daughter Elizabeth, afterward married to a
distinguished merchant in Boston, and who survived to a great age; Mary
Copley, who lived unmarried to the great age of ninety-four; and another
son who died young. In 1777 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy,
and six years later an Academician. He was now in the full tide of
success. He was offered five hundred guineas to paint a family group of
six persons. The well-known group of Copley's family, called the "Family
Picture," the "Death of Lord Chatham," and "Watson and the Shark," were on
his easel in 1780. The picture of Lord Chatham falling senseless in the
House of Lords was commenced soon after his death in 1778. It was engraved
by Bartolozzi, and twenty-five hundred copies were sold in a few weeks.
Copley exhibited the picture, to his own profit as well as fame.

In 1781 occurred the death of Major Pierson, shot in the moment of victory
over the French troops who had invaded the island of Jersey. His death was
instantly avenged by his black servant, and of this scene Copley made one
of his finest pictures. He took pains, with his usual honesty, to go to
St. Helier's, and make a drawing of the locality. The picture is
thoroughly realistic, although painful. His large picture of the "Repulse
and Defeat of the Spanish Floating Batteries at Gibraltar" was painted on
commission from the city of London. It is twenty-five feet long by
twenty-two and a half feet high; but there are so many figures and so much
distance to be shown in the painting that the artist really needed more
room. Of the commander, Lord Heathfield, Sir Robert Royd, Sir William
Green, and some twelve or fifteen others, the artist made careful
portraits.

The story told by Elkanah Watson shows Copley's strong sympathy for
America. In 1782 Watson was in London, and Copley made a full-length
portrait of him, and in his journal Watson says: "The painting was
finished in most exquisite style in every part, except the background,
which Copley and I designed to represent a ship bearing to America the
acknowledgments of our independence. The sun was just rising upon the
stripes of the Union streaming from her gaff. All was complete save the
flag, which Copley did not deem proper to hoist under the present
circumstances, as his gallery was the constant resort of the royal family
and the nobility. I dined with the artist on the glorious 5th of December,
1782. After listening with him to the speech of the k