Sir Walter Coppinger

Sir Walter Coppinger (died 1639) was an Irish noble from County Cork, Ireland, who was a magistrate of Cork city, a lawyer, and a landowner. Coppinger came from one of the most prominent families in Cork city; though himself of Viking rather than Gaelic descent, he was hostile to the English settlement of Cork, and had a reputation for ruthlessness.

Sir Walter Coppinger was the eldest son of James Coppinger, and the great grandson of Stephen Coppinger who was the first representative of the city of Cork in the Parliament of Ireland in 1560, and Mayor of Cork on two occasions, in 1564 and 1572. Sir Walter was a moneylender, and acquired many lands and properties from people who defaulted on mortgages provided by Sir Walter. This made his somewhat unpopular and his reputation in Cork to this day reflects this.

In 1594, Sir Walter acquired the rights of the manor and castle of Cloghan near Carbery, County Cork from two brothers, Charles and Donogho McCormacke McTeige McCartye. Years later, Charles disputed the original transaction and attempted to set aside the deed and obtain a ruling whereby the original transaction was by way of a mortgage only. In 1633, the court ruled the lands and castle belonged to Sir Walter.

In 1609, the Mayor of Cork mortgaged wines which would become due to the city in order to raise money towards the payments of debts. One eighth of all prize wines, one quarter of all wines not considered as prize wines such as Spanish and Gasconyne wines. This mortgage would continue until the Mayor paid £125 to repossess their estate. A number of people including Sir Walter Coppinger were granted this mortgage. In October of the same year, Sir Walter was sworn as Serjeant of the Mace.

Sir Fineen O'Driscoll was the local lord in Cork, loyal to the English, and had been knighted in 1587 for his work in capturing Spanish ships. Sir Walter's younger brother, Richard Coppinger, was married to Sir Fineen's daughter, Eileen. In 1600, Sir Fineen opened his lands to English "planters" by granting Sir Thomas Crooke the rights to found the town of Baltimore which grew rapidly. But the settlement proved deeply unpopular with Sir Walter who was a staunch Roman Catholic and who had his own ideas on development of West Cork. Sir Walter harassed the inhabitants with legal claims to their lands and in 1610, a compromise was reached whereby Crooke, Coppinger and O'Driscoll agreed to grant a lease to Baltimore to the settlers for a term of 21 years.

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