George Selth Coppin - Early Life

Early Life

Coppin was born at Steyning, Sussex, England, son of George Selth Coppin (1794–1854) ( a Norwich surgeon) and Elizabeth Jane, née Jackson. His grandfather had been a well-known clergyman at Norwich. George Selth Coppin Senior, studied for the medical profession but abandoned this to go join a group of travelling actors. George Coppin Junior (he rarely used his middle name, Selth) became an assistant in his father's company, George and his sister performed their own act by 1826. At the age of 18 Coppin had an engagement at the Woolwich theatre, and soon afterwards was playing at Richmond, where he became low comedian at a salary of twenty-five shillings a week. He next obtained an engagement at the Queen's Theatre, London, and in subsequent years played as first low comedian in the provinces and at Abbey Street theatre, Dublin, where he had a long acting engagement. There Coppin met Maria Watkins Burroughs, nine years older than Coppin. They lived together from 1842 to 1848.