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 I 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 ADMIRAL 
 
 Sir Isaac Coffin, 
 
 BARONET 
 
 HIS ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ANCESTORS 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS C. AMORY 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM AND COMPANY 
 
 1886
 
 Copyright, i8S6, by 
 THOMAS C. AMORY 
 
 TROW'9 
 
 ^INTINQ AND QOOKCinDINQ COMPANf, 
 
 hbW YORK.
 
 m 
 
 8T.1 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This memoir, in its original form of a discourse, had its limitations of 
 time and topic. Much else might have been added connected with the 
 subject had the occasion allowed. The several histories of Nantucket, the 
 <' Life of Tristram Coffin," by Mr. Allen Coffin ; of " General John Coffin," 
 by his son, Henry Edward ; " The Arms of the Family," by Mr. John 
 Coffin Jones Brown, are well known and accessible. Other sources of 
 information exist in print and manuscript. Bearing in Uiind that many 
 readers of these pages will find them more instructive if they have at hand 
 what will better explain them, I have borrowed from their pages, under 
 marks of quotation, in the larger part by permission and with grateful ac- 
 knowledgments. If I have been too bold, I pray their forgiveness. Let 
 me also express my sense of the kindness of the New York Genealogical 
 and Biographical Society, in permitting me to read what portions of this 
 memoir their limits permitted, in their course, and to have these por- 
 tions, somewhat extended, inserted in their January Record. 
 
 Boston, March i, 1886.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. — Ancestry 7 
 
 11.— Alwington 13 
 
 III.— New England 18 
 
 IV. — Nantucket 21 
 
 v.— Tristram's Death and Descendants 25 
 
 VI.— Boston and Isaac Coffin 31 
 
 VII.— Isaac at Sea 36 
 
 VIII. — Captain of a Seventy-four 41 
 
 IX.— Peace of 1783 44 
 
 X. — Marriage and Parliament 4S 
 
 XI. — Genial Temperament 51 
 
 :>^II. — Benefactions and Death 54 
 
 XIII. — The Coffin Coats of Arms -. 60 
 
 XIV.— TucKETT's Visitations of Devon 63 
 
 XV. — Coffin Dates ... 64 
 
 XVI.— The Reformation 66 
 
 XVII.— Allen Coffin's Call of Tristram's Descendants to the 
 
 Second Centennial of his Death in 1881 68 
 
 XVIIL— Wills 78 
 
 XIX. — Correspondence 85 
 
 XX.— The Coffin Schools 9^
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 
 
 I. 
 
 ANCESTRY. 
 
 The name of Coffin is so widely spread over our continent, so many 
 thousands of men and women of other patronymics take pride in their de- 
 scent from Tristram, its first American patriarch, that what concerns them 
 all, any considerable branch or distinguished individual of the race, seems 
 rather history than biography. 
 
 Space forbids my repeating here, as I well might wish, all that has been 
 recorded of their existence in the new world, or that beyond the sea. But 
 what sheds light on Sir Isaac and his immediate progenitors is too ger- 
 mane to my subject to be wholly overlooked. To trace back Tristram to 
 Alwington, follow his fortunes from Plympton in old England to the Mer- 
 rimack in the new, bring his checkered career to its honored close at Nan- 
 tucket ; to pay due homage to his son James, the upright judge ; to his son 
 Nathaniel, the dauntless master mariner, and his wife, Damaris Gayer, 
 the eloquent preacher ; to their son William, the much-loved merchant of 
 Boston, senior warden of Trinity ; to his son, another Nathaniel, graduate 
 of Harvard and Yale, King's treasurer, and father of Sir Isaac— six gene- 
 rations with Tristram of admirable men, with much to praise and little 
 to censure, is our legitimate purpose, so far as our limits prescribed will 
 permit, before proceeding to our more immediate subject. 
 
 Though unlike in character, and of very different experiences from his 
 ancestors, Sir Isaac was too remarkable a man to pass into oblivion. His 
 long life, commencing in 1759 '^^ Boston, and ending eighty years later in 
 Cheltenham, England, was crowded with events, many of historic mipor- 
 tance. By his native vigor, doughty deeds, and eminent services he rose
 
 8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 to distinguished rank in the British navy, became captain of a line-of-battle 
 ship at the age of twenty-two, and was created a baronet at the age of forty- 
 four. This not from large means, family influence, or court favor, but that 
 his character and conduct afloat and ashore entitled him to such prefer- 
 ment. Throngs of heroic officers won glory in the same wars that he did, 
 attracted attention by more conspicuous achievements ; but his fearless 
 daring, zeal, and ability, and what he accomplished, inscribes his memory 
 high up on the roll of honor, if not on the scroll of fame. 
 
 How far life and character are moulded by circumstances, how far by 
 heredity, is a complicated problem, and the horoscope is too largely affected 
 by maternal influences for these to be disregarded. Though bearing all the 
 marks of his paternal stock, Sir Isaac doubtless owed something to the 
 blood mingling in his veins from other sources, and it has been my endeavor 
 to discover these infusions where I can, and one instance should be pre- 
 served for the criticism of coming genealogists — a supposed link that may 
 be of use. 
 
 Nicholas, father of Peter and grandfather of Tristram, has been re- 
 garded as their most remote paternal ancestor ascertained. According to 
 tradition, their line was an offshoot of Alwmgton, but how, continued a 
 puzzle. Many years ago I bought an old edition of Collins (1758), and while 
 seeking some other information, my eyes fell on the name of Peter Coffin, 
 who about 1560 married Mary, fourth daughter of Hugh Boscawen. Hugh 
 died 1559, at the age of eighty. As the homes of the Boscawens, Tre- 
 gothnan and Penkeville, lay near Brixton, the home of Tristram, this 
 awakened curiosity, the more that Peter's name was not in the index, and 
 might have escaped the notice of previous genealogical inquirers. 
 
 Hugh Boscawen, of one of the most affluent and influential famiHes of 
 Cornwall, married Phillippa Carminow, of large possessions and royal de- 
 scent, inheriting, through Philip Courtenay, the unfortunate Marquis of Ex- 
 eter, Plympton, and other estates near Plymouth, part of which we find the 
 inheritance of Tristram. Hugh had seven sons and seven daughters. The 
 third son, Nicholas, eighty-six when he died in 1626, was the successor of 
 his parents in their estates. His sister Mary, who married Peter Coffin, must 
 have been born about 1545, as there were nine younger children than her- 
 self born before 1559, when her father died at the age of eighty. Her 
 brass at Penkeville gives her death in 1622. Her age is not very clearly 
 stated, but apparently as seventy-seven. Her son Nicholas, if grandfather 
 of Tristram, would have been of an age, in 1582, to have been father of 
 Peter, who died 1628, and whose wife Joanna, mother of Tristram, died in 
 Boston, 1 66 1, aged seventy-seven, having been born in 1584.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 9 
 
 If thus, or in any other way, connected with the Coffins, the house of 
 Tregothnan is too historical, and associated with too many important events 
 in our colonial annals, not to make it worthy of note. Lord Falmouth, 
 under Queen Anne, Edward, the commander of the British fleet in the sec- 
 ond reduction of Louisbourg, in more recent days, have added to the lustre 
 of a name prolific in naval heroes and eminent statesmen. The importance 
 we attach to this supposed connection is that it affords clews to ascertain the 
 relation of Tristram to Alwington, and as Petronel, the sister of Mrs. Peter 
 Coffin, married Peter Mayhowe, a possible explanation how Thomas May- 
 hew and Tristram Coffin here together planted Nantucket, Tuckett's 
 Devon Visitations, full as to the main male line of Alwington, are being 
 carried back, extended out, and brought down by Colonel Vivyan, who is 
 approaching the Coffins. My suggestions may help his researches, and 
 they are given for what they are worth. 
 
 But who was the father of Peter Coffin, who married Mary Bos- 
 cawen? He must have been born about 1500. If among the recorded 
 members of the family are found individuals whose dates or other known 
 circumstances are inconsistent with the parentage of Peter, that reduces the 
 field of investigation. Sceptical minds reject hypothesis in such researches, 
 but often hypothesis, fairly tested, is the only path to the truth. At Monk- 
 ley, about ten miles east from Portlege, one of the homes of its junior 
 branches, dwelt at the time James, son of Richard and Miss Chudleigh, 
 whose brother John married Mary Cary. His wife, Mary Cole, was the near 
 kinswoman of William, who married Radigan, daughter of Nicholas Bos- 
 cawen. Tristram named his sons after his ancestors, James was his fourth 
 son. These circumstances amount to nothing as proof, but may lead to it, 
 or perhaps confirm the conclusion of Mr. Allen Coffin, that the connection 
 with Alwington, if any, is much more remote. Near the close will be 
 found an article on this and other kindred topics, portions of which by his 
 permission I insert. 
 
 In the sequel will be found the visitation of the Coffins of Portlege. 
 Its examination will show other grounds on which we rest our faith as to 
 the parentage of Peter, It will be seen that in the sixth generation John 
 Coffin married Philippa, daughter and co-heiress of Phillip Kingston, His 
 eldest son Richard, Sheriff of Devon in 1511 (2 Hen. VIII.), married Wil- 
 mot, daughter of Sir Richard Chudleigh, famous in legal annals as party 
 in a leading case which bears his name. This marriage took place about 
 15 10, The Sheriff had three sons, John, James, and Edward. The second, 
 James, born as late as 15 12, might well have been father of Peter, who, 
 about 1562, married Mary Boscawen. Their son Nicholas, if born in 1563,
 
 lO 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 would have been old enough in 1585 to have been father of Peter, who, 
 the father of Tristram, died in 1628. Wedlock came early when there 
 were few other distractions. Under favorable circumstances life was often 
 prolonged beyond the average limit ; but war, exposure, perhaps inferior 
 medical skill, backwardness of medical science, sufficiently explain why so 
 many failed to live out their allotted span. As the line consists mainly 
 of eldest sons, less time embraced these several generations. 
 
 The best known of the brothers of the Sheriff, Sir William, born about 
 1480, going to Court, stood high in the estimation of Henry the Eighth. 
 Like Raleigli, later from the same province, he won his way by his wit and 
 courao'e. He was selected in 15 19 by the King as one of the eighteen 
 Eno-lish knights to take part in the tournament before Guines, in France, 
 with a like number of French gentlemen, practised in arms and re- 
 nowned for prowess. He was Master of Horse at the coronation of Anne 
 Boleyn, and appointed one of the gentlemen of the King's Privy Chamber, 
 filled to the monarch's satisfaction a position of distinction and influence 
 much coveted at Court. He married Margaret, the daughter of Sir George 
 Dimock, th^ champion of England, and from her, after his death the wife 
 of Richard Manners, descended the later Dukes of Rutland. Sir William 
 took a prominent part in the Parliament, one ecclesiastical abuse being 
 done away with at his instance.* At Standon, a royal manor, of which he 
 was high steward when he died in 1538, stands his monument. He left no 
 children, and by his will devised his lands to his brother Richard's sons, 
 bequeathed his hawks, hounds, and hunting gear to the King. His 
 brothers James and Thomas had children, but the dates confirm the view 
 that his nephew, James, and Mary Cole were the parents of Peter, who 
 married Mary Boscawen. 
 
 Doubtless there were other branches of the name, from among which 
 we might look for the ancestry of Tristram. His earliest progenitors in 
 England came over with the Conqueror in 1066. Captain Henry Coffin, 
 in his memoir of General John Cofl[in, 1880, says that several years before 
 he had visited Falaise, in Normandy, and near that place lay estates owned 
 eight centuries earlier by the Cofiins, before they crossed over the Channel 
 to the land of promise. These estates were still the property of their de- 
 scendants in the female line. Falaise will be remembered as the birth- 
 place of the Conqueror. It is said that the name of CoflSn was a corrup- 
 tion or translation of Colvinus, signifying a basket or chest, and that from 
 
 * This act, limiring the amount of mortuaries, the fees of the parish priest for burial, has been counted one 
 of three statutes mentioned by the historians as ecclesiastical reforms which, from the abuses done away and 
 the debates they provoked, helped to bring about the Reformation.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. II 
 
 charge of the King's treasure — such employment, like royalty itself, being 
 
 hereditary the name attached to the family. The confidence impUed 
 
 by its responsible duties seems explained by the integrity which has 
 been characteristic of all their successive generations. Such virtue was its 
 own reward, and if too generous to be noted for many instances of afflu- 
 ence, they even in that regard were prospered as they multiplied and 
 spread over the earth. 
 
 Of the first who came over to England little seems known. Westcote 
 tells us that Alwington in 1085, according to Domesday, was possessed 
 by David De la Bere, and that the heiress of that name brought it to the 
 Coffins. On a subject less grave this might be suspected for a jest, 
 but the authority is proof. Sir William Pole, page 386, states that 
 Sir Richard Coffin held two knights' fees there from Robert, the King's 
 son, in the reign of Henry 11. Whether earlier than this or later, flourished 
 branches of that name at Combe Coffin, now Combe Pine, in the east of 
 Devon ; at Coffin Well, in the south, and at Ingarley in the west. Sir 
 Hugh, Sir EUas, Sir Geoffry, are mentioned in the records later than the 
 first of a long line of Richards who, with some breaks in the continuity of 
 name and knighthood, held Alwington and dwelt there. At Coffin's Ingar- 
 ley once stood a noble mansion, with a church near by, surrounded by an 
 extensive deer park. Its lord, Sir Elias, about 1200, bore gilded spurs in 
 token of his military rank, and Sir Hugh, of Combe Coffin, his contempo- 
 rary, was similarly distinguished. They may have been offshoots of Al- 
 wington, or that branch of theirs. From among them might possibly have 
 proceeded our branch in this country, but we think not. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that in the pedigree of Coffin in " the Devon 
 Visitations" there is mention made of a Nicholas, who, so far as regards 
 dates, could not have been Tristram's grandfather. Richard, the sheriff, 
 1511, was born in all probability thirty years at the least before he was 
 made sheriff. His son John, born about 15 10, married Mary Cary, and 
 their second son, John, born after 1569, was not of an age before 1589 to 
 be married. His wife was Grace Berry, daughter of Richard of Berrynar- 
 bor. Their third son, Nicholas, aged seven when the visitation was made, 
 probably in 1620, must have been born in 1613, in which year Nicholas, 
 father of Peter, who died in 1628, and grandfather of our Tristram, passed 
 away. 
 
 It is well also to bear in mind, in connection with this inquiry as to 
 the ancestry of Tristram, that Anna, daughter of Sir William Chudleigh, 
 who died in 15 15, married James Coffin, of Portlege, brother of the 
 Sheriff. Her niece Wilmot, daughter of Sir Richard Chudleigh, who died
 
 12 THE LIFE OF 
 
 1558, was the wife of the Sheriff. As the eldest son of Sir Richard Chud- 
 leigh, Christopher, was thirty years and more at his father's death, Wihnot 
 mif^ht seem to have been much younger than her husband. Still, the ex- 
 pression, " thirty years and more," in legal documents, at the period, was 
 very indefinite. It seemed to leave open the question whether James 
 Coffin and Anna Chudleigh are among the possibilities for the parentage 
 of Peter, great-grandfather of Tristram, James, the Sheriff's son, and Mary 
 Cole, or others yet to be discovered.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 13 
 
 II. 
 
 ALWINGTON. 
 
 But why seek to trace Tristram's lineage to Alwington ? The beauty 
 of the place, the character of its long line of proprietors through seven 
 hundred years — one of the very few instances, even in England, in which an 
 estate has remained for so great a length of time in the same family — which 
 has never been sold, sequestered, or confiscated, or passed except by in- 
 heritance, will, or family settlement, which has continued not only their 
 chief but constant habitation, suggests a. home so enduring, qualities so 
 sterling, that in a world changeable as this it is solacing to every conserva- 
 tive element in our nature to believe we too belong to it. 
 
 Alwington extends along the Severn Sea, south of the boundary between 
 Somerset and Devon, fronting the broad Atlantic. The mighty billows roll 
 in majestic force against its cliffs and crags. The domain now embraces 
 thirty-eight * hundred acres, part in fertile farms with substantial steadings ; 
 part in park and pleasure-grounds, studded with forest trees in clumps and 
 woods. Its area may have expanded in prosperous days, or been shorn 
 down to provide for junior branches ; but its grounds are substantially the 
 same now as under the Plantagenets, or when it first came to the Coffins 
 with the heiress of the De la Beres. 
 
 When we call to mind what this beautiful region embraces from the 
 Severn Sea to its southern shores, Exmoor and Dartmoor, which Black- 
 more and Kingsley have so brilliantly described, its romantic streams and 
 majestic hills, with their wild sublimity — and who has not read " Lorna 
 Doon " — we can well consider it a privilege that such associations cluster 
 about our own ancestral memories, that the Coffins and so many Americans 
 from Devon have such good reason to be proud of their mother-country, 
 feel deeper interest in their progenitors that they dwelt amid scenes so 
 picturesque. Our kinswoman, Mrs. Johnson, will pardon me if I draw 
 in part from her own eloquent account of Portlege what will convey a 
 more perfect idea of the place. 
 
 The approach from Bideford in Somersetshire south to Portlege, the 
 manor-house of Alwington, extends for four miles along a shaded road, lined 
 
 * Late census.
 
 14 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 on either side with luxuriant hedges, branibled vines, and grasses. Half a 
 mile from the house the road reaches the great gateway, which opens on 
 grounds tastefully disposed ; for time and taste and means effect marvels 
 about the old homes of England. Lawns and gardens in a fine state of 
 cultivation spread around, with that depth of verdure and coloring peculiar 
 to the proximity to the sea ; for in Devon the grape and peach, if protected, 
 ripen beside the pear and plum. 
 
 The house sets low for shelter from the blasts, and is not conspicuous until 
 closely approached. The spirit of repose that it breathes, of the times that 
 have passed, of the various vicissitudes of sorrow and enjoyment that have 
 cheered or tried its generations, noted for their culture and refinement as 
 they have come and passed from infancy to age, cannot escape your at- 
 tention in the photograph of the edifice. 
 
 About the same distance from the house, along the shore, stretches a 
 beach looking out over the Atlantic, to which a shaded walk from the 
 house winds among ferns and groves thick with shrubs and rich with vari- 
 ous verdure. Seats judiciously disposed afford a resting-place for the 
 enjoyment of the view and the breeze. About a mile away stands the old 
 church, bosked in mossy foliage, quiet and secluded, no dwelling in sight, 
 venerable with age, if too substantial for decay. Its pews of oak, black 
 with time, are richly carved, as often seen in these ancient shrines. Here 
 more than twenty generations have brought their children in arms to the 
 font, their dead for sepulchre. Here their blooming maidens, their own or 
 their tenants', have come to be joined in wedlock. The walls and floors of 
 the edifice, as the burial ground around it, are crowded with slabs and monu- 
 ments that relate, with the same touching simplicity, the annals of them 
 
 all. 
 
