Russell Farm

occupation =
profession =
religion = Church of England

website = [http://www.spode.com]

William Taylor Copeland, MP , Alderman (1797 – April 12 1868) was a British businessman and politician who served as Lord Mayor of London and a Member of Parliament.

Family and Business

Copeland was the only son of William Copeland, a partner of Josiah Spode in the Stoke Potteries, of Staffordshire and of Portugal Street, London.

In 1826 he married Sarah Yates. Their family included ten children, of whom a daughter and four sons survived. The sons were William Fowler Mountford Copeland (1828–1908), Edward Capper Copeland (1835–1875), Alfred James Copeland (1837–1921), and Richard Pirie Copeland (1841–1913).

Copeland succeeded his father as head of the firm in Portugal Street and eventually bought out the interests of the Spode family in the business in the Potteries and London.

In 1866 Copeland was appointed china and glass manufacturer to the Prince of Wales. He became a director of the London and Birmingham Railway Company. He was also a major investor in Fenton Park Colliery.

Public Life

Copeland was active in the civic life of the City of London. He was elected alderman for Bishopsgate ward in 1828, served as sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1828–9 and in 1835 he was elected Lord Mayor of London (the third youngest man to hold that office) for 1835-36..

He was a member of the Goldsmiths' Company and its master in 1837-38. For seven years he was president of the royal hospitals of Bridewell and Bethlem, as well as a member of the Irish Society and President of the Honourable Artillery Company.

Copeland was active in Ireland as a Whig politician. He contested the Irish UK parliament constituency of Coleraine at the 1831 and 1832 general elections. On both occasions he lost the initial poll, but was declared duly elected on petition. In the 1835 general election Copeland was re-elected MP for Coleraine, by a majority of five. He sat for the borough until 1837.

Copeland then contested the Stoke-upon-Trent constituency in England, as a Conservative candidate. He sat for that seat between 1837 and 1852 (when he was defeated) and again from 1857 until he retired in 1865.

See also

*William Henry Goss

External links

* [http://www.spode.co.uk Spode website]
* [http://www.spode.co.uk/History/history_society.html Spode Society]

References

*"British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885", compiled and edited by F W S Craig (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
*"Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922", edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
*"The Parliaments of England" by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844-50), 2nd edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
*"Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume I 1832-1885", by Michael Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)