Genealogical and Family History
of the
STATE OF MAINE

Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt. D.

LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
1909.

[Please see Index page for full citation.]

[Transcribed by Coralynn Brown]

[Many families included in these genealogical records had their beginnings in Massachusetts.]

COPELAND Lawrence Copeland, immigrant ancestor, was born in Scotland in 1599. The Scotch (Scottish!) family of Copeland has been located in Dumfriesshire since before the year 1400. He came to this country about the time that Comwell sent over his Scottish prisoners of war, many of whom became prosperous citizens in a few years. He settled in Braintree, where he married soon afterward, Lydia Townsend, Dec. 12, 1651. She died Jan. 8, 1688. He died Dec. 30, 1699, aged one hundred years, according to other testimony besides Marshall's Diary and the town records. One statement of a contemporary makes him ever older; but if he were born in 1699 he was over fifty years old when he was married and seventy-five when his youngest child was born; which rather tends to support a family tradition that he brought his first wife with him, in which case she must have died soon afterward. His name seldom appears on the records. He was evidently a farmer. Children: 1. Thomas, born Dec. 3, 1652, died young. 2. Thomas, born Feb. 8, 1655, soldier in King Philip's war. 3. William, born Nov. 15, 1656, mentioned below. 4. John, born Feb. 10, 1659. 5. Lydia, born May 31, 1661. 6. Ephraim, born Jan. 17, 1665, died of smallpox in the Phipps expedition to Canada in 1690, before sailing. 7. Hannah, born Feb. 25, 1668. 8. Richard, born July 11, 1672. 9. Abigail, born 1674, married Nov. 23, 1715, _____. (II) William, son of Lawrence Copeland (1), born at Braintree, Mass., Nov. 15, 1656, died there in 1716. He married April 13, 1694, Mary (Bass) Webb, widow of Christopher Webb Jr. and daughter of John and Ruth (Alden) Bass. Ruth Alden was daughter of Hon. John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden, the "Mayflower" immigrants, made celebrated by Longfellow's poem. All the Copelands named below are, therefore, eligible to the Mayflower Society. Mary Bass was also descended from Samuel Bass, of Boston and Braintree, deacon, freeman May 10, 1634, and deputy to the general court in 1643; Deacon Bass died Dec. 30, 1694, aged ninety-four years, father, grandfather and great-grandfather of one hundred and sixty-two persons. William Copeland settled in Braintree. He is on record in 1691 as dissenting with Samuel Thompson Jr. from the vote of the town to pay the minister his full salary of eighty pounds, half in money, half in farm products, at the meeting of March 2, 1690-91. He was elected fence-viewer in 1696. He signed the agreement to pay the expenses of defending the title of the proprietors of Braintree to their land, Jan. 10, 1697-98. Children: 1. William, born March 7, 1695. 2. Ephraim, born Feb. 1, 1697. 3. Ebenezer, born Feb. 16, 1698. 4. Jonathan, born Aug. 31, 1701. 5. David, born April 15, 1704. 6. Joseph, born May 18, 1706. 7. Benjamin, born Oct. 5, 1708, mentioned below. 8. Moses, born May 18, 1710. 9. Mary, born May 28, 1713. (III) Deacon Benjamin, son of William Copeland (2), was born Oct. 5, 1708. He married Nov. 21, 1734, Sarah Allen, who died March 20, 1801, aged ninety, and had one son, born in Braintree. He removed to Norton, where he settled and had four sons and five daughers. Children: 1. Benjamin, born in Braintree, June 7, 1736, died May 13, 1749. 2. Susanna, born April 1, 1740, in Norton, married Oct. 1, 1761, Elijah Danforth. 3. Elizabeth, born April 3, 1742, married Feb. 9, 1769, Jonathan Newcomb Jr. 4. Eunice, born Nov. 17, 1743, married Sept. 28, 1769, Joseph Hunt. 5. Moses, born Nov. 16, 1745, married Sept. 25, 1766, Hannah Stone. 6. William, born March 20, 1747-48, married Nov. 28, 1775, Martha White. 7. Samuel, born May 30, 1750, married Oct. 6, 1788, Eunice Danforth. 8. Asa, born May 8, 1752, mentioned below. 9. Lydia, born Oct. 16, 1755, married March 31, 1774, Ebenezer Morey. (IV) Deacon Asa, son of Deacon Benjamin Copeland (3), born May 8, 1752, died aged eighty-two. He was a soldier in the revolution, a private in Capt. Israel Trow's company, Col. John Daggett's regiment, in the Rhode Island campaign in 1776, in the same company in Col. John Hathaway's regiment and Col. Josiah Whitney's in 1777, also in Rhode Island. He married Rachel Briggs, who died Dec. 23, 1800, in her forty-sixth year. He lived at Norton, Mass. (where his children were born). Children: 1. Asa Jr., born Sept. 21, 1782, married Sept. 3, 1801, Abigail Newcomb. 2. Joseph, born July 29, 1784, married April 16, 1809, Betsey Britton. 3. Lemuel, born Aug. 14, 1786, mentioned below. 4. Captain Thomas, born June 9, 1789, married June 4, 1821, Eliza Hodges. 5. David, born 1792, baptized Feb. 5, 1792. 6. David, born Dec. 25, 1792, married Elizabeth Clap. 7. Elizabeth, born Feb. 5, 1794. 8. Rachel, born April 2, 1796. 9. Sarah, born Nov. 14, 1798, married Samuel King Hart, of Brewer, Maine Nov. 7, 1819. (V) Lemuel, son of Deacon Asa Copeland (4), born in Norton, Aug. 14, 1786, died in 1867. He resided in Taunton, Mass., a city adjoining Norton, and later in Holden, Maine. He married Achsah Hart. Children: Achsah, Adeline, Thomas R., George King (b. Sept. 4, 1818, mentioned below); Nancy King, Abigail, Charles, Caroline. (VI) George King, son of Lemuel Copeland, born in Holden, Maine, Sept. 4, 1818, died Feb. 5, 1872. He was educated in the common schools of his native town. He went to work early in life in his father's business, ship-building and lumber dealer, and succeeded to the business at his father's death. He also conducted a large farm and continued in active life until his last illness, a vigorous, energetic, successful man. He was a leading citizen of the town and prominent in public affairs. He was a Republican after the formation of that party and was for many years town treasurer; at the time of his death he was also collector of taxes. He was a member of the Odd Fellows of Bangor. He was a liberal supporter of the Congregational church, which he regularly attended. He married, Oct. 24, 1848, Hannah Marston Fogg, born Oct. 16, 1824, died Nov. 11, 1898. Children: 1. Lizzie M., born Dec. 7, 1849, educated in the public schools of Holden and in the Farmington Norman school; now living in Biddeford with her sister. 2. Marcia F., born Dec. 14, 1851, died Feb. 26, 1901; educated in the Holden schools and at Castine Normal school. 3. Alice M., born April 24, 1854, educated in the Holden schools and Bucksport Seminary; came with her mother and elder sister to live in Biddeford, after her father's death. 4. George H., born Oct. 6, 1860, died at Rockland, Dec. 20, 1900; educated in the public schools of Biddeford and Saco, Maine; merchant in Rockland, Maine; married Annie L. Ladd, of North Gorham, Maine; children: i. Bernice M., b. March 23, 1888; ii. Margaret H., b. April 5, 1893; iii. Eleanor F., b. Sept. 5, 1899, now residing in Gorham.