 Within the walls of the mansion, which are of stone, with coigns and 
 buttresses and battlements, windows varied but harmonious, is a large, 
 square entrance hall with gallery on the level of the second floor. This 
 and the spacious dining-room are lined with family portraits ; men and 
 women in antiquated garb, representing the blue eyes and characteristic 
 features of the race. Carved doors abound of stately dimensions, and 
 ceilin^^s of faded grandeur, displaying in many colors the emblazonments 
 and quarterings of the family arms and of others of the best, connected with 
 them by marriage. Many are derived from royal and noble progenitors — 
 Pomeroys, Beaumonts, Chudleighs, Courtenays, Prideaux, Carys, Cham- 
 pernouns, Cliffords, Bassets, Damerels, of Devon or adjacent counties. 
 Imat^ination conjures up the throng of these personages, long mouldered, 
 as on festal occasions they gathered to the banquet or the dance, roamed
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 1 5 
 
 and wooed by the moonbeams, shot arrows at the targe, let loose the fal- 
 con, or rode after the hounds. 
 
 The ancient forms and arrangements of the mansion, modified to meet 
 as well the requirements of modern taste and comfort as to retain what is old 
 or quaint, combine to constitute Portlege a most agreeable home to dwell 
 in. It was once famous for its precious and extensive library, its archives 
 rich with the accumulations of many generations. Sad to say, about 1800, 
 in the transfer under a settlement to another branch, the books were mostly 
 sold and many documents dispersed. There still remain vast coffers of 
 manuscript treasures, which in time must perish, but which should, before 
 too late, be arranged, copied, translated into intelligible language, calen- 
 dared, catalogued, and indexed. Some antiquary of the family may yet be 
 born to the faith that he can devote his days to no better field of service to 
 posterity than such a task. 
 
 Before taking leave of Alwington, as Tristram's progenitors passed off 
 from the ancestral stem, an enumeration of the succeeding generations 
 from John and Mary Gary may be of interest. Their second son wedded 
 Grace, daughter of Richard Berrie, of Berrianarbor ; Richard, the oldest, 
 1569-1617 (forty-eight), Elizabeth, 1571-1651 (aged eighty), daughter of 
 Leonard Loveis, of Cornwall. With the eight sons and seven daughters of 
 Richard, as they grew into life, Portlege must have been gay, and as the 
 daughters, at least, followed in rapid succession to their nuptials, not even 
 what was disagreeable in the Stuart monarchs or the contentions of the land 
 could have cast a shadow so remote from the court and battle-field. When 
 the mother died, in 165 1, James, the fifth son and last survivor, erected in 
 the church of Alwington a monument to the memory of his parents, with 
 an inscription which tells in rude rhymes their story. The eldest of the two 
 sons left two daughters, Jane and Elizabeth, and the inheritance passed to 
 a second Richard, 1622-99, "Without an enemy while living, and univer- 
 sally lamented when dead." His wife was Ann Prideaux, daughter of Ed- 
 mund, of Padstow, 1645-1705, who died at the age of sixty. He was 
 much esteemed, and in 1686 was sheriff of Devon under James II. 
 
 The children of the sheriff and Ann Prideaux were Bridget, John, Ho- 
 nora, and Richard. The eldest son married Ann Kellond, travelled exten- 
 sively over Europe, stood well for character and scholarship, but died at 
 the age of twenty-five in 1703. Honora married Richard Bennett; Dor- 
 othy, Richard Pyne, from whom came the Pyne Goffins. Richard, who 
 succeeded his brother John in 1 703, for seventy-three years was lord of 
 Alwington, and died there in 1776 unmarried. He settled the estates first 
 on the Bennetts, Robert and Richard, who died without children j and the
 
 1 6 THE LIFE OF 
 
 reversion went to the Pynes descended from Honora, who took the name 
 of Coffin. The present proprietor, born 1841, was the grandson of Rich- 
 ard, great-grandson of the youngest daughter of the sheriff, who died 1699, 
 and Ann Prideaux, who died 1705. As Mr. Pyne Coffin has a large fam- 
 ily of fine heahhy children, there seems no chance of any of the male line 
 of the Coffins ever succeeding to Alwington. 
 
 It is believed the male representation of the family rests in some de- 
 scendant of Peter Coffin, who about 1560 married Mary Boscawen. A few 
 words remain to be said about them. Phillippa Carminow, mother of Mrs. 
 Mary Coffin, was, as already mentioned, co-heiress of that part of the 
 Courtenay estates which escaped forfeiture when the Marquis of Exeter, 
 next to the crown, was beheaded. Plympton, near the home of Tristram, 
 formed part of the Courtenay inheritance which Phillippa Carminow car- 
 ried to Hugh Boscawen, of Tregothnan, 1469-1559, as his wife. Their 
 home was at Penkevil, not far up the river from Brixton, and is still the 
 home of the Lords of Falmouth, their representatives. Evidence is found 
 in an inquisition of William and Mary, 1558, of the Coffins, of Portlege, 
 holding lands at Plympton, which may have come through the Boscawen' s 
 by this marriage, or perhaps may have led to it. At Plympton and Brixton 
 Nicholas, grandfather of Tristram, and Peter, his father, resided ; and Tris- 
 tram took, by the will of his father, Peter, subject to his mother's life es- 
 tate, these lands, or a part of them, which it would seem likely came in this 
 way or through the Hingstons. 
 
 Many have searched for the ancestral line of Tristram among the rec- 
 ords of Devonshire. No one has as yet been able, as already stated, to 
 trace with certainty his pedigree beyond that of his grandfather, Nicholas 
 Coffyn. Sir Isaac, in memorializing the College of Arms, in 1804, for the 
 grant of a coat for himself, represented that he was by tradition descended 
 from the family of Coffin, of the west of England, but that he was unable 
 to ascertain his descent. No doubt seems entertained, however, that the 
 proper investigation of the matter will some time reveal Tristram's true 
 pedigree extending much further back ; if not that suggested, what is now 
 unknown will prove as honorable as that which we now know with reason- 
 able certainty. 
 
 Tristram Coffyn, of Butler's Parish, of Brixton, County of Devon, Eng- 
 land, made his will November 16, 1601, which was proved at Totness, in 
 the same county, in 1602. 
 
 He left legacies to Joan, Anne, and John, children of Nicholas Cof- 
 fyn ; Richard and Joan, children of Lionel Coffyn ; Philip Coffyn, and 
 his son Tristram ; and appointed Nicholas, son of Nicholas Coffyn, his
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 1/ 
 
 executor. He was probably the great-uncle of the first of the race in 
 America, 
 
 Nicholas Coffyn, of Brixton (one account says Butler's Parish), in 
 Devonshire, in his will, dated September 12, 1613, and proved November 
 3, 1613, mentions his wife Joan, and sons Peter, Nicholas, Tristram, John, 
 and daughter Anne. He was the grandfather of the emigrant to New 
 England, and born about 1560, probably the son of Mary Boscawen. He 
 lived to the end of the reign of the Tudors, and saw the reign of the 
 Stuarts commenced in the person of James VI. of Scotland and I. of Eng- 
 land. He died in the reign of James I. (16 13). His eldest son, Peter, 
 doubtless succeeded to his estates ; and his youngest son, John, acquired 
 some estate, as he made our Tristram his executor. The other sons, 
 Nicholas and Tristram, have not been accounted for ; neither has his 
 daughter Anne. ** 
 
 Peter Coffyn, of Brixton, in his will, dated December i, 1627, and 
 proved March 13, 1628, provides that his wife Joan (Thember) shall have 
 possession of the land during her life, and then the said property shall go 
 to his son and heir, Tristram, " who is to be provided for according to his 
 degree and caUing." His son John is to have certain property when he 
 becomes twenty years of age. He mentions his daughters Joan, Deborah, 
 Eunice, and Mary, and refers to his tenement in Butler's Parish, called 
 Silferhay. He was the father of the emigrant. 
 
 John Coffyn, of Brixton, an uncle of the emigrant, who died without 
 issue, in his will, dated January 4, 1628, and proved April 3, 1628, ap- 
 points his nephew, Tristram Coffyn, his executor, and gives legacies to all 
 of Tristram's sisters, all under twelve years of age. 
 2
 
 l8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 III. 
 NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 What motives induced Tristram, in 1642, to dispose of so pleasant an 
 abode and come to America can be conjectured, but are not positively 
 known. It has been said that he had been employed as colonel in com- 
 mand of the garrison at Plymouth, but this is not authenticated, and may 
 have referred to his uncle Tristram ; but we do know that in its defence 
 his only brother, John, had been slain. Tristram had married, at the early 
 period customary in those primitive times, Dionis Stevens, and had already 
 five children — Peter, Tristram, Elizabeth, James, and John. 
 
 As his brother John was killed at Plymouth Fort, it may be that 
 Tristram was iu the fight. The Stuarts made sorry kings, and the resist- 
 ance they provoked to their arbitrary rule seems justified. But England 
 was seething on the verge of twenty years of contention, and Tristram, not 
 over-fond of either party, and imperilled by the part he had taken, with 
 ten women and children in his charge, may have been glad to escape 
 persecution for them and himself in America. Two of his four sisters 
 married in Devon. Two, Mary and Eunice, with their mother, his wife, 
 and five children, accompanied him in 1642, the year King Charles placed 
 himself in open array against the parliament. 
 
 That he came in that of the four vessels — Hector, Griffin, Job Clement, 
 and Margaret Clement, belonging to Captain Robert Clement, that came 
 over in 1642, which Captain Clement himself commanded — is well authenti- 
 cated. It is known that after a brief residence at Salisbury, he moved up 
 the river that year to v/hat is now the next town, Haverhill, to form that 
 settlement with Clement, on land bought from the Sachem Pasconaway. 
 
 With this large and dependent family of nine women and children, Tris- 
 tram crossed the sea, disembarking at the mouth of the Merrimac, where 
 Ihey so long made their home. The births of his other children born in 
 America show the different periods he resided in Salisbury, Haverhill, on 
 the north of the river, and at Newbury, to its south. We have no 
 knowledge of his going far from that neighborhood during the next sixteen 
 years, till he went to Nantucket, though it seems reasonable to suppose 
 that he did so.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 19 
 
 The property they brought sufficed to support in comfort the families of 
 his mother and his own, and to estabUsh respectably in marriage, as they 
 grew up, his sisters and his sons. Pie first settled himself at Salisbury, in 
 the three-mile space between the Merrimack and the New Hampshire 
 border, as fixed by the patent ; but removed that year to Haverhill, adjoin- 
 ing Salisbury, up the river, for in 1642, in November, his name is attached 
 to an Indian deed there. There Marj'-, afterward Mrs. Starbuck, was 
 born, and John the first having died, another took his place. In 1648 
 Tristram removed to Newbury, where his youngest son, Stephen, was added 
 to the family group. After residing there for several years, during which 
 he was licensed to keep an inn and a ferry over the Merrimack, Tristram 
 returned to Salisbury, where he became a county magistrate. 
 
 Salisbury was close to the border of New Hampshire, and his eldest son, 
 Peter, a merchant and king's counsellor in Dover, in that province, not 
 far removed from Salisbury, married, about 1657, Abigail, daughter of 
 Edward Starbuck ; and his second son, Tristram, in 1653, Judith, daughter 
 of Captain Edmund Greenleaf, widow of Henry Somerby. The descend- 
 ants of this marriage of Tristram, Jr.'s, have ever since occupied this 
 fine old mansion which Somerby had left her, or her father, Captain 
 Greenleaf, bestowed. 
 
 Edward Starbuck had come over from Derbyshire in 1640, and estab- 
 lished himself at Dover. Elder of the Church and Representative, he 
 became a Baptist, and soon after a Quaker. Both he and Thomas Macy 
 are said to have been among the chief promoters of the settlement of Nan- 
 tucket,* It was no doubt often discussed, and perhaps slowly brought about. 
 Nantucket, an island fifteen miles by four, embracing an area of about 
 thirty thousand acres, lay at the southern extremity of what is now Massa- 
 chusetts. It was then part of New York, and so remained till 1692. When 
 the project was ripe, and it was concluded to purchase, Tristram, early in 
 1659, made a voyage of inquiry and observation to the group of islands ofT 
 the Massachusetts coast with this view. He first visited Martha's Vine- 
 yard, whither Thomas Mayhew (1591-1681-90), formerly a merchant in 
 Southampton in England, had, in 1647, removed from Watertown to preach 
 to and convert the Indians. The name of his first wife, Martha Parkurst, 
 he doubtless gave to the vineyard where he so long dwelt gathering souls 
 from the heathen. 
 
 * Fifteen miles by eleven in the widest part, and twenty miles south of the peninsular of Cape Cod, 120 
 miles S.S.E. of Boston. Latitude 41° 13' to 41° 22' N.; longitude 69° 56' to 70° 13'. Population, 1820, 
 7,266. In 1824 Sir Isaac was there ; in 1826, 352 vessels engaged in the fisheries, 2,392 in the coasting 
 trade, entered its port. This was before the era of steam.— Lieber's Enc. Am.
 
 20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 We are inclined to believe, though we have no conclusive proof, that 
 the attention of Tristram was first called to Nantucket by Mayhew, and the 
 question suggests itself whether it had not been from consanguinity that 
 Mayhew proposed or urged the settlement. He held, in 1649, ^ convey- 
 ance of Nantucket, as he did of Martha's Vineyard, from Lord Sterling. 
 Born in 1591, Petronel Boscawen, sister of Mary, may have been his 
 mother or grandmother. That Mary Boscawen was Tristram's great-grand- 
 mother seems more than probable. Southampton, by sea, is not far from 
 Plymouth. It is the seaport of Wiltshire. Mayhew named two towns on 
 the Vineyard from places in that county. 
 
 Mayhew and Mayhowe bear the same arms, and are corruptions or varia- 
 tions of the same name. If Thomas Mayhew, born 1 591, was son or grand- 
 son of that Petronel Boscawen, sister of Mrs. Peter Coffin, who married 
 Peter Mayhowe, as mentioned in Collins, Mayhew would have been kins- 
 man of Tristram not remote. Whether this be so or not, Thomas Mayhew, 
 having procured for himself and son, in 1641, from Lord Sterling and Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, conveyances of both the islands, Martha's Vineyard 
 and Nantucket, eighteen years later (July 2, 1659) conveyed Nantucket to 
 Tristram Coffin and his associates, reserving about a tenth part for himself. 
 He sent Peter Folger, grandfather of Benjamin Franklin, who had come 
 with him from Watertown, and was familiar with the Indian languages, with 
 Tristram to explore. Tristram, soon after reaching Nantucket, purchased 
 of Potinot, an Indian sagamore, the island of Tuckernuck, at its westerly 
 end, containing a thousand acres. 
 
 Whether James Coffin came with his father, Tristram, at that time, or 
 later in the fall with Thomas Macy, Edward Starbuck, and Isaac Colman, 
 after his father's return to SaUsbury, is not clear, but James remained through 
 the winter on the island as they did. May 10, 1660, the sachems of Nan- 
 tucket conveyed to the associates for ;^8o a large part of the island,^Peter 
 Folger being witness.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 21 
 
 IV. 
 NANTUCKET. 
 
 Early in 1660, Tristram, with his family, came to Nantucket. Possibly 
 some delay took place, as regarded them, in providing habitations. It was 
 not long, however, before enough of the settlers and their families had ar- 
 rived for their security and to plant their crops. Besides Tuckernuck, the 
 Coffins had thus a quarter of the island, and much more in the sequel be- 
 came theirs. Tristram took the lead from the first among the settlers, and 
 was frequently selected to transact important public business. His letters 
 to the colonial government of New York, of which province Nantucket 
 was then a dependency, are preserved in the archives of the Department 
 of State at Albany. 
 
 Although from the earliest settlement regarded as their leader and head 
 by his associates, his first appointment by the Governor at Albany as 
 chief magistrate of Nantucket was as early as 1671. Thomas Mayhew 
 held the like office at the Vineyard. These officials, with two assistants 
 from each island, constituted a general court, with appellate jurisdiction 
 over both. This court sat in each island alternately, its chief magistrate 
 presiding. In 1677 he succeeded Thomas Macy as the chief, and we find 
 on the records of Nantucket an official oath of his, which reads as follows : 
 
 "Whereas I, Tristram Coffin Senior, have received a commission dated 
 the 16"' of September 1677 investing me with power to be Chief Magis- 
 trate on the Island of Nantucket and its dependencies for the four years 
 ensuing, under further order, I, Tristram Coffin aforesaid do engage my- 
 self under the penalty of perjury to do justice in all causes that come be- 
 fore me according to law, and endeavor to my best understanding, and 
 
 hereunto I have subscribed — " 
 
 Tristram Coffin 
 
 Subscribed before Chief Magistrate. 
 
 his son Peter. 
 
 William, John 
 
 and Stephen 
 
 being his bondsmen. 
 
 Exemplary in his own habits, Tristram respected the rights of other
 
 22 THE LIFE 01< 
 
 men to regulate their lives according to the dictates of their own con- 
 sciences, where not conflicting with the law. When in the inn he had es- 
 tablished by the Merrimack, for the convenience of travellers over the 
 ferry, complaint was made that threepence was charged the quart for 
 beer instead of two as stipulated in the license, which required four bushels 
 of malt to the hogshead, his wife, through the brewer, proving that she put 
 in six bushels, it was dismissed. At Nantucket, where there were, accord- 
 ing to tradition, two or three thousand Indians, under their several saga- 
 mores, their proclivity to stronger beverages degrading and brutalizing, led 
 to frequent disputes among themselves, and aggressions upon the settlers, 
 then a mere handful compared with their own numbers. The court records 
 are largely occupied with the trials and sentences of Indians to be whipped 
 for intemperance, or for offences growing out of it. Repressive laws, one 
 drawn up by Tristram, were not without effect. Thomas Macy, in a letter 
 in 1776 to Governor Lovelace, at Albany, states that they had been at- 
 tended with good results. That same year John Gardner, whose grave- 
 stone is that of the earliest date remaining, complains to Dudley that his 
 own stock had been seized by Macy, and says that the sachems declare 
 they will fight if the law is enforced. 
 
 The manifest improvement in the habits both of the red man and the 
 white was no doubt due in a large measure to other influences than the 
 severities of the law. Tristram, as the wealthiest of the proprietors, used 
 his means generously for the common advantage. If mills to grind the 
 corn, harrows, or other implements of agriculture were needed, it was he 
 who furnished them. Wlien the Indians grew restless and menacing, he 
 held them in subjection and peace in such manner as commanded their 
 respect. He employed large numbers in his farming operations, and 
 built them on his own land improved wigwams. Benjamin Franklin Fol- 
 ger, one of the best and latest of the historians of the island, in speaking 
 of his relations to the Indians, says the Christian character which he ex- 
 hibited, and which he practically illustrated in all the various circumstances 
 and conditions of the infant colony, is analogous to that which subse- 
 quently distinguibhed the founder of Pennsylvania, so that the spirit of one 
 seemed but the counterpart of the other. 
 
