[Index]

John COPPIN (1840 - 1903)

farmer, shepherd

Children	Self + Spouses	Parents	Grandparents	Greatgrandparents
John COPPIN (1859 - 1905) Margaret Ann COPPIN (1861 - ) Ellen COPPIN (1863 - 1957) George COPPIN (1866 - ) Thomas William COPPIN (1868 - 1959) Laura COPPIN (1871 - 1927) Albert Henry COPPIN (1873 - 1931)	John COPPIN (1840 - 1903) + Catherine SHEEDY (1828 - 1901)	Thomas COPPIN
		Ann TOMBLING TOMLIN

b. 01 Jun 1840 at Langley, Kent, England

m. 07 Jan 1859 Catherine SHEEDY (1828 - 1901) at Balmain, New South Wales, Australia

d. 22 Nov 1903 at Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia aged 63

Near Relatives of John COPPIN (1840 - 1903)
Relationship	Person	Born	Birth Place	Died	Death Place	Age
Father	Thomas COPPIN
Mother	Ann TOMBLING TOMLIN
Self	John COPPIN	01 Jun 1840	Langley, Kent, England	22 Nov 1903	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	63
Wife	Catherine SHEEDY	abt 1828	Ballina, Co Tipperary, Ireland	27 May 1901	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	73
Son	John COPPIN	1859	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	1905	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	46
Daughter	Margaret Ann COPPIN	1861	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Daughter	Ellen COPPIN	1863	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	17 Sep 1957	Canberra, ACT, Australia	94
Son	George COPPIN	1866	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Son	Thomas William COPPIN	1868	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	1959	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia	91
Daughter	Laura COPPIN	1871	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	1927	Petersham, New South Wales, Australia	56
Son	Albert Henry COPPIN	1873	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	1931	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	58
Daughter in Law	Agnes Isabella SMITH
Son in Law	James Henry CAVANAGH	1862	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	1946	Mayfield, New South Wales, Australia	84
Son in Law	Timothy KELLEHER	abt 1856		17 Aug 1939	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	83
Daughter in Law	Jane Alice WALL	1876	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	13 Nov 1950	Randwick, New South Wales, Australia	74
Son in Law	John James MCINNES	1867	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	20 Sep 1913	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	46
Grandson	Charles Frederick COPPIN	1901		12 May 1948	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	47
Grandson	Patrick Aaron CAVANAGH	29 Sep 1887		26 Dec 1975	Te Awamutu, New Zealand	88
Grandson	John Bryan KELLEHER	1887	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	1966	Hurstville, New South Wales, Australia	79
Granddaughter	Mary K KELLEHER	1889	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Grandson	Patrick L KELLEHER	1890	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Grandson	Michael W KELLEHER	1892	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	1912	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	20
Granddaughter	Laura A KELLEHER	1894	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Grandson	Thomas J KELLEHER	1896	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Granddaughter	Margaret E KELLEHER	1899	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Granddaughter	Eileen KELLEHER	1901	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Granddaughter	Johanna KELLEHER	1904	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Grandson	Cornelius T KELLEHER	1906	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Grandson	George D KELLEHER	1908	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Grandson	John COPPIN	1903	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Granddaughter	Kathleen M COPPIN	1905	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Granddaughter	Margaret (Rita) A COPPIN	1910	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia
Granddaughter	Elmo Jane COPPIN	1912	Narrandera, New South Wales, Australia
Grandson	Thomas W COPPIN	1915	Narrandera, New South Wales, Australia
Granddaughter	Elsie MCINNES	1903	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia

Events in John COPPIN (1840 - 1903)'s life
Date	Age	Event	Place	Notes	Src
01 Jun 1840		John COPPIN was born	Langley, Kent, England		6
27 Sep 1857	17	Immigration	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia	per 'Washington Irving'	6
1859	19	Birth of son John COPPIN	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	11883/1859	6
07 Jan 1859	18	Married Catherine SHEEDY (aged 31)	Balmain, New South Wales, Australia	956/1859	6
1861	21	Birth of daughter Margaret Ann COPPIN	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	12133/1861	6
1863	23	Birth of daughter Ellen COPPIN	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	12792/1863	6
1866	26	Birth of son George COPPIN	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	14088/1866	6
1868	28	Birth of son Thomas William COPPIN	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	15598/1868	6
1871	31	Birth of daughter Laura COPPIN	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	16593/1871	6
1873	33	Birth of son Albert Henry COPPIN	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	17546/1873	6
27 May 1901	60	Death of wife Catherine SHEEDY (aged 73)	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia		6
22 Nov 1903	63	John COPPIN died	Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia	15425/1903	6

Source References:

6. Type: Book, Abbr: Queanbeyan Register, Title: Biographical register of Canberra and Queanbeyan: from the district to the Australian Capital Territory 1820-1930, Auth: Peter Proctor, Publ: The Heraldry & Genealogical Society of Canberra, Date: 2001

- Reference = 58 (Name, Notes)

- Reference = 58 (Immigration)

- Reference = 58 (Death)

- Reference = 58 (Birth)

- Reference = 58 (Marriage)

80. Type: Web Page, Abbr: Hall Museum, Title: Hall School Museum and Heritage Centre, Locn: https://museum.hall.act.au/

- Reference = https://museum.hall.act.au/display/1939/person/2232/john-coppin.html (Name, Notes)

