Rebecca Copin (born Rebecca W. Cobb on August 5,1796 in Kanawha, Virginia – died May 10, 1881 in Kanawha County, West Virginia) is known for allegedly attempting to poison her husband, John Copin, with arsenic.[1] In addition, according to John Copin's petition for divorce in 1835,[2] she also scalded him with boiling water, threatened to shoot him, and beat him with his own crutches when his leg was broken.[2]
While arsenic poisoning was known as a common way for wives to kill husbands in England in the early to mid 1800s,[3][4] Rebecca Copin's case is one of the earliest documented cases of attempted murder by a wife of her husband using arsenic in the United States, and also an early documented case of domestic violence in the legal system of the United States.
While the jury found that Rebecca Copin had indeed tried to murder John Copin, John Copin's petition for divorce was not granted.[1] The jury also did not address any of the factors that may have led Rebecca Copin to attempt to murder John Copin.[1]
The brief biography written about Rebecca Copin in this article is based on modern books about poisoning. Those books were written with information gathered from a nine-page divorce petition filed by John Copin on Dec 9, 1834. There is no other evidence that proves Rebecca Copin tried to poison her husband nor is there any actual evidence that she abused him.
The divorce petition, written by John Copin, accuses Rebecca of being haughty with an intractable temper almost from the first day of their marriage, which occurred on February 4, 1820. He complains that she left him numerous times over the course of their marriage, with the longest during the first year of their marriage. He said that sometime in 1829 she scalded him on the shoulder with boiling water making it sore and scalded him again in 1831. This time on his leg. He claimed that during this period he was sick with a fever for five weeks and she refused to "nurse him which a dutiful wife ought to do" and that she even beat him with his own crutch. His final accusation of cruelty is that in 1833 she tried to put arsenic in his coffee but he "happily discovered the poison".
I want readers of this article to be able to make an objective opinion based on all the evidence at hand and not just the clearly one-sided view written by the previous contributor, who may have only read the divorce petition and modern books.
I would like to clarify that this was a suit in chancery court for divorce and not a criminal court. Rebecca Copin was not convicted of poisoning her husband. Rebecca Copin's statement is not in the divorce petition because as a woman she would not have been allowed to defend herself in court. John Copin lost his divorce petition, but an all-white male jury of his peers (and neighbors) agreed on several points with the evidence he presented to them. They agreed that she was haughty and bad tempered, that she left his "bed and board" often and that they believed she threatened to shoot and tried to poison him. They didn't believe that she scalded him on either occasion. I feel that it's reasonable to believe that if she had tried to poison him then his divorce would have been granted and she would have been jailed but neither of those things happened.
John Copin was a frequent name in early Kanawha County court records. He was a bootlegger that sold liquor to the slaves. He got in fights with his neighbors, friends and relatives. He put a fence across his property when they voted to make a road through it. In the 1830's he was living with another woman named Charlotte, who also found herself in court for "illegal retailing". This could be considered an ulterior motive for his divorce petition and all the various accusations against Rebecca. It was extremely difficult to get a divorce during that time period. Usually if a man wanted to get rid of his wife, he would have to accuse her of something like murder, abandonment or have her committed.
Rebecca and John were still married in 1851 when he died. The final blow to Rebecca was that she lost her dower rights. When she and John married in 1820, her father William Cobb gave her a tract of land. Woman could not easily own land and John Copin became the owner of that land in right of his wife. This same land was sold after John's death but by law Rebecca should have had one-third of the tract to live out her remaining years, once again and all-white male jury in Kanawha County Chancery court decided that since she had not lived with John for so many years then she did not deserve her legal right to this land.
A case can be made that it's possible that Rebecca was villainized so John could get a divorce. The authors that use her story may have slandered her based on very little evidence. As a matter of fact, the Kanawha County Superior Court dropped the attempted poisoning charges against Rebecca.
Here is an excerpt of the court record. It is typed the way it was written, without modern grammar.
Kanawha County Court September Term 1833 Rebecca Copin who stands committed to the jail of this county by warrant from a Justice of the Peace for attempting to poison her husband John Copin was this day led to the bar in custody of the keeper of the jail for this court and thereupon on the motion of counsel assigned her by the court moved the court to quash the proceedings had in this cause on the grounds of informality therein- whereupon the said motion being argued it is considered that the said proceedings be quashed and that the said Rebecca be discharged from imprisonment
Below are just a few of the court records John Copin appears in.
Kanawha County Court February Term 1823 John Copin who was bound by recognizance for his appearance here this day to answer for a breach of the peace committed against Becky Copin appeared in court and discharged thereof- whereupon no testimony appearing against him it is ordered that he be discharged from the said recognizance
Kanawha County Court October Term 1841 John Copin who is bound by recognizance for his appearance here today to answer a breach of the peace committed on William Copin, was solemnly called but came not, It is therefore ordered that his default be recorded
References: Kanawha County Court Chancery digital copies FamilySearch References: Kanawha County Court Superior digital copies FamilySearch Reference: Legislative Petitions at the Library of Virginia Reference: Family History