 He had had his trials, but bore them with courage and humility. One 
 has been remembered, which caused him much annoyance and loss. It 
 grew out of an official act which forced him to sacrifice his property, and 
 was one of omission rather than commission. A ship was wrecked on 
 Nantucket shoals, in September, 1678, loaded with hides, and the chief 
 magistrate allowed the inhabitants to save the wreckage. Portions of the
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 23 
 
 cargo and rigging were embezzled. A Court of Admiralty held the chief 
 magistrate responsible, and the parties who had derived the benefit of 
 wrecking the vessel refusing to bear any part of the fine, the burden fell 
 upon Tristram Coffyn alone. His own testimony in the case seems to 
 have been all the evidence against him upon which the decision was made 
 up. No one of his descendants will read the story, as officially recorded, 
 without a feeling of pride that their great ancestor, under a most distress- 
 ing ordeal, in which both his fortune and his honor were at stake, saved 
 his honor. And the Governor of New York discharged him from the 
 award of the Admiralty upon his representation. 
 
 Through these documents, preserved for more than two centuries, we 
 get a glimpse of the spirit of the times which our Nantucket ancestors 
 impressed wiih their own personality. And, while the first settlers were 
 not all agreed upon the subjects of public policy which subsequently 
 entered into the political concerns of the island, and while their dissen- 
 sions oftentimes assumed a degree of acrimony and vindictiveness painful 
 to reflect upon, they were very generally men of sturdy character and 
 heroic lives. Looking back through the dim vista of two hundred years, 
 we shall behold a galaxy of names illumined by high resolves — names that 
 have not tarnished with time, nor faded from the world with the friction of 
 the centuries — names that were not born to die. We shall see engraven 
 high up on the world's escutcheon the names of Macy, Starbuck, Folger, 
 Gardner, Swain, Hussey, Coleman, Barnard ; and then, still higher up, 
 resplendent with innumerable descending rays of light and love and Chris- 
 tian sympathy, extending throughout the broad universe, we shall see the 
 name of Tristram Coffyn. 
 
 In 1 66 1 Tristram lost his mother, Joanna Thember, who died in Bos- 
 ton at the age (i 584-1 661) of seventy-seven. His daughter Elizabeth, 
 born in England, 1634, died at the age of forty-four, the wife of Stephen 
 Greenleaf. 
 
 The very admirable Mary Coffin, born at Haverhill, in 1644, married 
 soon after their arrival at Nantucket, at the age of eighteen, Nathaniel, son 
 of Edward Starbuck. Their daughter Mary was the first European child born 
 on the island. Tristram gave them two hundred acres, near half his own al- 
 lotment, at Capaum Pond, and there they resided near him about twenty 
 years, till his death. Of noble character and disposition, superior powers, 
 and extended influence, Mary was peerless in all the graces of woman- 
 hood, and also an eloquent preacher among the Quakers. Her husband was 
 every way a fitting companion for one so gifted and admirable. I'heir 
 daily associations with Tristram and his wife, Dionis, must have been a
 
 24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 mutual advantage and solace to them. She died in 171 7, at the age of 
 seventy-two, her husband two years later, at eighty-three. 
 
 As Tristram began to feel "the symptoms of a strong man failing," a 
 phrase used by Sir Walter Scott in reply to an inquiry as to his own health, 
 made in the presence of the writer, he disposed of his estate, not by formal 
 testament, but by deeds, the consideration always being his regard and 
 natural affection. He had made large provision for his daughter, Mary 
 Starbuck, and provided homes for those of his other children who needed 
 his aid ; he now conveyed most of what remained to his two youngest 
 sons, John and Stephen, to take after the decease of himself and wife. 
 In this he followed an ancient practice in England before wills were much 
 in use — disposing of his estate while he lived, reserving the use for life. 
 In the earlier English conveyancing the owner released to the crown, 
 holding the eminent demesne, a new grant being then issued to the new 
 feoffee specifying the terms and conditions previously agreed.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 2$ 
 
 V. 
 
 TRISTRAM'S DEATH AND DESCENDANTS 
 
 Tristram lived out his four years as Chief Magistrate, and as his term 
 reached its close, his venerable form was borne from his home near Capaum 
 Pond to the graveyard, half a mile away on the ridge. The actual spot 
 can no longer be identified. The earliest stone remaining, that of John 
 Gardner, dates twenty-five years later. Tradition points out a depression 
 in the ground where is said to have stood Tristram's dwelling, another 
 where once existed the Quaker meeting-house ; but all around has been 
 long since abandoned for human habitations. 
 
 We can easily conjure up that throng of noble men and women, devout 
 and sad, his sons and daughters, their children, friends, and kinsfolk, who 
 accompanied his remains to their last resting-place. But Tristram needs 
 no monument to perpetuate his memory. The thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands who look back with pride and affection to him, their honored progen- 
 itor, multiplying with their generations, will keep in perennial bloom the 
 fragrance of his active and useful life, of his traits and works. 
 
 He had had manifold blessings. His mother, Joanna ; his wife, Dionis ; 
 his sisters, who came over with him from Devon, Eunice, Mrs. William 
 Butler, Mary, Mrs. Alexander Adams, were in every way excellent and 
 devoted. Mary, his seventh child, born in Haverhill in 1645, for nearly 
 twenty years after her marriage, at the age of seventeen, to Nathaniel, the 
 son of Edward Starbuck and Catharine Reynolds, was his near neighbor 
 and constant companion. Mr. Allen Coffin justly describes her, in his 
 life of Tristram, when he thus speaks of her : 
 
 " She was a most extraordinary woman, participating in the practical 
 duties and responsibiUties of public gatherings and town meetings, on 
 which occasions her words were always listened to with marked respect. 
 The genius of whatever attaches to the Equal Rights for Women move- 
 ment of the present day, in every true and proper sense, she anticipated 
 by two centuries, and reduced to practice without neglecting her domestic 
 relations. She was consulted upon all matters of public importance, be- 
 cause her judgment was superior, and she was universally acknowledged to 
 be a great woman. It was not that her husband, Nathaniel Starbuck, was
 
 26 THE LIFE OF 
 
 a man of inferior mould that she gained such prominence, for he was a 
 man of good ability ; but because of her pre-eminent qualifications that 
 she acquired so good a reputation, whereby her husband's qualifications 
 were apparently lessened. In the language of John Richardson, an early 
 preacher, ' The islanders esteemed her as a judge among them, for little 
 of moment was done without her.' In the town meetings, which she was 
 accustomed to attend, she took an active part in the debates, usually com- 
 mencing- her address with, * My husband thinks' so and so; or, 'My 
 husband and I, having considered the subject, think' so and so. From 
 every source of information, as also from tradition, there is abundant evi- 
 dence that she was possessed of sound judgment, clear understanding, and 
 an elegant way of expressing herself, perfectly easy and natural to her. 
 
 "At the age of fifty-six, she became interested in the religious faith of 
 the Quakers, or Friends, and took the spiritual concerns of the whole 
 island under her special superintendence. She held meetings at her own 
 house, which are often alluded to by visiting Friends who have written con- 
 cerning the island's early religious history ; wrote the quarterly epistles, and 
 preached in a most eloque it and impressive manner ; and, withal, was as 
 distinguished in her domestic economy as she was celebrated as a preacher. 
 Of this department, John Richardson, who preached at her house, wrote : 
 ' The order of the house was such in all the parts thereof as I had not 
 seen the like before ; the large and bright-rubbed room was set with suit- 
 able seats or chairs for a meeting, so that I did not see anything wanting 
 according to place, but something to stand on, for I was not free to set my 
 feet upon the fine cane chair, lest 1 should break it.' Enough might be 
 written concerning her to make an entertaining volume by itselt, which 
 may some time be attempted." 
 
 Hon. Peter Cofifin, the oldest child of Tristram, born at Brixton in 
 163 1, married Abigail, daughter of Edward and Catharine Starbuck, of 
 Dover, N. H., afterward of Nantucket. Peter was one of the original pur- 
 chasers of Nantucket, and tradition says the wealthiest of them, owning 
 large mill property. He was a merchant at Dover before the purchase, 
 and subsequently lived at Nantucket, but only for a short time to be con- 
 sidered as domiciled there. He was made freeman in 1666 at Dover, a 
 lieutenant in 1675 on service in King Philip's Indian War, a representa- 
 tive in the Legislative branch in 1672-73, and again in 1679. In 1690 he 
 removed to Exeter, N. H. From 1692 to 17 14 he was at different times 
 associate justice and chief-justice of the Supreme Court of New Hamp- 
 shire, and a member of the Governor's Council. He died at Exeter, 
 March 21, 1715, but most of his life was passed at Dover.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 2/ 
 
 His second child, called the younger Tristram, was born in England in 
 1632. He married in Newbury, Mass., March 2, 1652, Judith Somerby, 
 widow of Henry, and daughter of Edmund and Sarah Greenleaf. She was 
 born in 1625, and died in Newbury, December 15, 1705. He was made 
 freeman April 29, 1668, and died in Newbury, February 4, 1704, aged sev- 
 enty-two, leaving one hundred and seventy-seven descendants. He was a 
 merchant tailor, and filled many positions of trust and honor in Newbury. 
 The early records of Newbury bear evidence of his identity with the interests 
 of that town. In the severe ecclesiastical contest concerning Rev. Thomas 
 Parker, of Newbury, Tristram Coffin, Jr., bore a conspicuous part in the 
 interest of Mr. Parker, of whose First Church of Newbury he was deacon 
 for twenty years. 
 
 This Tristram built, about 1654, according to the able historian of 
 Newbury, the old Coffin mansion, which has remained in the family to 
 the present day ; one of the ninth generation born under its ample roof. 
 Miss Anna I. Coffin, now occupying it. It is said to have been built in 
 1649 by Henry Somerby, whose widow, it will be remembered, Tristram 
 Coffin, Jr., married. It is one of the few old houses left, and is built 
 around a vast chimney-stack, with spacious fire-places, with windows large 
 and small, opening in pleasant surprises, some on closets and some on 
 staircases, and with walls that, when stripped of their papering not many 
 years ago for the purpose of repapering, were found to display such elegant 
 landscape frescos, with artistic designs of figures and foliage, as were wont 
 to decorate fine residences in the days of the Stuarts. It is a matter Oi 
 tradition that Tristram Coffyn, Sr., lived in this mansion a short time be- 
 fore his final removal to Nantucket. 
 
 Two monuments in the graveyard of the first parish of Newbury, bear 
 these several inscriptions, with epitaphs in verse : 
 
 "To the memory of Tristram Coffin, Esq., who having served the First 
 Church of Newbury in the office of a deacon for twenty years, died Febru 
 ary 4, 1 703-4, aged seventy-two years." 
 
 "To the memory of Mrs.,, Judith, late virtuous wife of Deacon Tris- 
 tram Coffin, Esq., who having lived to see 177 of her children, and chil- 
 dren's children, to the third generation, died December 15, 1705, aged 
 eighty." 
 
 If sandy and not very responsive to the plough, Nantucket has been 
 ever famous for its flocks and herds. Its most abundant harvests were 
 nevertheless from the ocean. Even before Tristram passed away, " Lost 
 at Sea " was a frequent epitaph for its dauntless mariners. They possessed 
 many ships of their own ; sailed many from other places.
 
 28 THE LIFE OF 
 
 In his well-known burst of eloquence in Parliament, Burke, in 1774, 
 
 pays just tribute : 
 
 " Look at the manner in which the New England people carry on the 
 whale fishery. While we follow them among the tumbling mountains of 
 ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hud- 
 son Bay and Davis Strait, while we are looking for them beneath the 
 Arctic Circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of 
 polar cold ; that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen 
 serpent of the South. Falkland Islands, which seem too remote and too 
 romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and 
 restino--place for their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat 
 more discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the poles. 
 We learn that while some of them draw the line or strike the harpoon on 
 the coast of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic game 
 along the coast of Brazil." 
 
 Their gigantic game has been almost exterminated, as the buffaloes on 
 the prairie. Other ports have attracted their trade, and the population is 
 now but one-half of what it was in its palmiest prosperity. But its children 
 are not degenerate, though forced to seek other fields for their victorious 
 industry. Everywhere are to be found accomplished ship-masters of its 
 familiar names. William Coffin, who first settled in Boston, as his father 
 Nathaniel, who died in Nantucket (1721) at the age of fifty-five, traversed 
 the sea in command of vessels. The proximity of their ancestral home in 
 Devon to the shores may have implanted in their blood tastes and aptitudes 
 for maritime adventure, which gained strength as they found wider employ- 
 ment on this side the Atlantic. 
 
 Gardners, Macys, Bunkers, no less than the Coffins, thus showed the 
 mettle of their pasture. Nor was the invigorating influences of its climate, 
 tempered as it was by the Gulf Stream, confined to its vikings. Daughters 
 as well as sons of Dorcas and Damaris won eminence in their various pur- 
 suits. No more admirable examples of womanhood than Mary Coffin and 
 Dorcas Starbuck have been transmitted for emulation. The Quaker faith, 
 tried by persecution among the Puritans, found elements congenial in the 
 pure, salt air, as in the anxieties and bereavements that attended life on the 
 sea. Nor did they grow up in ignorance. Refinements from civilization 
 beyond the Atlantic had become their inheritance through many genera- 
 tions. Tristram Coffin, Thomas Mayhew, John, his grandson, from the 
 Vineyard, these mothers in Israel themselves exhorted and prayed. Their 
 simple trust, and the amiable disposition which these tenets fostered, 
 fruited in generous deed and noble trait. We must all remember within
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 29 
 
 our own experience men and women, even when separated by place and 
 circumstances from the fold, still bearing unmistakable impress of their 
 insular home, as also of its creed, in the beauty of their lives and well- 
 regulated character. 
 
 In such a healthy climate, surrounded by the ocean, leading lives of 
 purity and peace, dauntless afloat, industrious ashore, the whole globe 
 with its waters alike by their voyages made familiar to their ken, it is no 
 marvel that their numbers multiplied, or that the young grew up in 
 physical perfection to transmit their precious inheritance of health and 
 strength and comeliness, of character and intellectual power, not only 
 throughout their favored island, but over the country of which it formed 
 so insignificant a part. 
 
 It needs but a glance at the precious volume of the Coffins, Ewers, 
 Folgers, and Gardners, to see how rapidly multiplied the races of these 
 early settlers, and how few comparatively were the prolific possessors of 
 the earth, our then progenitors. It presents for study a somewhat unusual 
 example of intermarriages on so small a scale which have not deteriorated 
 the stock. 
 
 Among these was Edward Starbuck, who died there, 1690, at the age 
 of eighty-six. His son Nathaniel, who married Mary Coffin, sold his 
 brother-in-law, Peter Coffin, his estate at Dover, to accompany his father. 
 With him came his sister Dorcas, who married William Gayer ; and their 
 daughter, Dorcas Gayer, in the course of events married their cousin, 
 Jethro Starbuck ; and her sister, Damaris Gayer, Nathaniel Coffin, son of 
 James. The brother of William Gayer, Sir John,* who died 1 710, acquired 
 a large fortune in Bombay, which he divided among his nephew William, 
 son of William, and among his nieces Damaris and Dorcas. Their brother 
 died in 1 712, in Kent, in England, after marrying his cousin Elisabeth. 
 He left his New England property to his sisters and to each a thousand 
 pounds. Peter Folger, in 1663, moved to Nantucket, and his youngest 
 daughter, Abiah, and Josiah Franklin were the parents of Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, Peter Folger's grandchild. Peter married Judith, daughter of Stephen 
 Coffin, and the intermarriages between the descendants of the early pro- 
 prietors of the island soon made akin all its inhabitants. 
 
 Among others who came was Richard Gardner, eldest son of Thomas, 
 
 ♦ In London there is said still to exist a chapel erected by Sir John Gayer, Mayor in 1649, somewhat his- 
 torical from the stand he took in trying times. Sir John Gayer, uncle of Mrs. Nathaniel Coffin, left fifteen 
 thousand pounds for the nurture and education of students for the ministry in London, but he must be a 
 generation later than the Mayor. The Mayor was from South Devon. He may have been father of this 
 second Sir John, and William the father of Dorcas and Damaris, Mrs. Coffin, and Mrs. Surbuck, to whom 
 Sir John, of Bombay, left considerable estates.
 
 30 THE LIFE OF 
 
 who, in 1624, held office under Conant at Cape Ann. William Bunker, 
 1 650-1 7 1 2, carried to Nantucket by his mother, Jane Godfrey (whose first 
 husband, George, was drowned, 1658, when she married Richard Swaine), 
 married, 1669, Mary, daughter of Thomas Macy. Richard Pinkham, 
 of Dover ; Thomas Coleman, who had come out with Sir Richard Salton- 
 stall, 1599-1682, and who left four sons; John Sanborne, of Hampton, 
 by marriage, 1674, with Judith, daughter of the second Tristram Coffin, be- 
 came also connected with the island.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 3I 
 
 VI. 
 
 BOSTON AND ISAAC COFFIN. 
 
 From Tristram's third son, James, came Sir Isaac. James was Judge 
 of the Common Pleas, and for twelve years of Probate, and when forty 
 years later he passed away, at the age of eighty, he was generally loved 
 and respected. By his wife Mary, daughter of John Severance, one of the 
 earliest settlers of Salisbury, he had fourteen children wedded with six 
 Gardners, with Starbuck, two Bunkers, with Macy, Barnard, Clark, 1721, 
 and Harker. The third son, Nathaniel, 1666-1721, by his wife Damaris, 
 daughter of William Gayer and Dorcas Starbuck, and niece of Sir John 
 Gayer, had four sons and five daughters. William, the eldest son of Na- 
 thaniel, born in 1691, in 1722 married Ann, daughter of Francis Holmes, of 
 Boston and South Carolina. This event brought William, grandfather of Sir 
 Isaac, to Boston, where he dwelt in honor and affluence till 1774, father 
 and grandfather of that memorable family among the refugee loyalists who 
 took, some may think, the wrong side in our struggle for independence. 
 
 When William Coffin, upon his marriage with Ann Holmes, took up his 
 abode in Boston, the place had become a centre of trade, with nearly 
 twenty thousand inhabitants. The towns along the shore and in the in- 
 terior depended upon it for garments, and, in part, often for food. It was 
 already metropolitan in fashion and in enlightenment. William's mother, 
 Damaris Gayer, lived on at Nantucket till 1764, reaching the great age 
 of ninety, universally beloved. She had derived a considerable estate, 
 as related, from her uncle, her father, and brother ; but she had nine chil- 
 dren to provide for. By his own prudence and good sense, and from his 
 wife's inheritance, William soon acquired a competence. He jomed the 
 Episcopal Church, and held the position for several years of senior 
 warden of Trinit)'. His death in 1774, as the war broke out, saved him 
 from witnessing the exile and widespread confiscation that awaited his 
 sons. He had had thirteen children of his own, six of them married, who 
 were also prolific. His children, and children's children, counted up 
 about sixty when he died, about the same number as his great-grandfather 
 Tristram's at his death a century before. But of William's descendants 
 bearing the name of Coffin, all have died out in Massachusetts, and not 
 many remain in England, Canada, or South Carolina.
 
