COPLESTON, EDWARD (1776-1849), English bishop, was born on Feb. 2, 1776, at Offwell in Devonshire, and died on Oct. 14, 1849. He was elected to a tutorship at Oriel college in 1797, and in 1800 was appointed vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford. He was university professor of poetry (1802-12), dean of Oriel for some years, and succeeded to the provostship in t 814. The great prosperity of the college during the first quarter of the 19th century was partly due to Copleston. In 1826 he was appointed dean of Chester, and in the next year he was consecrated bishop of Llandaff.
Copleston's best known writings are on economic subjects. He wrote Letters to the Rt. Hon. Robert Peel . . . on the per nicious effects of a Variable Standard of Value, especially as it regards the condition of the Lower Orders and the Poor Laws (1819). In these two "letters" he did considerable service in drawing attention to the imperfect adaptation of wages and prices to currency depreciation.
See W. J. Copleston, Memoir of E. Copleston, bishop of Llandaff (1851) , with selections from his diary and correspondence; Morley, Reminiscences of Oriel College (1883) .