Copley Baronets

Copley Baronets

The Copley baronetcy was first created for Godfrey Copley in 1661. He was High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1676–77.

His son Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet, High Sheriff for 1677 and whose bequest to the Royal Society financed the Copley Medal, left no male heir and the first creation of the baronetcy thereby became extinct. His daughter Catherine married Joseph Moyle, the second son of Sir Walter Moyle of Beke, Cornwall. Their son Joseph Moyle, who was Clerk of the Signet, changed his surname to Copley by Act of Parliament on inheriting the Sprotbrough estate in 1766 and was created a baronet in 1778.