 32 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Nathaniel, second son of William Coffin, born in 1727, graduateTof 
 Harvard College, 1744, received, in 1750, an honorary degree at Yale. 
 Brought up a merchant, he was early appointed King's Cashier of the 
 Customs and acquired considerable property. His wife was Elizabeth 
 Barnes, whom he married in 1 748. They resided near the corner of Essex 
 Street and Rainsford Lane, in Boston, where John and Sir Isaac were 
 born. The tide of the inner harbor washed up to the garden-walls. 
 Near by, in front, stood the Liberty tree, on the main street, which 
 Nathaniel, the oldest brother of Sir Isaac, cut down in 1774. John, born 
 1755, after winning great honors by his courage and conduct on the British 
 side in the American Revolution, in its Southern campaigns from 1 780 to 
 the peace, died the oldest general in the British Army in 1838. He had 
 three sons and two daughters, and his descendant, Captain Henry Coffin, 
 of the British Navy, published, as we have related, a memoir of him in 
 1880. One other brother of Sir Isaac, and the youngest, Jonathan Perry, 
 was a barrister of repute in London. His sisters, EHzabeth and Christian, 
 died in 1826, unmarried. 
 
 Their sister, Catherine, first married Richard Barwell, of Stansted, dis- 
 tinguished in India, where three of his sons held positions of dignity and 
 trust on the bench, in the treasury, and on the council board. Her 
 second husband was Edward Miller Mundy. Catherine Coffin had only 
 one child by Mr. Mundy, Admiral George, of Holly Bank, Hants, whose 
 distinguished career in the naval service of England in the great war with 
 Napoleon was wise and brave, and gained him great renown. Ann 
 married Mr. Kallbeck. 
 
 Isaac, the subject of this memoir, third son of Nathaniel, born in 
 Boston in 1759, at eight years of age — in 1766 — entered the Boston Latm 
 School. He was a diligent student -in a class that embraced numerous 
 celebrities, and when in Parliament he acknowledged himself indebted to 
 the methods and discipline of the Boston schools for his apt classical quo- 
 tations, then a mode much in vogue in that august assemblage. His rapid 
 progress and attainments in nautical science, which likewise remam 
 recorded, may have been in some measure due to the mental training of 
 Master Lovell in other branches of learning. 
 
 His constitution was, however, too vigorous, his animal spirits too 
 buoyant for scholarship alone to mark his schoolboy days. He led the 
 sports of the playground, and on the fifth of November, the anniversary 
 of the gunpowder plot, was more than once selected as the leader of the 
 burlesque solemnities of the occasion, which was left to the boys of the 
 town for fitting commemoration.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 33 
 
 His paternal abode, as mentioned near the corner of what is now Har- 
 rison Avenue, at the then south end of the town, was near the Common, 
 and in the frequent battles with foot- or snowball, or with fisticuffs, his 
 activity and strength made him the champion of his party of Southenders, 
 as they were called. 
 
 Boston was a pleasant place to dwell in. Its hills, from which it de- 
 rived one of its names, soon abandoned, rose far higher up above the sea, 
 which then encompassed the thousand acres of land constituting its area. 
 For comfort, security, or easy access to the harbor, the mass of its popula- 
 tion clustered about the wharves or centres of trade. Broad stretches 
 of tree or turf, sloping pastures, and blooming gardens surrounded the 
 stately abodes of the wealthy. Tide-waters, fresh from the ocean, spread 
 nearly around the peninsula. Beyond these basins wooded heights of 
 considerable elevation lifted themselves above the boundless tree-tops, 
 delighting the beholder with their graceful proportions. For fishing or 
 shooting, rowing, sailing or swimming, coasting or skating, Boston and its 
 environs of lakes and orchards was then the paradise for boys. It was a 
 capital school for his play-hours, and the old Latin, the oldest school 
 in the country, dating from 1635, for his studies of a graver sort. There 
 fifteen of his cousins were his schoolmates, a host of our own celebrities, 
 and four — Sheaffe, Morland, Mackay, and Ochterlony — who became baro- 
 nets or generals by military service, at what was then called home. He 
 was well placed for development, nor were his opportunities neglected. 
 
 As he grew in wisdom and stature, the ingratitude of king and parlia- 
 ment for the services which had added Canada to the realm created dis- 
 content and disaffection. The settled policy of the ministry to subject 
 the colonies to arbitrary rule, to exactions, violating the spirit and letter 
 of their charters, sacrificing their industries for the benefit of merchants 
 and manufacturers at home, provoked resentment, led to eventual resist- 
 ance and separation. Commercial places, wealthy and intelligent, ex- 
 pressed displeasure through the press, in caucus, and halls of legislation. 
 Conversation and correspondence aroused the people to a sense of their 
 wrongs, and sought to awaken England to the danger of losing so important 
 a part of her dominions. Many, convinced independence must come sooner 
 or later, inflamed the popular passions to bring it about. Others, with 
 more to risk, no less determined in claiming their rights as British sub- 
 jects, were yet hardly prepared to sever ties sacred from so many associa- 
 tions. They loved the country of their ancestors, took pride in its history, 
 and would have gladly averted the impending calamity. 
 
 Loyalists and patriots alike, prompted by honorable motives, grew 
 3
 
 34 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 warm as they discussed the situation wherever men congregated. They 
 were all the more wedded to their own several opinions by the heat and 
 temper such discussion engendered. Liberty boys from the Green Drag- 
 on, merchants and officials who addressed Governor Gage, represented 
 the extreme views. But events hurried them on. The Stamp Act, too 
 late and too grudgingly repealed, left its canker. The burning of Hutch- 
 inson's costly books and mansion, citizens massacred by British troops, 
 the tea thrown into the ocean, the Boston Port Bill that closed our harbor 
 to navigation, kept at fever-heat the irritation, till twenty thousand of the ' 
 bone and sinew of the land, from their encampments on its neighboring 
 hills, beleagured the British fleet and garrison ; who, after another year, 
 were forced by Washington to withdraw to Halifax. Three thousand of 
 the inhabitants went with them, preferring exile and impoverishment to 
 giving up their allegiance. A few months later the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence at Philadelphia shut with an ominous clang the door against all 
 possibilities of reconciliation. 
 
 The Boston Coffins were all loyal to England. Isaac's father held the 
 most lucrative post there under the crown. Their acquaintances and 
 friends were naturally more among the British officers sent to subjugate, 
 than among those conspiring to cast off the yoke. They had much to lose 
 if they swerved from their fealty to the mother country. All this they sacri- 
 ficed without hesitation for what they considered their obligations. Men 
 act from mingled motives ; but now that no object is to be answered by 
 depreciating the loyalists, it seems as unreasonable to condemn them as it 
 would be Roundhead or Cavalier. Isaac was too young in the earliest 
 stages of the turmoil to realize what it meant, but long before he entered, 
 at the age of fourteen, the British navy, he no doubt had formed opin- 
 ions of his own. It was doubtless of advantage to him. quickening his 
 faculties and maturing his character, that such events were transpiring 
 about him at this plastic period. His sense of justice and right, and of 
 what freedom signified, proved in his subsequent career that these advan- 
 tages had not been without effect. 
 
 His uncles and their sons were all of one mind for the crown. The 
 daughters of the house sided with their husbands, some of whom remained 
 neutral or went with the patriots. They were strong in numbers and near 
 neighbors. Along the principal thoroughfare, its several portions now 
 merged into Washington Street, dwelt twenty families descended from 
 WilUam Coffin, or their near kinsfolk, who lived in constant intercourse. 
 The patriarch, at fourscore, his vigor hardly abated, lived on the main street, 
 near Isaac's home. His daughter Elizabeth had married her cousin, my own
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 35 
 
 progenitor and namesake, who had bought the house opposite her father's, 
 at the corner of HoUis Street, built by Governor Belcher for his own use 
 not long before he went to New Jersey as governor of that province. Mrs. 
 Amory, her own aunt, and the widow of her husband's father, lived farther 
 south on the same street. Her tombstone, marked with her name, lays in 
 the Granary Burial Ground, near Park Street corner, the inscription easily 
 read through the open iron fence surmounting the wall. 
 
 Opposite the fence, farther north, at the corner of Bromfield's Lane, 
 where now stands Horticultural Hall, lived another aunt of Isaac, Mrs. 
 Gilbert Deblois, who, if somewhat domineering even for a Coffin, liked to 
 be hospitable. Her boys went also to the Latin school near by. Her 
 cake and fruit were not wasted, but served to rejoice at lunch their healthy 
 appetites. She was less considerate of her pretty daughter, Bessie, who, 
 about the age of Isaac, early became attached to one every way worthy, 
 and whose name in his own and two subsequent generations has been held 
 in high estimation. Why the mother interfered, and forbade the banns in 
 open church, locked up her daughter, whom she seized upon in the act of 
 eloping with her lover, can only be explained by her love of domination. 
 Neither herself nor Bessie could have favored the suit of Arnold, then cov- 
 ered with laurels from Saratoga, later dishonored, who was also captivated 
 by her beauty. Bessie remained single, watching with filial tenderness over 
 the declining years of her mother, who had thus cruelly thwarted her own 
 prospects of a happy life. She lived on, for the most part in the same dwell- 
 ing, retaining her grace and loveliness till she died, having lived to beyond 
 fourscore, beloved and esteemed by a large circle of acquaintances, friends, 
 and kinsfolk. 
 
 Not far from the school, on the Main Street, near the Province House, 
 lived his Uncle William, whose wife was the daughter of Thomas Aston, 
 and who had a large family of sons and daughters. On State, then King 
 Street, opposite the scene of the Boston massacre, resided Mr. Edward 
 Payne, who, disturbed at whist by the turmoil, and hastening, with his 
 cards in his hand, to the door to see what it meant, had his arm shattered 
 by a ball. On what is now Bowdoin Square, with large gardens about it, 
 was the residence of Mr. Newell, Chairman of the Selectmen during the 
 war, who had married a sister of Mrs. Payne, and they were kinswomen of 
 Isaac. John and Eben, his uncles, had their homes near by his own, 
 swarming with children with those best blessings of Providence — good 
 spirits and temper, health, and comeliness. They lived near the Common. 
 These many doors opened gladly to welcome one so cheery and spirited 
 as our subject.
 
 36 THE LIFE OF 
 
 VII. 
 
 ISAAC AT SEA. 
 
 Living surrounded by the sea, sailing on its bays and harbors, and 
 haunting its wharves and ships, Isaac's tastes for maritime pursuits early de- 
 veloped. At the age of fourteen he entered the Royal Navy under the aus- 
 pices of Rear-Admiral John Montague. By him he was confided to the 
 care of Lieutenant William Hunter, at that period commanding the brig 
 Gaspee, and who thus spoke of his pupil : 
 
 " Of all the young men I ever had the care of, none answered my ex- 
 pectations equal to Isaac Coffin. He pleased me so much that I took all 
 the pains in my power to make him a good seaman ; and I succeeded to 
 the height of my wishes ; for never did I know a young man acquire so 
 much nautical knowledge in so short a time. But when he became of use 
 to me, the Admiral thought proper to remove him. We parted with con- 
 siderable regret." 
 
 Mr. Coffin, after quitting the Gaspee, served as midshipman succes- 
 sively on board the Captain, Kingfisher, Fowey, and Diligent, on the 
 Halifax Station ; from the latter vessel he was removed into the Romney, 
 of fifty guns, bearing the flag of his patron at Newfoundland, and in the 
 summer of 1778 he obtained a lieutenancy and the command of the Pla- 
 centia cutter. In the following spring he served as a volunteer on board 
 the Sybil frigate, Captain Pasley, and was soon after appointed to the 
 command of Le Pincon, an armed ship. On this vessel, owing to the 
 negligence of the sailing master who had charge of her, he had the misfor- 
 tune to be wrecked on the coast of Labrador ; upon which he returned to 
 St. John's, where he was tried by a court martial and fully acquitted, his 
 conduct being considered that of an able officer and seaman wholly free 
 from blame. 
 
 By following such traces as the naval histories of Great Britain afford 
 of these several ships, we can reasonably conjecture the part Coffin took 
 in our Revolutionary War. We learn what duties were performed by each 
 of them, and we have no reason to doubt, from his rapid promotion, of his 
 efficiency and zeal. We know that his patron, Admiral Montague, pro- 
 tected the rear of Howe's retreat from Boston, in 1776, that the ships to
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 37 
 
 which he belonged were often engaged with the enemy, and that they cap- 
 tured several valuable prizes, in which actions he participated. But inter- 
 esting as this view of the war of Independence is from the decks of 
 English fleets, little comparatively is familiar to American students of their 
 history, or known of Coffin's own experiences to relate them here as inci- 
 dents in his life. 
 
 In November, 1779, Coffin, now lieutenant, went to England and was 
 appointed to the Adamant, about to be launched at Liverpool. In June, 
 1 780, that ship sailed for Plymouth under jury masts ; and in the month 
 of August following she was ordered to convoy the trade bound to New 
 York. His next appointment was to the London, of ninety-eight guns, the 
 flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Graves, then second in command on the coast 
 of America, and from her he removed into the Royal Oak, a third-rate, 
 under Vice-Admiral Arbuthnot, to whom he acted as signal lieutenant in 
 the action off Cape Henry, March 16, 1781. As he rose in rank and was 
 clothed with graver responsibilities, the part he took was more conspicu- 
 ous, and we may mention, even in connection with an officer so young as 
 he was, much of what took place. 
 
 The events of the first four years of the war, from 1775 to 1779, are 
 sufficiently familiar; D'Estaing's repulse at Savannah and Prescott's evac- 
 uation of Newport in October, 1779; its reoccupation by Tiernay in 
 July, 1780. The reduction of Charleston, defeat of Gates at Camden, 
 defection of Arnold, capture at sea of Henry Laurens, had followed in 
 quick succession. Congress sent, in December, 1780, John, son of its 
 captured president, who had gained glory in the recent battles, to help 
 extricate his father from the Tower, and arrange with King Louis, Frank- 
 lin, and Vergennes for the coming campaign. Britain, disappointed, had 
 sued for peace by arbitration, which France was disposed to concede on 
 condition of American independence. Meanwhile the King urged his allies 
 to make strenuous exertions to better their condition, which seemed also 
 the English policy, that they might respectively treat to better advantage. 
 
 Arnold's sack of Virginia, Cornwallis' march to Yorktown, manoeuvred 
 thither by Lafayette, Wayne, and Greene, were preparing the crisis. The 
 King, in March, '81, had promised millions of money, arms, and garments. 
 He provided for the co-operation of De Grasse, with a formidable fleet 
 and several thousand men from the West Indies, with Washington and 
 Rochambeau in the Chesapeake at the end of August. 
 
 A French squadron in March, 1781, had a partial engagement at Cape 
 Henry with Admiral Arbuthnot, under whom Coffin, as mentioned, served 
 as signal lieutenant. Washington and Rochambeau in July passed round
 
 38 THE LIFE OF 
 
 New York, reaching the Chesapeake as De Grasse with his twenty-four line- 
 of-battle ships made his appearance. The Enghsk leaders, both on land 
 and along shore, had been on the watch, and Graves, Hood, and Drake, 
 with nineteen ships, hovered near. Upon their arrival, De Grasse stood 
 out to sea, the British fleet following. In the engagement of the 5th of 
 September that ensued, the British lost a few hundred men and De Grasse 
 accomplished his object. De Barres, who had come down from Newport, 
 improved the occasion to enter the bay, and the two French fleets thus 
 hermetically sealed it against the British. Graves hurried back to Sandy 
 Hook for reinforcements ; but when he returned with seven thousand men, 
 sent by Clinton to relieve Cornwallis, on the 24th of October, it was too 
 late, Cornwallis had already surrendered. 
 
 How it chanced that Coffin took no more active part in these oper- 
 ations may be thus explained. After the battle of March i6th, on the 
 return to New York, the Royal Oak, after taking several valuable prizes, 
 had grounded and was sufficiently injured to be hove down at Halifax. In 
 the middle of June arrived a vessel from Bristol with the remains of his 
 father, who had died on board the day before of gout. Having held an 
 important position under government, his obsequies in New York, on 
 Broadway, showed due regard to his memory. Isaac was placed soon after 
 in command of the Avenger, the advanced post of the British up the 
 North River, which he held during the autumn, till he exchanged with 
 Sir Alexander Cochrane for the Pocahontas and joined Hood early in 
 January at Barbadoes. 
 
 Lord Hood had been often in Boston. His wife's uncle, Captain John 
 Linzee, had there married the daughter of Ralph Inman, of Cambridge. 
 I^ord Hood was present at this marriage, as afterward at that in the same 
 apartment in the house of Mr. John Rowe, who had also married an Inman, 
 of Linzee's daughter Hannah to my namesake and father's brother. 
 Under the same roof William H. Prescott, whose wife was the daughter 
 of Hannah Linzee, wrote his earlier histories. Hood well knew Cofiin, 
 and it required very little. solicitation on his part to invite him to serve on 
 board the Barfleur, his flagship. 
 
 Soon after the surrender at Yorktown Hood had sailed for Barbadoes, 
 awaiting De Grasse. January 14, 1782, soon after Coffin had joined him, 
 he learned that De Grasse had relinquished his plan of attacking Barbadoes, 
 and gone to St. Kitts, where De Bouille had landed eight thousand troops, 
 the British garrison under Frazer consisting of but six hundred men. 
 
 Deciding to attack the French fleet at anchor to save the place. Hood 
 embarked Prescott, who had twice been in command at Newi)ort, with the
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 39 
 
 few troops that could be spared from Antigua, and set sail. At daybreak he 
 signalled for battle ; but the Alfred, running foul of the Nymph, arrested the 
 prosecution of the design, in order to repair damages. De Grasse put to 
 sea to have more room to manceuvre, and thus secure the advantage of 
 his superiority in numbers. At daylight on the 25th, the French 
 fleet, twenty-nine sail strong, formed in line of battle three leagues to 
 leeward. Hood, who had but twenty-two, pushed the enemy still farther 
 to leeward while he took possession of Basse Terre, the position Hood 
 had left. The Count, astonished at these excellent operations which cut 
 him off from his army, made a furious onset on the British rear, commanded 
 by Affleck, who, under an incessant fire, covered the ships till they reached 
 their several stations. 
 
 The next morning the French admiral attacked again the British, van 
 and rear, but was repulsed, losing a thousand men. His own flagship, the 
 Ville de Paris, present of that city to the King, all the next day lay upon 
 her heels covering her shot-holes. The siege proceeded with various 
 success, till De Bouille arrived with four thousand fresh troops, when 
 Frazer capitulated. Hood, on the 19th,' reached Antigua, and joined, 
 a few days later Lord Rodney, with reinforcements from England. 
 
 These operations form an epoch in the annals of the British Navy. 
 Compelling an enemy of a superior force to quit his anchorage, taking 
 himself the situation thus left during action, defeating every attempt to 
 force the position, and cutting the enemy off from his army. It was a 
 lesson in naval tactics that will ever be deservedly regarded with admiration, 
 both for Hood's skill in these masterly manoeuvres, and for the bravery and 
 precision with which they were executed by those under his orders. 
 
