Preface to the Second Edition

The volume promised in the first edition is at length complete.  The Editor is responsible for all contained in the pages, except the account of the Ballyvolane and Barryscourt Coppingers, which has been compiled by Mrs. Morgan John O'Connell, née Mary Anne Bianconi, who, in 1865, married the late Morgan John O'Connell, the nephew of the late William Coppinger of Ballyvolane and Barryscourt.

A branch of the family settled, during the fifteenth century, in Youghall, County Cork, and this branch is dealt with in a separate part.

Much assistance in compiling the account of the Suffolk branch has been obtained from an article which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, in 1831, and also from the MSS of Jermyn and Davy, in the British Museum.  The Registers of Buxhall and Lavenham, and the Court Rolls of the Manor of Buxhall, have been carefully examined; extracts have been made from the Wills preserved at Somerset House and at Bury St. Edmunds; and a general search has been made at the College of Arms, London.

In addition to those thanked in the former edition, the Editor takes this opportunity of acknowledging the courtesy and the assistance he has received in his research, from Sir Albert Woods, Garter King of Arms, the officials at Somerset House, and the Public Record Office, Dublin.

The Editor has been desirous of recording facts only, he has not "written up" any portion of the work - the facts being invariably left to speak for themselves.  This seemed the only possible way of gathering into one volume the many particulars existing respecting the family, and, at the same time, the most desirable course when the intent was rather to preserve than invent - to record incidents than write fiction - to be conservative of memory than to be liberal of imagination, and to issue a work rather for the genealogist than the general public.

W. A. COPINGER.

THE PRIORY,

MANCHESTER,

JANUARY, 

1884.