- Notes: Born: 1840; Died: 1903; Married: Catherine Sheedy Related Places Coppin homestead John and Catherine Coppin lived and raised a family of seven children in the vicinity of the... Related Files Coppins Crossing and Beyond. The Life and Times of John and Catherine Coppin (PDF 5.7 Mb) The life story of John and Catherine Coppin John Coppin was born in the village of Sutton Valence, near Langley in Kent, on 1st June 1840. His parents were Thomas Coppin, a carpenter and wattle-gate maker, and Ann (nee Tombling / Tomlin). At seventeen, a farm labourer, he emigrated to Australia, paying ₤1 for an assisted passage on the Washington Irving. He arrived in Sydney on 27 September 1857 and found work in the household of a Mr and Mrs Deloitte and their six children. His wife to be, Catherine Sheedy, was already lady's maid in the Deloitte household. They married at the Roman Catholic Church of St Augustine, Balmain, on 7 January 1859, but by that time had left the Deloitte household. John was sacked after being found worse for wear in the cellar with the Deloitte's son Quentin, and Catherine resigned in sympathy. She had found employment through the happy chance of meeting a former neighbour in Ireland, John Patrick Cunningham ('Paddy-Two-Sticks'), and it was Cunningham who directed them to William Davis' Ginninderra estate, where he himself was working. So it was that after their marriage in 1859 they walked all the way to their final destination at Ginninderra, working along the way to support themselves, and carrying with them everything they owned. Not a bad effort. Helped by the fact that he had played cricket back in Kent, Coppin was taken on as a labourer at 12/- a week plus rations. Catherine, well pregnant with their first child (John) when they made the journey to Ginninderra, gave birth in the tent that was their first home. Early in 1860 John took the position of shepherd at the Goat Station on the Molonglo River - one of the many shepherding out-stations of the Ginninderra estate. Here the Coppins shared a three roomed hut with 'Paddy' Cunningham, who also shepherded a flock nearby. Catherine was able to supplement John's 12/- a week by catering for travellers on their way to the Kiandra goldfield. Conditions were tough however, with both drought (1865-66) and floods (1873) and the predations of insects and wildlife - as well as the occasional good year (1876). When Ralph Edge, fellow shepherd at Lime Kiln Waterhole died in 1872 'what little property he had went to John and Catherine Copping who had looked after him in his later days' (Shumack, S). This would have been a blessing to the Coppins. The Coppins had seven children. John was followed by Margaret Ann (1861), Ellen (1863), George (1866), Thomas William (1868), Laura (1871) and Albert Henry (1873). (Ellen, who was to marry Timothy Kelleher, was the great grand-mother of the family historian Rhonda Boxall). Margaret, Ellen and George are listed as prospective pupils when application was made for a school two and a half miles away at Weetangera. Ellen, George, Thomas and Laura's names were put forward in 1877 when the Council of Education was petitioned to upgrade from Provisional to Public School status. Meanwhile the family of nine grew up at Goat Station, producing what they could in their small orchard and vegetable plots. Neighbour Samuel Shumack says of them: 'As neighbours [the Coppins] were excellent.It would be impossible to find a more hospitable couple than John and Catherine Coppin'. In July 1876 John was invited to join a wallaby shooting party organised by William Davis and George Harcourt. He shot 300 himself, of a haul of 2,600, and did some skinning for others. At some stage he moved to the head station, and was seriously injured when asked to take out the ration cart to the outstations. While with the hut-keeper at Ginninderra Falls, his horse took fright and the dray struck a stump and overturned, leaving Coppin unconscious. The hut-keeper thought he was dead, and raced the nine miles to Ginninderra to break the bad news. Meanwhile Coppin came too and set off back to GInninderra himself. After earlier failures, he finally succeeded in becoming an independent landowner in 1878 when he selected 200 acres on the south side of the lower Molonglo river - portion 107, Parish of Yarrolumla. It was not far from their previous home at Goat Station and the area now known as Coppins Crossing. Within eighteen months Coppin had made improvements to the value of ₤57 - a hut (₤10), garden fence (₤12), land clearing (₤30), and yard (₤5). In regard to his source of income he is described at this time as a 'cropper'. It seems that he struggled financially however, as the land was mortgaged in 1882, and in 1891 the holding became part of Frederick Campbell's Yarralumla estate. It was named Coppins Corner Paddock, the name persisting at least until the land was resumed by the Commonwealth. The 1891 Census records that there were five residents at the Coppin's home - most likely the youngest children Laura, Thomas William and Albert Henry, and their parents. However, Coppin - describing himself as a 'farmer' - had by then applied for three parcels of land (1280 acres) with river frontage to the upper Molonglo in the Kowen / Burbong area in the parish of Amungula. The application was confirmed in April 1891. It is not known why the Coppins, now in their fifties, made the big decision to start again after their sustained efforts to get established at the Goat Station and Coppins Corner, but they did not waste any time: Only five and a half months had elapsed when Inspector Spicer visited the property on 21 September 1891 and reported that the land had been improved by a four-roomed house, a kitchen, stable, dairy, garden, and extensive fencing......he also noted that the residence contained furniture, provisions, cooking utensils, etc., while poultry and domestic animals were wandering about (Boxall, 15) It seems most probable that sons Thomas and Albert, both still unmarried, were living at Burbong, where they were listed as 'labourers' for the 1903 elections. They, as well as Laura, would no doubt have been a great source of help to their mother and father. It seems likely that the Kowen land was used mostly for grazing, rather than cropping. It was Albert who signed his mother's death certificate when she died in 1901. John followed shortly after - in 1903 - after a short period when he was cared for by his daughter, Ellen Kelleher, at her Naas home. [Generous assistance from Rhonda Boxall gratefully acknowledged]

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