 While at Santa Lucia, Rodney, learning that De Grasse, with 5,500 
 men and heavy guns, had pushed for St. Domingo to reduce it, overtook 
 him on April 7th, and the battle of the 9th and victory of the 12th were 
 the results. The battle on the 12th began at seven in the morning. It 
 was fought in a large basin of water lying among the islands of Guadaloupe, 
 Dominique, the Saints, and Marie Galante. Both on the windward and 
 leeward of this bay lay dangerous shores. As day broke, Rodney closed 
 up his line at one cable length instead of at two, as usual, each ship as she 
 ranged up to her opponent giving and receiving a tremendous fire. At 
 noon, with his own ship, the Formidable, and three more, he bore down 
 upon the enemy within three ships of the centre and broke through. His 
 other ships followed, doubling upon the enemy and placing them between 
 two fires. Rodney then wore and signalled the van to tack ; they gained 
 the windward and completed the disorder and confusion of the French.
 
 40 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The French continued the combat, attempting to reform their broken 
 line by the van breaking away to windward. Meanwhile Hood, in the 
 Barfleur, earlier becalmed, rushed down upon the foe. The Canada, 74, 
 took the Hector. Ingrefield in the Centaur attacked the Cesar ; the cap- 
 tain nailed his colors to the mast and was killed. When she struck her 
 mast went overboard, and she had not a foot of canvas without a shot-hole. 
 The Glorieux fought bravely, but was forced to yield. The Ardent was 
 retaken, the Diadem, 74, went down by a single broadside attributed to the 
 Formidable, Rodney's flag-ship. 
 
 Between the French ship, the Ville de Paris, and the Canada, a desper- 
 ate action raged for two hours. De Grasse seemed determined to sink 
 rather than strike. The Barfleur, Hood's flag-ship, on which was Coffin, 
 at sunset poured in a fire which killed sixty men outright, and De Grasse 
 struck to Hood. It is said that at the time she struck but three men were 
 left alive and unhurt on the upper deck, and the Count was one. 
 
 Hood, despatched in pursuit of the French vessels that attempted to 
 escape, overtook and captured four. The whole loss of the French 
 amounted to eight vessels, one of which was sunk and another blown up. 
 On the Ville de Paris were thirty-six chests of money to pay the troops. She 
 was said to have been at that time the only first-rate ever carried into port 
 by any commander of any nation. The French lost 3,000 men, the British 
 1,000. Rodney was made a peer of Great Britain, Hood of Ireland, Drake 
 and Affleck baronets.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 41 
 
 VIII. 
 CAPTAIN^ OF A SEVENTY-FOUR. 
 
 Shortly after the battle of April 12, 1782, Captain Cofifin, who had re- 
 joined his sloop, went with part of the crew of the Santa Amonica, which 
 had been wrecked at Tortola, to Jamaica, where, through the influence of 
 Hood, he was appointed by Lord Rodney captain of the Shrewsbury, of 74 
 guns, and confirmed in that rank June 13, 1782, sixty days later, when only 
 twenty-two years of age. This indicates the estimate of both Hood and 
 Rodney of his ability, prudence, and courage, of the value of his services in 
 these recent operations. 
 
 While still in command of the sloop Pocahontas at Antigua, the town 
 of St. Johns caught fire and in a short space was nearly consumed. Coffin, 
 with the crew of his sloop and other sailors collected by his exertions, at 
 length succeeded in arresting the progress of the flames, at the imminent 
 risk of his life. For this service he had the satisfaction of receiving an 
 address of thanks from the legislative body of the island. 
 
 It is not easy to determine, from the varying accounts of these battles, 
 whether Cofiin, on April 12, 1782 — Rodney's great victory — was on board 
 the Barfleur with Hood, or in command of his own vessel. Soon after that 
 event we find him despatched on special service, to carry a portion of 
 the crew of the above ship, as just stated, the Mona Amonica, which had 
 been captured September 14, 1779, by his friend, George Montague, in 
 the Romney, to Jamaica. Forming part of the operations, in which he 
 shared with the rest and gained his promotion, this brief sketch of these 
 events will not seem out of place. Great sea-fights before and since — 
 Trafalgar, St. Vincent's, and many more — have displayed the naval genius 
 of great commanders, when seamanship and bravery have won glory for 
 Britain. 
 
 In these encounters the great embarrassment to contend with was 
 less the enemy than the wind. This is now changed. The develop- 
 ment of steam-power, not only for propulsion, but armor and arma- 
 ment, has brought to an end the naval tactics which controlled the result 
 in engagements where combatants were well matched. Ships, clad like 
 the warriors of old in complete steel, now set at defiance wind and tide.
 
 42 THE LIFE OF 
 
 m 
 
 Since the Monitor, they have effectually superannuated the wooden walls 
 to which nations old and new once trusted for safety and supremacy. If no 
 longer ships by thousands participate in the decisive battles of the future, 
 contending fleets, composed of vessels of great cost, fewer in number, 
 hurling their huge missiles out of sight to their target, will change the whole 
 character of naval warfare. If we have no fleet, to speak of, of our own, 
 we spend millions in feeding useless mouths without benefit to the nation. 
 It behooves us to educate our officers to become Nelsons and Colling- 
 woods, Porters and Farraguts, when circumstances not to be foreseen or 
 controlled, forces upon us another Salamis. 
 
 Unless we guard our cities with the latest improvements in defensive 
 warfare, possess fleets able to cope with the best, we may be exposed to 
 tribute, to aggression, or insult — have left no alternative but the last argu- 
 ment of kings and nations, the arbitrament of arms. Sir Archibald Alli- 
 son, thirty years ago, from his reading of human history, that inasmuch as 
 mankind always fought when they could afford it, predicted that the pre- 
 cious metals discovered in such heaps would reopen the gates of Janus. 
 The event has justified his prophecy. It is to be hoped that the growing 
 intelligence of the race will recognize the absurdity of spending blood and 
 treasure in such profitless avocations. Yet, while the world continues 
 ignorant and stupid, we should be prepared for attack. We should have 
 forts, ships, and captains, who will learn from the old strategy and tactics, 
 on land and sea, what they had of value — accomplished commanders, who 
 can, besides, devise new methods to meet the modern facilities of destruc- 
 tion, which science, like Cadmus of old, who invented the alphabet, brings 
 out of the earth. 
 
 Peace soon came. Though Coffin had gained a permanent rank in the 
 Navy, there was much to discourage him in finding his vocation thus 
 changed, if not gone. His family was broken up. The remains of his 
 father lay in their last resting-place, as already mentioned, in New York. 
 John, at the age of twenty-one, had raised a mounted rifle corps in New 
 York called the Orange Rangers, which, with him as their commandant, 
 took part in the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, and in that of 
 Germantown, October 4, 1777. Tater, he exchanged into the New York 
 Volunteers, was at San Lucie and Brier's Creek in 1779, at Camden in 
 1780, at Holkirk's Hill, near Camden, April 25th, and at Eutaw Springs 
 September 8, 1781. He is mentioned, as a brave and successful cavalry 
 officer, with commendation in nearly every other engagement of the South- 
 ern campaign, constantly in desperate encounters and coming off" victo- 
 rious. Though a purse of ten thousand dollars was offered for his capture,
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 43 
 
 he escaped to Charleston, where he married, as the war closed, Miss 
 Matthews, and establishing himself later on his manor of Alwington, on 
 the St. John's, in New Brunswick, he lived till he was eighty-two in great 
 honor. That at the close of the war of Independence, at the age of twenty- 
 seven, his rank was only that of a major, that he was not promoted to a 
 higher rank, as urged by Howe and Cornwallis, is attributed to enmity at 
 court for telling the truth of a favorite. He was at the head of the gen- 
 erals when he died. 
 
 As he has had recently (1880) his biographer in one of his descendants, 
 Captain Henry Coffin, of the Royal Navy, this is not the place to relate 
 more particularly his brilliant achievements or numberless anecdotes well 
 remembered. I vividly recall his tall commanding figure and marvellous 
 bright eyes, in my early home in Park Street, in Boston, where he was a 
 frequent visitor of my father, who had charge of his affairs as of his 
 brother's. He was more sedate than Isaac, but both were brilliant speci- 
 mens of the race. He was beloved and greatly esteemed by his numerous 
 cousins, and splendid salmon from the river near his home were often sent 
 by him for their enjoyment. He also, like his brother, if not on so grand 
 a scale, in order to promote our stock, sent fine horses to the Agricultural 
 Society at Brighton. 
 
 The brothers, of nearly the same age, and the best of friends, Isaac 
 may well have wished to have been present at John's wedding to Miss 
 Matthews, which took place toward the close of 1782. Charleston lay on 
 the route from Antigua, and it would not have been strange if, in the spirit 
 of mutual consideration that prevailed in the service, such an opportunity 
 had been given him. If so, it does not appear.
 
 44 THE LIFE OF 
 
 IX. 
 
 PEACE OF 1783. 
 
 Early in 1783, war over, and the Shrewsbury paid off, Coffin exchanged 
 into the Hydra, and going home, was put out of commission. His previous 
 visits to England had been brief and on professional duty. This new 
 experience to one who, at the age of twenty-two, had gained the rank of 
 captain, and by his valuable services made his mark as one of the best 
 officers of the Navy, might have turned the head of one less sensible. 
 
 To be his own master, with abundance of prize money, plenty of 
 companions, like dashing blades to share it, must have been replete with 
 gratification. Many of his family and friends from Boston had taken up 
 their abode in London, and the refugee loyalists formed there a large circle. 
 They were all disposed to like Isaac, a handsome young fellow with pleas- 
 ant ways, generous and unpretending, loaded with laurels. If the highest 
 honors of the war attached to superior rank and more distinguished com- 
 mand, he had done enough to be held in estimation among his own inti- 
 mates, by the great naval celebrities, and by the public. 
 
 He was much in France while thus on furlough. Paris still retained the 
 glamour of the old regime. If heavy taxes or arbitrary power created wide- 
 spread discontent and disaffection, there were as yet few indications of 
 the caldron seething beneath, soon to overwhelm. It is much to be wished 
 more of his correspondence had survived to give us his own impressions 
 of Paris then. He wrote well and with the vivacity that characterized his 
 conversation. Possibly many more of his letters may exist of all periods 
 of his life, and if so, they should be collected. 
 
 Sir Guy Carleton, who could hardly have saved Canada for the crown, 
 in 1 775, without the aid of the Coffins, and whose private secretary through- 
 out his career was Isaac's cousin, Sir Thomas Aston Coffin, was now, in 
 1786, appointed Governor of Canada. It was probably at his request that 
 Isaac was appointed to the Thisbe, to take him with his family and suite to 
 Quebec. He had been created Lord Dorchester, that being an old title 
 in the Carleton family. The ship arrived at Quebec late in the season, 
 and, lest she should be frozen up. Coffin proceeded, two days later, to 
 Halifax for the winter, returning in the spring to Canada, and remained 
 there for some months.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 45 
 
 At this time a circumstance occurred to disturb his serenity, though 
 later he was entirely exonerated from any blame. It had been long the 
 custom in the English naval service, among other abuses working occa- 
 sional injustice and demanding reform, to retain on the ship rolls the names 
 of young officers while pursuing their studies ashore ; so that they might 
 not, while qualifying themselves for their responsible duties, lose their pre- 
 cedence for promotion. Many years before, in consequence of some unfair 
 advantage that had been taken of this indulgence, a regulation prohibiting 
 such practices had been adopted by the Admiralty. It chanced at this very 
 time someone again had been aggrieved, and attention been called to the 
 prevalence of what had been prohibited. It was ascertained that two such 
 cases were on the rolls of the Thisbe, not placed there with the knowledge 
 of Coffin, but which it was his duty as captain to have discovered and struck 
 off. Upon inquiry and complaint he was suspended, and indignant at what 
 he conceived unfair treatment, he proceeded to Flanders, and entered into 
 the service of the Brabant patriots then in arms against Austria, 
 
 This decree of suspension by the board, when appealed from to the 
 twelve judges, was by them declared illegal on the part of the Admiralty 
 and set aside. This put an end to the suspension and restored him to his 
 standing in the service. Upon the Spanish armament in 1 790, on the Nootka 
 Sound dispute, he was appointed to the Alligator, and in the following 
 spring, having received the flag of Commodore Cosby, was ordered to 
 America, whence he returned home with Lord Dorchester and his family the 
 following autumn. 
 
 While thus stationed at Halifax, he visited Quebec on furlough, and 
 remained there a twelvemonth. He naturally found the place attractive 
 socially as in other ways. Besides his cousin, Thomas Aston, son of his 
 uncle William, his Uncle John resided in that city with his family, who 
 were about his own age. John, early after the outbreak of hostilities at 
 Boston, had taken his wife, Isabella Child, and eleven surviving of his 
 fifteen children, six sons and five daughters, in his own ship, the Neptune, 
 to Quebec. He there purchased land, and when Montgomery and 
 Arnold arrived in December, 1775, to besiege the city, he remodelled the 
 buildings he was constructing for another purpose into a fortification. This 
 he armed with guns from a vessel frozen in for the winter, and with Barne- 
 fare, its captain, stood ready with a small force to oppose the assailants. 
 With the first volley he slew Montgomery and his two aids, on the last day 
 of the year 1775, as they attempted to take his fort by assault. This, with 
 Arnold's subsequent loot of Montreal, which disaffected the Canadians, 
 saved Canada for the British crown.
 
 46 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The sons of John all reached distinguished rank in the British civil and 
 military service, and three of his daughters were connected with it by 
 marriage. Isabella married Colonel McMurdo, whose sons gained dis- 
 tinction in India ; Susannah, Hon. John Craigie, provincial treasurer, whose 
 son, an admiral, died in 1872 at Dawlish ; his daughter Margaret, Sir 
 Rof^er Hailes Sheafe, born in Boston, who for his victory at Queenstown 
 Heights, October 13, 1812, was made a baronet. One of the sons of John, 
 Francis Holmes, in the navy throughout the war with France, served with 
 distinction and died an admiral in 1835. 
 
 While on his way up the river to Quebec in 1 786, the Thisbe was be- 
 calmed off the Magdalen Islands in the St. Lawrence, and struck by their 
 appearance, perhaps the more attractive from the autumnal splendors. 
 Coffin requested, probably not in very serious earnest, that Lord Dorchester, 
 as representative of the crown, would bestow them on him. This request 
 seemed reasonable to the governor. It was not received at first with favor at 
 home, but renewed the following year in more formal manner, was eventu- 
 ally granted. The letters-patent were not expedited until 1798, during the 
 governorship of Robert Prescott. In his will Sir Isaac entailed these islands 
 on his nephew, John Townsend Coffin, and his sons, John's brother, Henry 
 Edward, his cousin William, and several other branches of his own name, 
 and then on the Barwells, his sister's sons. The son of Sir Isaac Tristram, 
 who died in 1872, now holds them. 
 
 After his return to Europe, while lying at the Nore during a heavy gale, 
 a man fell overboard, and Coffin leaped after him into the sea and succeeded 
 in saving his life. He sustained by his efforts a serious injury, which fre- 
 quently afterward reminded him of this act of humanity. 
 
 Another heroic act, of somewhat similar character, has been related of 
 his promptness in emergencies. While at Portsmouth, or some other 
 naval station, and, it is beUeved, still a subaltern, his ship, one of the line, 
 caught fire, which being in close proximity to the magazine, sailors and 
 marines rushed with precipitation to the gangway to escape the instantly 
 expected explosion. By authority, or example, he changed their purpose, 
 and the men going to quarters, saved the ship. 
 
 Soon after his return the Alligator was paid off. After visiting 
 Sweden, Denmark, and Russia he returned home upon the troubles with 
 France, and in charge of the Melampus frigate was employed on Channel 
 service to the close of 1794. While exerting himself on a boisterous 
 night, when the frigate was in great danger of destruction, he sustained a 
 similar injury to that at the Nore, which compelled him to leave his ship, 
 and for some time he remained a cripple. Nine months later, however.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 47 
 
 while recovering his strength at Leith on service, he was sent as resident 
 commissioner of Corsica, and remained till October, 1796, when the island 
 was evacuated. From Elba he was removed to Lisbon to take charge for 
 the next two years of the naval establishment at that place. He was thence 
 despatched to superintend the arsenal at Port Mahon when Minorca fell 
 into the hands of the English, and from there ordered to Nova Scotia in the 
 Venus frigate. At Halifax, and afterward at Sheerness, as resident commis- 
 sioner he was employed till April, 1804, when appointed rear-admiral he 
 hoisted his flag on the Gladiator on duty at Portsmouth, and the following 
 month he was created a baronet. The record recites the grant of the 
 Magdalen Islands in the St. Lawrence, for his unremitting zeal and perse- 
 vering efforts in the public service. He was promoted four years later to 
 the grade of vice-admiral, which ended his naval duties afloat, though he 
 became full admiral in 18 14 by regular seniority. 
 
 This sketch of his services at sea is very incomplete. The memoir of 
 him in 1822, by Marshall, in London, when he was in Parliament, is brief, 
 and the obituary in The Gentlemaii' s Magazine when he died, not even 
 as extended. I have no data of his cruise in the Pacific, along the shore 
 of Australia, mentioned by Mr. Allen Coffin, which has left its trace on the 
 charts in Sir Isaac's Point and Coffin's Bay. It seems more likely to have 
 taken place about the close of the last century or the beginning of this. 
 
 His prize money in such troubled times had been considerable. This 
 he entrusted to my father, one of his cousins in his native place, favorably 
 circumstanced, to invest it to advantage, and it was said that the income 
 finally equalled the original deposits. He made frequent visits to his early 
 home in the course of his busy life upon the sea, having made more than 
 thirty voyages to and from America.
 
 48 THE LIFE OF 
 
 X. 
 
 MARRIAGE AND PARLIAxMENT. 
 
 Affluent and a baronet, he naturally longed for a home and inclined to 
 transmit his baronetcy to his posterity. March, iSii, he married Elizabeth 
 Browne, the only child of William Greenly, of Titley Court, in Hereford- 
 shire, Her family, brought up with rigid notions of propriety, did not take 
 kindly to the hearty and jovial ways which characterized naval officers, and 
 the match proved less happy than expected. 
 
 It is said that on one occasion, returning to Tidey Court on some par- 
 ticularly festal day, he ordered the sexton, as he passed through the village, 
 to ring a merry peal and send the tenants to the mansion to drink a glass 
 of ale. This mortally offended the lord of the manor, who thus found his 
 prerogative invaded by the husband of his only child. Within a few years, 
 satisfied of their utter incompatibility of temper, they very amicably, on 
 both sides, arranged for independence of each other. 
 
