TThere are numerous records in Ireland of the Cuppage (or Cuppaidge) surname dating from the early seventeenth century onwards. However the Coppage name itself is not common in Ireland and the few instances that exist are probably mis-spellings of Cuppage.
The Irish family traces its origins to one Faustus Cuppaidge who moved from Cumberland in England to Ireland in 1604 where he bought an estate near Coleraine in County Derry, Ulster. Such a move was not uncommon at the time and formed part of the “Plantations”, the colonisation of Ireland by settlers from Great Britain. This was just after the “Nine Years War” which ended in 1603 and which had been a response to the Tudor Conquest of Ireland.
Stephen Cuppaidge, son of Faustus, was MP for Coleraine in the mid-seventeenth century and his son, John Cuppaidge bought Clough Castle in County Antrim. Over the next two centuries the family acquired a number of substantial properties in Ireland including Mount Edwards and Retreat Castle, both in County Antrim, and Clare Grove just north of Dublin.
Several Cuppages served as MPs and there were a number who held senior military positions, at least five of whom served in India. For example Lieutenant- General William Cuppage served in Gibraltar and India before becoming Inspector-General of the Royal Artillery and Navy in 1815. His son, Lieutenant-General Sir Burke Douglas Cuppage fought at the Battle of Waterloo and and went on to become Lieutenant-General of Jersey from 1863 to 1868. There are also numerous records of Cuppage family members with senior clerical positions in Ireland.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century one member of this family, Granville William Vernon Cuppage, emigrated to Canada where he became Deputy Commissioner of Land and Works in Victoria, British Columbia. He had one son, Edward Reade Vernon Cuppage, who established the Cuppage line in Canada (see the section on North America).
Burke’s Irish Family Records lists the antecedents of Edward Reade Vernon Cuppage from Faustus onwards. The publication also claims that the surname Cuppaidge may have Germanic origins although it provides no evidence for this claim.
If it is the case that the origin of the Copage surname and its variants was the ancient forest of Coppedhegge in Buckinghamshire then this raises questions as to whether Faustus Cuppaidge of Cumberland was a member of the same family or whether the similarity of the surname is a coincidence. Clusters of Copages are common in Southern England around this time but not in the North and Cumberland (now Cumbria) was more than 200 miles from the Coppedhegge area.