He was born in 1823 in New York City to an immigrant from England.

[2] He worked as a clerk in a dry goods store.

Gopsill became the president of the Hudson Insurance Company and founded the Children's Home for Orphans.

[citation needed] Gopsill was a delegate from New Jersey at the 1868 Republican National Convention in Chicago and a member of the Republican National Committee from New Jersey from 1868 to 1872.

[citation needed] He died from angina while on vacation with his wife in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York on July 26, 1884.