 Without intending to detract from her merit, the lady indulged in literary 
 tastes of a religious tendency. She was said to be addicted to writing ser- 
 mons at night, to the disturbance of the slumbers of her rollicking spouse, 
 and so, after a space they separated. She remained Lady Greenly and he 
 resumed the name of Coffin. The fault was certainly not hers, who was a 
 clever and exemplary woman, but somewhat eccentric in her ways. In 
 after hfe she was well known in Bath, England, remarkable for wearing, 
 Welsh-woman fashion, a man's round hat, a riding habit cut short, and for 
 wielding a gold-headed cane. She lived nearly as long as he did, but they 
 rarely met, though he made repeated overtures to reconciliation, some 
 rather amusing. 
 
 When shipwrecked in the Boston, struck by lightning on her way 
 from Charlestown to Liverpool in 1829, in the boat for several days with 
 little hope of rescue, for the seas were not then as much traversed as now, 
 he expressed great affection for her, and gave his watch to the captain to 
 send her should he himself not survive their perils and the captain be 
 fortunate enough to escape. While in the crowded boat, on this occasion, 
 with no shelter and little covering, and the scantiest supply of food and 
 water, his own cheerfulness, interesting conversation, and ebullitions of 
 good humor, kept his companions in heart and courage.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 49 
 
 It is the reasonable ambition of all Englishmen whose conditions and 
 circumstances justify such aspirations, to be permitted to take part in the 
 legislation and government of their country, and when his own health and 
 the peace rendered active service in the Navy no longer desirable, his 
 wish was gratified by his return to Parliament. One of his friends, Lord 
 Darlington, had influence enough to secure his return in 18 18, for the 
 borough of Ilchester, for which he sat till the dissolution in 1826. His 
 reputation and experience gave especial weight to his opinions when he 
 took part, as he frequently did, in debates on naval affairs. What he said 
 attracted attention to its practical good sense by the hilarity of his nature 
 and happy stores of illustration that amused while they convinced. He 
 was tall, robust, but of symmetrical proportions ; his voice powerful, and 
 his countenance expressive and noble. His long habits of command and 
 contention'with the elements inspired confidence in himself, which com- 
 manded that of the House. He was widely known and generally popular, 
 and happily constituted to enjoy the social pleasures attending ""success, 
 tempered in their indulgence by occasional twinges of gout. 
 
 Among affluent and influential circles, nowhere more than in England, 
 does the social board shape public opinion, develop and test ability, or 
 even control affairs. This was more the case half a century ago than since 
 reform bills have opened the door more widely to popular representation. 
 Officials and legislators were exclusively selected from rank and wealth, or 
 for extraordinary ability and statesmanship, and the aristocracy they repre- 
 sented regarded the government as their especial concern. Much could 
 be said in the privacy of social discussion which would have been wholly 
 impolitic through the press, or in the halls of legislation. From memoirs 
 and biographies since published, what took place behind the scenes has 
 come to light to show how, and by whom, public affairs were conducted 
 and managed. Many wise and noble statesmen were among the leaders, 
 but much has transpired that had better have been consigned to oblivion. 
 Social chat at the table was not altogether political ; it embraced every 
 conceivable topic, and the brilliant encounters of wit, the profound specu- 
 lations of philosophy, the flood of anecdote and historical reminiscence, 
 contributed to the intellectual banquet. 
 
 From his varied opportunities and confidential acquaintance with men 
 and affairs, few had more to impart to the general" entertainment of the 
 hour than Sir Isaac. He possessed rich stores of the information most 
 valued, and his jovial nature was contagious and irresistible. In the 
 brilliant round of London hospitalities, in the happily-ordered routine of 
 country life, where scores of able men met in the easiest freedom from 
 4
 
 50 THE LIFE OF 
 
 constraint as guests together, he was everywhere an acquisition. I 
 remember well weeks passed under the same roof with him when preparing 
 for my college examinations. The family were in the country, and he was 
 tied by the foot to his couch by the gout. But from morning till night, 
 droll stories, amusing incidents, whimsies and oddities of every description, 
 exploded like fireworks from the aged man's pillow, intermingled with 
 occasional garnish of more savage intensity at his anguish.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 5 1 
 
 XI. 
 
 GENIAL TEMPERAMENT. 
 
 I HAVE Still a vivid recollection of him in his undress uniform as a 
 British admiral, at an earlier period, in fine health and the perfection of 
 physical maturity, on the wide lawn and in the spacious parlors of Belmont, 
 his cousin's and my uncle's home. He was then tall and erect, with rich 
 color in his cheeks and merry sparkle in his eye, brimming over with 
 animal spirits, companionable, and with fitting chat for all. His funny 
 words and ways were the delight and dread of the children, into whose 
 frolics he entered with zest, bewildering their minds with his drolleries, 
 both they and himself exploding with merriment at practical jokes too 
 good-natured to offend. 
 
 If not quite as prone to loud expressions of mirth and merriment in so- 
 cial intercourse on this side the ocean as on the other, one so gay and so 
 brimful of amusing jokes and stories was perhaps all the better appreci- 
 ated. The many brilliant gentlemen of Boston in professional life, or among 
 its merchant princes, affluent and convivial, were pleased to have him as 
 their guest. Loyalty to the mother-country died out slowly ; and a Bos- 
 ton-born boy, whose numerous kinsfolk had ample means for hospitality, 
 much attention was paid him. Often when at my father's, who resided in 
 Park Street, where now is the Union Club House, the festal entertain- 
 ments extended into the small hours ; and those upon whom it devolved 
 to sit up to receive the roisterers, would gladly welcome from far off his 
 shout of " House ahoy! " breaking on the silent watches of the night. 
 
 While at some lordly mansion in England his hostess had begged him 
 to have made for her a Boston rocking-chair. Not wishing to disoblige her 
 ladyship, he enlisted the services of the village carpenter, and a few days 
 after had the contrivance, not then to be found in fashionable mansions out 
 of the nursery, placed in the apartment where the company at the castle 
 assembled before dinner. With all due ceremony he led the amiable and 
 much-honored lady to the chair, in which she ensconced herself and began 
 to rock. Unfortunately, the rockers had not been constructed on scien- 
 tific principles, and over it went, with many eyes to behold. Too well bred 
 to be affronted, she gathered herself up as best she could ; and by taking
 
 52 THE LIFE OF 
 
 it kindly put the admiral at his ease, and contributed to the gayety of the 
 repast. Her husband, whose good services placed him in Parliament, did 
 not abate them for the casualty. 
 
 One day an American ship sailed into Portsmouth, or Plymouth, before 
 the War of 1812, when Sir Isaac had charge of the naval fleet. An English 
 officer was sent on board. The master having gone ashore, the mate? 
 being in charge, did not receive the officer with the etiquette required upon 
 such occasions. The officer gave the first salutation as he reached the deck 
 by saying : " What damned kind of a Yankee lubber has charge here, who 
 don't know his duty to properly receive his majesty's officer?" The mate 
 said not a word, but, seizing his visitor by the collar and slack of his trou- 
 sers, threw him overboard for his own crew to pick up. Soon after an armed 
 boat came alongside to take the mate on board the flag-ship, where he was 
 arraigned before Sir Isaac, who soon became aware that the culprit was a 
 kinsman, whose father he had been familiar with in boyhood. Retried to 
 get the mate to acknowledge that he was ignorant'of the laws and customs, 
 that he might dismiss the case vvith a caution not to do so again ; but the 
 Yankee was obdurate. "He'd be damned," he said, "if any man should 
 insult him on his own deck and under the flag of his country." The of- 
 fender was remanded to be regularly tried the next day. In the meantime 
 the admiral sent a messenger to privately assure the mate that a suitable 
 apology would relieve him from any further trouble in the matter ; but on 
 the trial the same defiant manner was assumed. The admiral drew out 
 some expression, however, which he accepted as satisfactory, and dismissed 
 the offender with suitable admonitions. 
 
 Later in the day, from the shore, the admiral sent a message to the 
 young man, stating that, as his father was an old friend and relative, he 
 would be happy to meet the son and enjoy a bottle of wine with him at 
 the Jnn. But the young man replied that the admiral might go to h — 1 with 
 his wine. He'd see him d — d first, before he'd drink with any d — d Eng- 
 lisher, especially one who would approve of an insult to an officer under 
 his own flag, upon his own deck. 
 
 The admiral used to relate the above incident with much gusto, as he 
 admired the spirit of independence exhibited by the Yankee mate. We 
 have retained the strong garnish, as a fair sample of the profane ways of 
 a few generations ago. Not only afloat on the quarter-deck and on the 
 forecastle, but in the drawing-room and social circles, among those who 
 should have knowni better, such modes of speech prevailed. They have 
 long since vanished from among all classes and conditions here and through- 
 out Christendom.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 53 
 
 Commodore Hull, of our Navy, was one of his correspondents, and 
 General Wilson, our honored president, has been good enough to per- 
 mit me to read many letters that passed between them after the War of 
 18 1 2 and when the two countries were at peace. This correspondence 
 displays alike in both the genial and generous traits which the Navy is thought 
 peculiarly to foster. I propose to refer to one subject more than once 
 mentioned in these letters, which, to use the old phrase, might seem only 
 a fish story and for the marines, if not evidently believed by himself. It is 
 in reference to the size attained in former days by lobsters on our coasts. 
 In the freedom of intercourse around the table or on the quarter-deck, while 
 once returning to America, he alleged that lobsters had been found 
 weighing ninety pounds. Though given somewhat to rhodomontade, he 
 seems in this instance to have believed the fact based on hearsay, if not 
 on sight. My own fishmonger told me that within his experience in these 
 waters twenty-five pounds was the largest that had come to his knowledge, 
 but I have seen it stated that lobsters of much larger weight have been 
 found down East, where there is more room for expansion and imagination. 
 The size attained by turtles and other shell-fish in neighboring waters 
 renders such possibilities less incredible. 
 
 Apropos of Hull and Sir Isaac, my friend. General Wilson, in a recent 
 address on Commodore Hull and the frigate Constitution, said : " When in 
 the presence of a Boston-born British admiral another naval officer indulged 
 in laudatory and extravagant comments on the capture of the Chesa- 
 peake and endeavored to underrate the American naval victories of the 
 War of 181 2-14, and particularly that gained over the Guerriere, he said, 
 ' It was a lucky thing for your friend Broke that he fell in with the unpre- 
 pared Chesapeake, and not with Hull and the Constitution. If he had, no 
 Tower guns would have been heard celebrating a Shannon victory.' This 
 manly and patriotic statement was made by Sir Isaac Coffin at the dinner 
 table of the Duke of Wellington, and was related to me by his eldest son, 
 the second Duke, who was present. On the same occasion, when some- 
 one spoke sneeringly of the Americans as soldiers, a general of my own 
 name remarked, ' I have been through the Peninsular campaign, and was 
 with the duke at Waterloo, but harder fighting I never saw than we had at 
 Lundy's Lane.' "
 
 54 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 XII. 
 
 BENEFACTIONS AND DEATH. 
 
 Sir Isaac's character was too racy and various not at times to provoke 
 censure or criticism. He did so much that should not be forgotten, so 
 much entitled to be remembered, that, had the time or the occasion 
 allowed, I should mention several anecdotes that have come to my knowl- 
 ed"-e which show what he was from all points of view. One incident would 
 serve to explain how sometimes he created ill-will by yielding too much to 
 
 his impulses. 
 
 These impulses were quick and generous ; his disposition to be of service 
 to his least fortunate kinsfolk he manifested by frequent visits and liberal 
 benefactions ; and if occasionally awakening expectations which change of 
 impression or circumstances disappointed, his imperfections as well as 
 his noble traits constituted a part of his character. 
 
 1 have already mentioned that the judicious investment of his pay and 
 prize-money by one of his cousins had made him rich. In various ways 
 he expressed his gratitude even to another generation. In a paper alluded 
 to in his will he left bequests to a long list of his kindred, many of whom 
 were in straitened circumstances. Others better off he did not forget, 
 bequeathing five hundred pounds to my father's children. 
 
 He took an especial interest in the eldest son of this cousin, who had 
 been the junior partner of the house, and been left, by the death of his 
 father, in control. He had married, and taken into the firm one of the 
 best of men, since one of the great house of the Barings of London. 
 Losing his health, Mr. Amory was advised by his physician to go with his 
 wife and children to Europe. When they took their departure, he left Sir 
 Isaac, then his guest, in possession of his dwelling. Sir Isaac had left in 
 the firm, as part of its working capital, $10,000, to be used in its transac- 
 tions, with the assurance that it should not be called for while he lived. 
 When, owing to some freak of temper to which persons tortured by the 
 gout are liable, he insisted upon having the sum thus lent, and a few thou- 
 sands more then due, instantly repaid, the brothers and sisters were, for 
 the most part, under age, the paternal property undivided. There existed 
 then no limited liability. Mill corporations recently established, in which
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 55 
 
 his father had largely invested, and of some of which he had been president 
 or director, becoming unproductive, tailing, or losing their credit, left ex- 
 posed the estate, largely composed of land, wharves, and dwellings. 
 
 It was a most mopportune moment for Sir Isaac to reclaim the loan 
 accepted expressly upon the promise, it should not be called for while he 
 lived. By sacrificing his patrimony in the then depreciated market, Sir 
 Isaac was repaid within the year, though the inheritance of his creditor, thus 
 disposed of, has since been worth tvventyfold, at the least, what it brought. 
 This unexpected blow crippled one he had intended to serve, who, with a 
 large family of ten children, struggled on bravely as well as he could with- 
 out capital, sometimes eminently successful, always active and energetic. 
 Obliging, beloved, and respected, he made the best of his existence ; and 
 if often too sanguine of results, would, but for this, have been as much 
 favored in fortune as he was in his amiable disposition and courtesies. 
 It is too old a story for praise or blame. Probably Sir Isaac had forgotten 
 his promise, and when he thought his loan imperilled felt bound to extri- 
 cate it from danger. 
 
 This incident is mentioned not for blame, but explanation. It left at 
 the time an impression 10 the prejudice of our subject, and as the only 
 blur upon his fame as large-hearted, just, and generous, it should not be 
 misunderstood. Before stocks and bonds offered safe investments for 
 trusts, money was often left with merchants and bankers upon interest, to 
 be used as part of their capital. When the profits of trade judiciously con- 
 ducted ranged from twenty to thirty per cent., and with little risk, where 
 there was prudence and wealth, houses well established often found it of 
 advantage thus to enlarge their working means. In this instance of uni- 
 form and long-continued success and established reliability, hundreds of 
 thousands of dollars were held, some at fixed rates of interest, some re- 
 ceiving a portion of the profits. No corporation existing for the insur- 
 ance of marine risks, men of property, of various professions and pursuits, 
 visited the offices where such business was transacted, and subscribed as 
 underwriters on ships and cargo. Sometimes people not in trade shared 
 in the ventures of those that were. 
 
 In this way the admiral's own fortunes had rolled up, in the care of his 
 cousin, to very respectable dimensions. It was with the view of increas- 
 ing them that he left the loan to be accounted for to his executors with 
 his son and surviving partner. It was not pretended that the loan was 
 used, except in the regular commercial operations of the house. Sudden 
 death, a large family to divide the income, illness that compelled going 
 abroad, led to some delay in responding to the unexpected call for it •
 
 56 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and this, where exactness and promptitude had been the unvarying expe- 
 rience, fretted the temper of the admiral. The best of us occasionally act 
 from impulse, and the consequences in the case could not have been fore- 
 seen. It is a caution to men not to be precipitate. It prejudiced many of 
 his best friends against him, and no doubt caused him in his later life much 
 regret. But now that nearly half a century has passed, he seems fairly enti- 
 tled, in the estimation of all, to his place in the calendar free from re- 
 proach, so far as this incident is concerned, and the writer knows of no 
 other that is not greatly to his credit. 
 
 There is another explanation which, at this day when indulgence in 
 speculation as to motives for transactions so remote can do no harm, may 
 serve to amuse or caution against the possible consequences of similar 
 ebullitions. The admiral had been the frequent guest of his young friend 
 in town and country, using his horses and carriages ; and when the family 
 went to Europe, begged him to use his carriage in London, and gave 
 orders to that effect. It so chanced that when about to be presented at 
 court, as there were many other Americans besides to go with them, it 
 seemed the right moment to use the carriage, whose panels were, of course, 
 emblazoned with Sir Isaac's arms. He did not like it, and took it rather 
 in dudgeon, but in this he of course made a mistake. 
 
 What bears, also, some connection with the transaction, if not particu- 
 larly pertinent, may interest some of our readers. Mr. Amory was acting 
 at the Isle of Wight, as representative of Colonel Hunter, our Consul, who 
 had gone over to France for his children, about whose safety there was 
 cause for alarm, when the exiled King and his family having taken refuge in 
 American vessels, placed himself under the protection of our Consulate 
 flag at Cowes. There they remained for several weeks, while the English 
 Cabinet consulted as to how best to receive them. During this period the 
 vice-consul, visiting the King daily on the ship, having the family at his 
 house at Ryde, and occupying their time with excursions about the island, 
 had an interesting experience. He had earlier travelled over Europe, 
 known many of its celebrities intimately, and was always excellent in con- 
 versation, and thus able to divert their grief. Sir Isaac may have thought 
 this an extravagance ; or, perhaps, was too much of a Liberal in politics 
 to approve these civilities to a monarch so arbitrary. 
 
 While a guest at my father's summer house at Newton, he found in 
 the pastor of the church there — Parson Homer — an excellent, learned, but 
 somewhat eccentric clergyman, who had been his schoolmate at the Boston 
 Latin School. The parson, who frequently came to dinner, was apt to be 
 a little long over his grace, to the cooling of the soup. The renewal of
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 57 
 
 their early friendship was a pleasure to both, and the dominie being versed 
 in biblical lore, the admiral added much to the enjoyment of his later 
 years by the gift of a rare and costly Bible, with a letter still extant. 
 
 His interest in the school and his classmates never ebbed. His name 
 is found on its books in 1808, the year he was made Master of Arts at 
 Harvard College. Upon his last visit to Boston, not long before he died, 
 he went to the school, then in School Street. One of the then pupils, Dr. 
 Parsons, the peerless translator of Dante, tells me he remembers him well; 
 and that Sir Isaac, with hand upon his head, devoutly invoked a blessing 
 in his behalf. 
 
 What remains of his correspondence here is creditable to his good 
 sense, to his ability as a writer, to his broad sympathies. Soon after the 
 war ended, he established in our Massachusetts waters a school-ship for 
 our mates and skippers to learn the art of navigation. The barge Clio, 
 which he purchased for the purpose, was commanded by his kinsman 
 Captain Hector Coffin, of the Newburyport branch of the name, who 
 was imprudent enough, in 1826, to go up in her to Quebec, flaunting the 
 American flag. These generous projects involved large expenditures, and 
 when his brother, General John Coffin, of New Brunswick, urged him to 
 abandon what gave umbrage at home, he cheerfully acquiesced in giving 
 up what had cost him several thousands of pounds. His desire to be of 
 service to the land of his birth, nevertheless, prompted other beneficent 
 efforts. He sent over to Brighton Barefoot, Serab, and several other 
 race-horses that had recently triumphed in the Derby and other well-known 
 courses to improve our breed. He brought over in crates, from English 
 waters, turbot, the first of the European variety in our own, and imported 
 rare fruits and plants for our horticulturists. 
 
