[3][4] Copeland was business like and practical and he managed to turn round the fading fortunes of the Theatre Royal.
In Copeland's first season he hired the services of the distinguished actors Mrs Jordan and George Frederick Cooke.
His brother Benjamin's grand-daughter Isabella, also an actress, became the wife of the actor, playwright and theatre manager John Baldwin Buckstone.
His son William Robert Copeland followed in his father's footsteps by managing theatres in London and Liverpool.
Other stars of the stage such as Fay Compton and Vesta Tilley also married Copeland's descendants.