Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coppock, Thomas
COPPOCK or CAPPOCH, THOMAS (1719–1746), Jacobite, a native of Manchester, was educated in the free school there and at Brasenose College, Oxford (B.A. 15 Oct. 1742). Afterwards he took holy orders. He joined the army of Prince Charles Edward at Manchester, and was one of those left behind at Carlisle. Having been tried and condemned for high treason, he was drawn, hanged, and quartered at Carlisle on 18 Oct. 1746. An absurd report was circulated that the Pretender had nominated this young clergyman to the see of Carlisle, and one of the witnesses at the trial, improving the story, stated that Coppock received that appointment from Hamilton, the governor of the town for the prince. In contemporary journals Coppock is seriously spoken of as ‘the titular bishop of Carlisle.’ It has been said that Coppock led a very irregular and immoral life; but no reliance can be placed on these statements. They emanated from his political enemies, and are to be found in the following pamphlets: ‘An Authentic History of the Life and Character of Thomas Cappoch, the rebel-bishop of Carlisle,’ London, 1746, 8vo, reprinted in the ‘Carlisle Tracts,’ 1839; ‘The Genuine Dying Speech of the Rev. Parson Coppock, pretended Bishop of Carlisle,’ Carlisle [1746], 8vo. This pretended speech is an obvious fabrication. What is probably a correct version of Coppock's last words is given in ‘True Copies of the Dying Declarations of Arthur, lord Balmerino, Thomas Syddall,’ and others, Edinburgh, 1750, 8vo.
[Pamphlets cited above; Chambers's Hist. of the Rebellion of 1745–6 (1869), 462; Cat. of Oxford Graduates (1851), 151.]