 These horses, sent out with a groom to take charge of them, were kept 
 in the stables of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society at Brighton. 
 Barefoot had many descendants, Serab, if any, but few. For many years 
 having been the fortunate possessor of one of the Barefoot's colts, it grew 
 up to be perfect for the saddle. One day when on his back, an elderly 
 body crossing the street, not having heard the clatter of his hoofs upon the 
 pavement, suddenly changed her purpose, retracing her steps to regain the 
 side she had left. The horse, checked to avoid her, struck his hock against 
 the curb-stone, and was spavined. When broken to the shafts, and left for 
 a moment at the door, he threaded his way through a crowded thoroughfare 
 to the stable-yard, half a mile, without a scratch. It is a pleasure thus to 
 record in print the virtues of that excellent colt whose paternal pedigree 
 was almost as long as that of the Coffins.
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 58 
 
 He was warmly attached to Nantucket, where his ancestors and their 
 descendants had dwelt for so many generations. He visited the place 
 and became acquainted with his kinsfolk, and in 1826 appropriated twelve 
 thousand dollars (;2^2,5oo), afterward increased till now about ;^io,ooo, 
 as a fund for a school for the instruction of the posterity of Tristram. This 
 includes nearly every native-born child of the island, besides, perhaps, 
 thousands in every State in the Union, who by future residence may 
 come within its benefits. The Academy still flourishes, though if our 
 present system of public instruction had then reached its present develop- 
 ment, his benefactions would probably have assumed another form. 
 
 Soon after his mishaps, to which we have already alluded, when burned 
 out of the cotton ship when near Charleston, in 1829, he came to Boston, 
 and when some fresh attacks of his painful disorder induced by the ex- 
 posure permitted, he hastened back to England. 
 
 The Duke of Clarence, William the Fourth, had succeeded his brother 
 George on the throne. His long connection with the Navy attached to 
 him the ofiEicers who had grown old with himself. It was said that when 
 the King was urged to create new peers to carry the Reform Bill through 
 the Lords, Sir Isaac was high up on his list as Earl of Magdalen. The 
 House of Lords gave in and voted for the Reform Bill, and the proposed 
 new peers were not created. Sir Isaac did not long survive his royal friend. 
 The 23d of June, 1839, at the age of eighty, he died at Cheltenham, in 
 Gloucestershire, and there he was buried. Lady Cofiin preceded him to 
 the tomb on the 27th of January of that year. His brother, General John 
 Coffin, died the year before, his death having taken place June 12, 1838, in 
 New Brunswick. 
 
 Save when in his own cabins afloat, or in his official residences in com- 
 mand of posts. Sir Isaac rarely enjoyed the privilege of a home of his own, 
 unless as such may be regarded his lodgings in London while in Parlia- 
 ment. He found a ready welcome under the roofs of his friends and kins- 
 folk. His sister, Mrs. Mundy, had a charming abode. Holly Bank, in 
 Hampshire, of which I caught a glimpse when passing its gates, and 
 where another brother of mine and his wife visited her. He had known 
 her sons, the Barwells, pleasantly in India! He chanced to be present, 
 also, at the hotel at Cheltenham when Sir Isaac died. There, and at 
 Bath, where some of his cousins resided, had been his frequent resort, and 
 there he had come to end his days near the family sepulchre. 
 
 But I have already exceeded my limit ; much omitted may find place in 
 some future publication. I have not aimed at eulogy or indulged in illus- 
 tration, but simply recited facts that have come to me from diligent study
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 59 
 
 of the subject, many of which had escaped previous investigation. The 
 memory of a Boston boy, who by dint of his own native energy attained 
 the highest rank in the British navy, a generous benefactor whose works 
 still bear witness to the noble impulse that prompted them, thus rescued 
 from oblivion in your publications, may find interested readers not only 
 among his numberless kinsfolk, but even among a larger circle of readers. 
 The engraving of Sir Isaac which accompanies this memoir is taken 
 from a portrait by Gilbert Stuart, that formerly belonged to his cousin 
 Thomas C. Amory, on Franklin Place, Boston, and in my earliest recollec- 
 tion hung in the parlor of the house of my aunt, Mrs. Amory, the sister 
 of Admiral Sir Samuel Hood Linzee, cousin of Lords Hood and Bridport. 
 It now forms part of the precious ancestral gallery of my cousin, Mr. Wil- 
 liam Amory, of Beacon Street, Boston. The portrait in the Coffin School 
 at Nantucket of its founder, by Sir William Beechey, presents Sir Isaac 
 at a later period of life.
 
 6o THE LIFE OF 
 
 XIII. 
 THE COFFIN COATS OF ARMS. 
 
 The Coffins have always claimed coat-armor in laereditary right. That 
 branch descended from Nathaniel Coffin, father of Admiral Sir Isaac, in- 
 herit the right through the Admiral's grant, and are unquestionably en- 
 titled to 'wear his coat of arms, but this differs essentially in its emblazon- 
 ment from the more ancient ones. 
 
 Authorities upon English heraldry give, as belonging to the Coffins of 
 Devonshire, a description which, in its combination, is unlike any other 
 family bearings, and consists of bezants and cross-crosslets. 
 
 While they differ as to order of arrangement and combination, the 
 number of bezants is never less than three nor more than four, and the 
 cross-crosslets vary from five upward to a semee which is an indefinite 
 convenient number. 
 
 The bezants are a roundle representing the ancient gold coin of By- 
 zantium, current in England from the tenth century to the time of Ed- 
 ward III., and was probably introduced into coat-armor by the crusaders. 
 The white roundle exhibited upon Admiral Sir Isaac's arms is of silver, 
 and is usually called a plate, although there were silver bezants used as 
 coin. The cross-crosslets are crosses crossed on each arm. 
 
 The crests and mottoes are of quite modern origin. 
 
 The six coats of arms in the name in "Burke's General Armory" are 
 as follows : 
 
 1. Coffin, Magdalen Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence, since of Titley 
 Court, County Hereford, baronet. Azure, semee of crosses crosslet, or ; 
 two batons in saltire, encircled with laurel branches, gold, between three 
 plates. Crest : Or, the stem of a ship ; or, a pigeon, wings endorsed, ar- 
 gent, in the beak a sprig of laurel, vert. Motto : " Extant recte factis 
 proemia." These arms are limited in the grant to Sir Isaac Coffin and the 
 descendants of his father, Nathaniel. 
 
 2. Coffin, Pine, Portlege, County Devon, temp. William I. The pres- 
 ent representative of this most ancient family, as well as of the families 
 Pine of East Downe and Pepysof Impington, is the Rev. John Pine-Coffin, 
 of Portledge. Azure, semee of crosses crosslet, or ; three bezants quar-
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 6 1 
 
 tering the arms of Pine, Downe, Kelway, Ilcombe, Winslade, Birt, 
 Hondesinore, Appleton, Gould, Penfound, and Pepys. Crests : First, a 
 martlet, azure, charged on the breast with two bezants, a mullet for differ- 
 ence ; second, a pine tree proper. Motto : " In tempestate floresco." 
 
 3. Coffin, Portland, County Dorset. Argent, a chevron between 
 three mullets, pierced sable. 
 
 4. Coffin, Somersetshire. Gules, two bars embattled, or. 
 
 5. Coffin, Somersetshire. Argent, three bezants and five crosses cross- 
 let, or. 
 
 6. Coffyn, Azure, four bezants within five crosses crosslet, or ; crest, 
 a bird, or, between two cinque-foils, or, stalked and leaved, vert. 
 
 Sir Isaac's visit to Nantucket, 1826, when he founded his school there, 
 was commemorated by a bronze medal he had struck off on the occasion, 
 bearing an admirable effigy of Tristram in full length, and in the graceful 
 garb of his period, on a base bearing the date 1642. The effigy is encircled 
 with the inscription : " Tristram Coffin, the first of the race that settled in 
 America ; " on the obverse four hands in fraternal grasp surrounded with the 
 injunction : " Do honor to his name — be united." At the same time he 
 had printed and widely distributed among the descendants of Tristram a 
 handsome broadside, relating in brief the principal incidents of his life and 
 of his origin as then known. 
 
 The broadside presents the arms of Tristram, with the facsimile of his 
 signature. Azure, four bezants within five crosses crosslet, or ; crest, a 
 bird, or, between two cinque-foils, argent, stalked and leaved, vert. 
 These are said to have been the arms of Sir William, who died in 1638, 
 and whose monument still stands at Standon, in Essex, of which royal 
 manor he was high steward. This is the sixth coat of arms of the Coffins 
 described in the " General Armory," and may have been taken from " Wea- 
 ver's Funeral Monuments," who gives the inscription, or from " The College 
 of Arms." 
 
 The arms of Sir Isaac, granted in 1804, when created a baronet, also 
 on the broadside, have already been stated, being the first described in the 
 '•General Armory " of the name, as given above. 
 
 In The Neiv England Historical and Genealogical Register for Octo- 
 ber, 1881, reprinted separately, is an article entitled "The Name and 
 Armorials of the Coffin Family," by Mr. John Coffin Jones Brown. The 
 article is replete with information upon his subject. The difference be- 
 tween the arms of North Devon, 1349 to 1699, and South seems simply 
 the addition of a fourth bezant in chief Conjectures are not proof, but 
 the suggestion is reasonable, that the fourth bezant, which is in the centre
 
 62 THE LIFE OF 
 
 chief, may have been adopted to distinguish the Brixton branch from that 
 of Portledge. 
 
 Before me are two mementos of the second centennial of the death 
 of Tristram, in 1881 — a plate and bowl, handsomely decorated in gold, 
 with the coat of arms of the South Devonshire Coffins emblazoned on each, 
 with the four bezants between the five crosses crosslet, or, with this motto : 
 '* Per tenebras speramus lumen de lumine." This is the motto of Hector 
 Coffin — perhaps adopted by him in some moment of discouragement at 
 finding his quest of the parentage of Tristram's grandfather, Nicholas, on 
 a wrong scent. I may be equally unfortunate ; but his efforts and mine, 
 if not attended with success, may illumine the path through the darkness 
 to the truth.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 
 
 63 
 
 XIV. 
 
 TUCKETT'S VISITATIONS OF DEVON, Page 207. 
 
 
 
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 64 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 XV. 
 
 COFFIN DATES. 
 
 Richard, iioo, 1327, county records. 
 Sir Hugo, of Combe Coffin, 1189-99. 
 Sir Geoffry, Henry HI., 1216-72. 
 
 Sir William Pole, of 386 Portlage. 
 Richard, 2 Knight fees of Robert the King's son. 
 Richard, 2 Knight fees of Henry Herring. 
 Richard, 24 Edward I., 1296. 
 John, 8 Edward H., 1315. 
 David, 19 Edward IH., 1346. 
 Michael, 40 Edward IH., 1367. 
 WUUam. 
 
 John — Thomasia, d. of Hathey. 
 
 William = d. John Cockementon. 
 Richard = Alice, d. of John Sambon. 
 
 ( William. 
 
 (John = Elizabeth, co-d. of Phillippa Hingeston. 
 
 ( James = Ann, d. of Sir Wm. Chudleigh. 
 -; Thomas. 
 
 ' Richard = Wilmot, d. of Sir Richard Chudleigh. 
 William, son of above = 
 John — Mary, d. of Rob. Cary, of Clovelly. 
 Richard. 
 
 OTHER MENTION OF COFFIN. 
 
 Richard, deed 1254, Henry III. 
 William, lord of Alwenter, 1272, Edward I. 
 Sir Richard, deed of Edward I. 
 Richard = 1311. 
 
 rjohn = 1318. 
 
 I Roger. 
 
 I Lawrence. 
 
 i Richard. 
 
 David = Thomasia, 32 Edward III., 1359. 
 David, son and heir of David, 1376. 
 
 John and Thomasii, wife living, 1427. 
 Richard, Sheriff of Devon, 2 Henry VIII., 151 1. 
 Richard, Sheriff of Devon, 36 Charles II., 1683. 
 J John. 
 
 I William = Margaret, d. of Thomas Gifi^d. 
 Eldest son. 
 
 John of Hyde in Northam. 
 
 Richard = Honor, d. Ed. Prideaux of Padstow. 
 James, of Markleigh. 
 Elizabeth, b. 1566, d. 1613 = Wyke of Som. 
 
 HEROLD's VISITATION OF DEVON, 1620, P. 64. 
 
 Richard 
 Edward. 
 James 
 John 
 Mary 
 
 = Wilmot Chudleigh. 
 
 = Mary Cole. 
 = Mary Cary. 
 = John WoUacomb, 1589. 
 
 Prudence = Berrie of Berrie. 
 
 Wilmot = William Addington = Farrington, 
 
 1590. 
 John = Grace and Richard Berrie. 
 
 Humphrey, b. 1605, wasted his estate. 
 Giles, b. 1610. 
 I Nicholas, b. 1613. 
 (.Richard, 1589 = Elizabeth Loveis. 
 
 John = Elizabeth, d. Henry Harding. 
 
 Jane. 
 
 Elizabeth. 
 Richard. 
 Leonard. 
 Edward. 
 James. 
 Henry. 
 Edward. 
 .William. 
 
 Seven daughters.'Mary, Ibbot, Wilmot,' Elizabeth, 
 Christian, Julian, Katherine.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 
 
 65 
 
 CHURCH MONUMENTS. 
 
 John, 1572-1622. 
 
 Richard, s. of Richard, s. of John, 1659-60. 
 
 Richard, 1569-1622, age 48. 
 
 Elizabeth, his wife, 1571-1651, age 80. 
 
 Ruth, 1601-42, age 41, wife of Hockin. 
 
 Richard, 1622-99. 
 
 Bridget, widow of Kellond, 1676-97. 
 
 John, 1678-1703. 
 
 Ann, widow of Richard, 1655-1705. 
 
 BAPTISMS FROM PARISH REGISTER. 
 
 1569 Wilmot, d. John. 
 
 1573 Prudence. 
 
 1574 Richard. 
 1576 John. 
 
 1592 Mary, d. Richard. 
 1592 John, s. Richard. 
 1603 Humphrey, s. John. 
 1605 , d. John. 
 
 1607 William, s. Richard, Esq. 
 
 1608 Edward, s. Richard, Esq. 
 1618 Jane, d. John. 
 
 1619 Elizabeth, d. John. 
 1621 Gartred. 
 
 1654 Ruth, d. Richard, Esq, 
 
 1655 Elizabeth, d. Richard, Esq. 
 1657 Jane, d. Richard, Esq. 
 7658 Mary, d. Richard, Esq. 
 
 1659 Richard, '5 and 2, d. Richard, Esq, 
 
 1660 Garthred, d. Richard. 
 1662 Ann, d. Richard. 
 1664 Ann, d. Richard. 
 
 MARRIAGES FROM REGISTERS. 
 
 1589 Mr. Richard Coffin and Eliz. Loveis. 
 
 1589 Mary, d. of John Wollacomb. 
 
 1596 Wilmot, d. John and Mary Gary = Farrington. 
 
 1607 Mary, d. of Richard = Moore. 
 
 1609 Ebbot = Levalles. 
 
 1613 Margaret = Richard Pyne. 
 
 1616 John, s. and h. of Richard = Harding. 
 
 1617 Wilmot = Weekes. 
 1623 Elizabeth = Fortescue. 
 1628 Elizabeth = Crust. 
 1633 Katherine = Hocking. 
 
 BURIALS FROM PARISH REGISTER. 
 
 1555 Richard, Esq. 
 1569 Wilmot, widow, 
 1571 John, s. John. 
 1591 William Addington. 
 1608 John, Esq. 
 1617 Richard, Esq. 
 1623 John, Esq. 
 
 1654 Elizabeth, d. Richard. 
 
 1660 Richard, s. and h. of Richard, Esq. 
 
 1662 Ann, d. Richard. 
 
 1663 James, gent. 
 
 1665 Dorothy, wife of Richard. 
 
 1666 Elizabeth, d. of Richard.
 
 66 THE LIFE OF 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Sir William Coffin was born about 1480. The British realm was 
 then all Catholic : bell, book, and candle, high mas?, and confessionals, 
 were paramount in chapel and church. Convents and other monastic in- 
 stitutions, with their cloistered walls and hidden ways, possessed a large 
 portion of its most fertile soil, its most picturesque territory. Religion, all 
 the more sincere and honest for adversity, grew corrupt with a pampered 
 priesthood, lost the respect and confidence of the laity. Their love of 
 domination and arbitrary exactions created disaffection, and paved the way 
 for a cross no longer a symbol. The indulgences sold by Leo the Tenth 
 to build St. Peter's, glut his own extravagance and the greed of his favorites, 
 aroused Christendom to a sense of the universal degeneracy that made a 
 farce of faith. 
 
 If the motives of Henry the Eighth were not of the purest, the power 
 of the throne and the good sense of the people co-operated to cast off a 
 yoke become insupportable. England, insular and enlightened, took a 
 leading part in the Reformation. From our present distant view, events 
 must have moved rapidly to consummate so great a revolution in so brief 
 a period. Conservative minds clung with tenacity to their old faith and 
 institutions, and there was so much in the new repugnant and repulsive 
 that it was only brought about amid great tribulation. Still, within thirty 
 years England, in 1530 Catholic, became Protestant. 
 
 The presence at court of Sir William Coffin, the intimate relations be- 
 tween him and Henry for twenty years, shown in the bequest of his imple- 
 ments of the chase, of which they no doubt shared in the toils and pleas- 
 ure often together, the position he held at the coronation of Ann Boleyn, 
 give us reason to believe that his own theological opinions coincided with 
 those of the King. 
 
 The bloated Bluebeard that occupies his niche in history differs so es- 
 sentially in appearance and character from that kingly form and chivalric 
 spirit, that intellectual expression and amiable disposition, that distinguished 
 Henry when he mounted the throne, that some apology seems called for in 
 taking any pride that Sir William Coffin was his friend. Coffin died in 
 1538, and the King had hardly entered upon that bloody career now re-
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 6/ 
 
 garded with execration. In his earlier manhood few monarchs had been so 
 much beloved and respected. But, thwarted in his reasonable hopes of 
 domestic happiness by a marriage not of his own choosing, he became 
 soured, arbitrary, self-indulgent. Still, the law of England, that kings can 
 do no wrong, is apt to blind loyal subjects to nice distinctions, so far as re- 
 spects them ; and the favors conferred on Coffin by the King may have 
 made him less disposed to criticise. 
 
 He had married Lady Mannors, of Derbyshire, for which county, in 
 1529, he was chosen Knight of the Shire to Parliament. While on his 
 way to attend its sessions, passing by a churchyard, he observed near the 
 road a multitude of people standing idle. Inquiring the cause, he was told 
 that they had brought a corpse thither to be buried, but the priest refused 
 to do his office unless they delivered him the poor man's cow, the only 
 quick goods he left, for a mortuary. Sir William sent for the priest, and 
 required him to do his office to the dead, who peremptorily refused unless 
 he had his mortuary first. Thereupon he ordered the priest to be put into 
 the poor man's grave, and earth to be thrown in upon him ; and, as he 
 still persisted in his refusal, there was still more earth thrown in, until the 
 obstinate priest was either altogether, or well-nigh, suffocated. 
 
 Now, thus to handle a priest in those days was a very audacious pro- 
 ceeding ; but Sir William, with the favor he had at court and the interest 
 he had in the House, diverted the storm. He so lively represented the 
 mischievous consequences of priests' arbitrarily demanding mortuaries, that 
 the then Parliament, taking it into their serious consideration, prohibited 
 priests from exacting more than from three shillings to ten, according to 
 the property left. This act against excessive mortuaries is classed by the 
 historians, with two more, as bringing about the Reformation and Eng- 
 land's declaration of independence of the Papal throne. It becomes of 
 some importance as an historical event to be remembered. We mention 
 it here as recalling similar incidents in the life of Tristram, when he took 
 upon himself the sole responsibility of saving the wreckage at Nantucket ; 
 of Isaac, when he fought with the Brabanders against Austria or saved the 
 burning ship by forcing the men back to their quarters.
 
 68 THE LIFE OF 
 
 XVII. 
 
 ALLEN COFFIN'S CALL OF TRISTRAM'S DESCENDANTS 
 TO THE SECOND CENTENNIAL OF HIS DEATH IN 
 1881. 
 
 When I recently read the invitation of Mr. Allen Coffin, in The In- 
 quirer, of Nantucket, for December 6, 1879, to the then proposed gather- 
 ing of the race at Nantucket to commemorate the death of Tristram, in 
 1 68 1, it seemed so full of the information the readers of the present publi- 
 cation might need, that I wrote to request him to permit me to insert it 
 wholly or in part. He generously consented. In the faith that we have 
 all but one motive — to bring within the reach of all of Tristram's descend- 
 ants what sheds any additional light on his character and career — it is here 
 presented. I find it difficult to omit any part of it, unless what in other 
 forms has already found place. 
 
 A LEAF FROM THE LIFE OF MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER'S GREAT- 
 GRANDFATHER. 
 
 By Allen Coffin. 
 
 With the death of Edward the Confessor was practically terminated 
 the Saxon dynasty of England. WiUiam, Duke of Normandy, whom Ed- 
 ward had appointed his successor, landed at Pevensey, on the 28th of 
 September, 1066. He met Harold on the field near Hastings, and, after 
 a long battle, Harold fell pierced with an arrow, and his soldiers fled from 
 the field panic-stricken. The Norman conquest was thus achieved, and 
 William the Conqueror soon after crowned king. 
 
 Accompanying William was an army of sixty thousand men, volunteers 
 from adjacent parts of the continent, who crowded to his camp at the 
 mouth of the Dive, eager to share in the vicissitudes of the campaign. This 
 was a wonderfully romantic age, and William was aided by many sovereigns 
 and princes, and a vast body of nobility from the different kingdoms. Those 
 who accompanied the Conqueror became the barons, and knights, and 
 esquires, and sergeants of feudal times, and in the divisions of the riches
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 69 
 
 of the conquered domain became proprietors of vast estates, castles, ab- 
 beys, villages, and even whole towns. 
 
 There was one man among William's conquering host in whom most of 
 this large assembly will ever have an abiding interest. He was a general 
 of the army, and his name was Richard Coffyn. From what province he 
 came, or what ancestry he boasted, or what life he had pursued prior to 
 his adventurous campaign, are facts which no friendly hand has yet lifted 
 from the shrouds of oblivion. He shared in the spoils of the conquest, 
 became a tenant of the crown, and his name was written in the Domesday 
 Book. All of the followers of William were noble in right of their victory 
 and foreign birth, and the parish of Alwington, in the county of Devon, 
 appears to have been conferred upon him, with the title of Sir Richard 
 Coffin, Knight, etc. Portledge was the Coffin manor, and, through a period 
 of more than eight centuries, streaming down to the present time, an un- 
 broken line of inheritance has been preserved. 
 
 In the history of the County of Devon, in England, honorable mention 
 is made of Sir Ellis Coffin, Knight of Clist and Ingarby, in the days of 
 King John ; of Sir Richard Coffin, of Alwington, in the time of Henry II.; 
 of Sir Jeffrey Coffin and Combe Coffin under Henry III., and numerous 
 other knightly descendants during successive reigns, till the time of Henry 
 VIII. Sir William Coffin, Sheriff of Devonshire, was highly preferred at 
 the court of Henry VIII., and accompanied the king as one of the eighteen 
 chosen by him on a tournament in France in 15 19. He was Master of the 
 Horse at the coronation of Anne Boleyn, and a gentleman of the Privy 
 Council. He was also High Steward of the Manor and Liberties of Standon, 
 County of Hertford. At his death he bequeathed to his royal master, King 
 Henry, with whom he had been in especial grace and favor, all of his hawks, 
 and his best horses and cart. As he left no issue, he conveyed the Manor 
 of East Higginston, County of Devon, to his eldest brother's son, Richard 
 Coffin, Esq., of Portledge. Sir William's monument, in Standon Church, 
 is mentioned in " Weever's Funeral Monuments " (p. 534). 
 
 Nicholas Coffin, of Brixton (one account says Butler's Parish), in Dev- 
 onshire, in his will, dated September 12, 16 13, and proved November 3, 
 16 1 3, mentions his wife Joan and sons Peter, Nicholas, Tristram, John, 
 and daughter Anne. He was the grandfather to the emigrant to New Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Peter Coffin, of Brixton, in his will, dated December i, 1627, and 
 proved March 13, 1628, provided that his wife, Joan Thember, shall have 
 possession of the land during her life, and then the said property shall go 
 to his son and heir, Tristram, " who is to be provided for according to his
 
 70 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 degree and calling." His son John is to have certain property when he 
 becomes twenty years of age. He mentions his daughters Joan, De- 
 borah, Eunice, and Mary, and refers to his tenement in Butler's Parish 
 called Silferhay. He was the father of the emigrant. 
 
 John Coffin, of Brixton, an uncle of the emigrant, who died without 
 issue, in his will, dated January 4, 1628, and proved April 3, 1628, ap- 
 points his nephew, Tristram Coffin, his executor, and gives legacies to all 
 of Tristram's sisters, all under twelve years of age. 
 
 I have been led to seek the caui^e of Tristram's removal to America, 
 but upon that subject the oracles are silent and tongues dumb. Was it 
 that he might enjoy a larger religiou-; liberty, or to escape persecution, or 
 was it the same love of adventure that induced his ancestor, Sir Richard 
 Coffin, to embark with the Duke of Normandy six centuries before? Let 
 us look at the contemporaneous history of England. We shall find that 
 the time which covers Tristram's mature life in England, about fifteen 
 years, marks a most eventful period— the moment when intellectual free- 
 dom was claimed unconditionally by Englishmen as an inalienable right, 
 and when ecclesiastical forms were not spared by the revolution of the 
 times. 
 
 James I., whose reign had been adorned by Shakespeare and Bacon, 
 died in 1625, when Tristram was twenty years old. Charles I. had been 
 upon the throne but two years when Tristram's father died. The Petition 
 of Right, in 1628, sought to limit the powers of the Crown, and the King 
 soon after abolished the Parliament and established the Star Chamber. 
 Puritanism was making rapid strides, and large numbers of Puritans were 
 leaving England. So great was the exodus that the King prohibited their 
 departure, and Hampden, Pym, and Cromwell were prevented from leav- 
 ing. About this time the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated. In 
 1638 the Scots, to maintain their ecclesiastical rights, took up arms against 
 the King, having formed the celebrated Solemn League and Covenant, 
 and sustained the Parliament in its opposition to Charles. The Earl of 
 Strafford and Archbishop of Canterbury, as chief advisers of the King, were 
 impeached and beheaded (the former in 1641, and the latter in 1644). 
 The Presbyterians, who were now a majority in the Commons, procured the 
 exclusion of Bishops from the House of Lords, in 1641, which was followed 
 by an act in 1643 entirely abolishing Episcopacy, so Charles began to re- 
 alize that without Bishops there would be no King. Under these circum- 
 stances the Lord Parliament convened. 
 
 The irrepressible conflict between Charles and the Parliament came to 
 a crisis in 1642, and in August of that year the royal standard was raised
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 71 
 
 at Nottingham. The King was generally supported by the nobility, the 
 landed gentry, the High Church party, and the Catholics ; and the Parlia- 
 ment was sustained by the mercantile and middle classes, and the lower or- 
 der of the great towns. On which side of this conflict would Tristram 
 Coffin most naturally have gone ? He was of the landed gentry, and, I 
 think, a High Churchman, Conformably to his father's will, he was to be 
 provided for "according to his degree and calling." He must therefore have 
 had a calling — a profession — he may have taken holy orders. He was un- 
 questionably a royalist and a Cavalier, and the very year of the appeal to 
 arms, 1642, after the conflict had been waged, Tristram Coffin, at the age 
 of thirty-seven, left all of his comfortable estates in Old England and em- 
 barked for America, bringing with him his wife and five small children, his 
 mother, then aged fifty-eight, and two unmarried sisters, and none of them 
 ever returned. I believe that, having embraced the royal cause, he was 
 compelled to leave England, and took with him all of his near relatives ; 
 that his valuable estates at Dorsetshire and at Brixton, the tenements in 
 Butler's Parish, mentioned in his father's and uncle's wills, were seques- 
 trated. That he was a leading spirit in the time of Charles I., and proved 
 his loyalty by unmistakable acts which rendered him obnoxious to the 
 Roundheads and Parliament fanatics, 1 have unshaken confidence. 
 
 He was rich in England — he was otherwise when landed in America. 
 He married Dionis Stevens, of Brixton, County of Devon. Pie first settled 
 at Salisbury, Mass., and the same year removed to Haverhill, where his 
 name appears as a witness to an Indian deed of that place, dated Novem- 
 ber 15, 1642. Three more children were born to them in Haverhill, and 
 one at Newbury. Of their nine children, the last born in England and the 
 first born in America died in infancy. All of the others married and had 
 children. He was licensed to keep an inn at Newbury, and a ferry across 
 the Merrimac River. He subsequently returned to Salisbury and became 
 a county magistrate. 
 
 He came to Nantucket in 1659 on a prospecting voyage, having ob- 
 tained Peter Folger from Martha's Vineyard as an interpreter of the Indian 
 language. The company which purchased the island was formed at Salis- 
 bury after his return. His son, James Coffin, who came in the boat with 
 the family of Thomas Macy, which voyage Whittier has immortalized in 
 his poem of " The Exiles," had doubtless accompanied his father on the 
 former voyage. All of the early deeds conveying land in Nantucket to 
 this company recite first the name of Tristram Coffin as a grantee. He 
 and his sons at one time owned about one-fourth part of Nantucket, and 
 the whole of Tuckernuck.
 
 ^2 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 I do not think that personal rehgious persecutions had anything to do 
 with his removal to Nantucket, although he doubtless despised the in- 
 tolerant spirit of Essex County, which prompted the flights of Roger 
 Williams and Thomas Macy, notwithstanding he was at the time a county 
 magistrate. 
 
 His place of residence in Nantucket is described in a deed as being at 
 Northam or Coppomet Harbor (Capaum Pond being probably open to the 
 sea), near the old shear-pen gate. He doubtless had other houses in this 
 vicinity, where a village grew up around him, and a monument has re- 
 cently been placed upon the spot supposed to have been his homestead. 
 
 He was the first Chief Magistrate of the island, having been com- 
 missioned by Lord Lovelace, on the 29th of June, 167 1 ; and, together 
 with Thomas Mayhew, who was the first Chief Magistrate of Martha's 
 Vineyard, and two associates from each island, constituting a General 
 Court for the two islands, enacted the first prohibitory liquor law of which 
 the world has any record — a marvel of legal preciseness and acumen. 
 
 He died in Nantucket, on the third day of October, a.d. 1681, at the 
 age of seventy-six, and probably sleeps in the ancient burial-ground on the 
 hill, just east of Maxcy's Pond. 
 
 " The earliest ray of the golden day 
 On that hallowed spot is cast ; 
 And the evening sun as he leaves the world 
 Looks kindly on that spot last." 
 
 One year from next October will occur the second centenary of the 
 death of Tristram Coffin. The multitude of descendants all over the 
 world who claim him with pride as their common ancestor may desire to 
 rear a suitable monument to his memory in the land where he died, and 
 where his liberal, high-minded, and Christian character, not inappropriately 
 compared by Benjamin Franklin Folger with that of William Penn, found 
 such practical opportunity of expression in his relations with the Indians. 
 I feel that I echo the sentiments of the descendants in Nantucket when 
 I invite all the other descendants to a grand reunion of the Coffin family 
 in Nantucket, in October, 1881, to participate in exercises commemorative 
 of a noble life — the life of our common ancestor, Tristram Coffin, the first 
 of his name in America. 
 
 PREPARATIONS IN 1881. 
 The Clan. — The Coffin Reunion is now so near at hand that we are 
 enabled to make some statements of fact concerning the same. The New
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 73 
 
 Bedford brass Band will arrive on the morning of the i6th, in time to pro- 
 ceed to Surf-side where the clam-bake is to be provided. The clam-bake 
 about noon will be gotten up by A. F. Copeland, of Boston, and will in- 
 clude chowders, baked and fried fish of the different varieties, lobsters, etc., 
 garnished with the products of the season. 
 
 The oration on this occasion will be by Tristram Coffin, Esq., of 
 Poughkeepsie, N. Y., a gentleman well qualified by name and attainments 
 to do ample justice to the occasion. An original poem will be read, and 
 other literary exercises will follow, interspersed with music. 
 
 On the second day, Wednesday, the seventeenth of August, the memorial 
 exercises will be held at the Atheneum Hall, on which occasion Charles 
 Carleton Coffin, of Boston, will make the oration, and a poem by Robert 
 Barry Coffin, Esq., of New York, will be read. Other speeches will be in- 
 troduced on this occasion, as may be hereafter arranged. These exercises 
 will take place in the forenoon, and in the afternoon a pilgrimage will be 
 made to the old homestead place of Tristram Coffin near Capaum Pond, 
 accompanied with the Band of Music, where appropriate commemorative 
 exercises will be held. It is proposed to have some entertainment in the 
 evening at the Atheneum Hall, the precise character of which has not been 
 fully decided upon. 
 
 The last day's exercises will consist of a Breakfast or Banquet at Surf- 
 side, at which Mr. Copeland will make his best endeavor to lay tables in 
 the highest style of his profession. The Committee make assurances that 
 this affair will surpass any previous effort of the kind ever made upon the 
 island. The dessert will be served in plates of the finest French china, 
 decorated with the Coffin Coat of Arms, and the coffee and tea in a new 
 style cup and saucer decorated with the same arms, and imported expressly 
 for this occasion by Charles E. Wiggin, of Boston. Prof. Selden J. Coffin, 
 of Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., will make the oration after this repast, and 
 Dr. Arthur Elwell Jenks, of Nantucket, will read an original poem. Other 
 literary and musical exercises will follow, and the afternoon's exercises will 
 conclude with an anthem written for the occasion, in which the entire family 
 will be invited to join, the accompaniment being performed by the Band. 
 
 In the evening, at Surf-side, a Grand Ball will impart a festive conclud- 
 ing feature of the Reunion exercises. Smith's Quadrille Band furnishing the 
 music. This, like all the other exercises, is expected to be the most re- 
 cherche affair ever indulged in upon the island. 
 
 Messrs. Editors — Rumors of the Coffin gathering have been in the 
 air even here for some time, and lately the Inquirer and Mirror, with the
 
 74 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 names of its publishers, familliar a quarter of a century ago, has come to 
 us, bringing a more definite word. Although over twenty years have 
 passed since I could claim to be a citizen of your island, interest in Nan- 
 tucket especially the Nantucket of thirty or forty years ago, has suffered 
 no diminution. Most people have but one home, and let them go where 
 they may, in the fairest of lands even, in their hours of quiet reflection, 
 and especially when the shadows of their life begin to lengthen, the sun 
 seems to shine with greater brightness on the spot where they passed their 
 childhood. So it is with our home on the " Isle of the Sea." And these 
 rumors of the Coffin gathering have revived the old associations, and 
 peopled your homes and streets with those who once filled them. Every 
 spot, from Siasconset to Maddaket, and down to the South Shore, has been 
 gone over, and anecdote, tradition, and legend have come up, perhaps to 
 be told to some little company who were not -io favored as to be born on 
 the island, but who never tire of hearing about it. 
 
 By the way, your humble correspondent was asked a year of two ago to 
 contribute one of a course of lectures given here for some local charity. 
 Havino- often spoken to the larger part of the probable audience, and be- 
 ing too much occupied to write anything new, I tried to beg off. " Can't 
 you just talk about Nantucket, as you have done in company ? " " Why, 
 the people here don't care about that." "But you must do something." 
 "Well, if you will take the responsibility, I will give such a talk." And 
 so I did. Just brushed up my history, you know, especially of Revolu- 
 tionary times, telling the people that no town contributed more, negatively, 
 by its losses and sufferings, to the cause of National freedom than Nan- 
 tucket. Then I talked about the whale-fishery and sealife. You see if I 
 made mistakes there, or embellished a little where it was necesssary, no 
 one of my audience of lands-people knew it. Then I told about '•' sheep- 
 shearing," and the good old Society of Friends, the mother church, and a 
 good one as we could find before the seeds of strife came in and quenched 
 the simple charities of the beautiful island life. Then I drew portraits, and 
 told anecdotes of the notables, Keziah Coffin and her country house ; 
 Cousin EUzabeth Black, with her wondrous speech ; Franklin Folger, and 
 others, ending with a quotation fromWhittier's sweet ballad, " The Exiles," 
 so dear to a Nantucketer. The audience paid the tribute (not to the 
 speaker, but to the island and its people) of profound attention, with mingled 
 seriousness and laughter, for an hour, and the expression is still occasionally 
 given that the evening on Nantucket was one of most enjoyable interest. 
 
 Thus it is everywhere. There seems to have been something in the 
 original stock, or the environments, in ihe business, the social and religious
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 75 
 
 atmosphere, or the pure sea breezes of the island, which made it a place 
 that every wanderer soon learns to be proud of ; and that you who are left 
 to sustain the honors of the old town may well think of with satisfaction. 
 How well and nobly the town's decline was striven against, especially after 
 the great fire. Is it not recorded in some book of light, to the credit of 
 many, both of those who have passed on and you who are left ? And it 
 almost seemed, when I read of the inauguration of the railroad, that your 
 crowning had come. I confess to a latent wish not to have the old-time 
 customs too much lost in the modernisms of a fashionable watering-place. 
 We can get these somewhere else ; at Nantucket we want Nantucket. To 
 go to the South Shore in a cart-bodied wagon somehow seems most natu- 
 ral. But that perhaps is sentiment only, and people can't live on senti- 
 ment ; so I am glad to learn of improvement, and hope that you all who 
 have nobly striven for it and tried to keep things up will reap a reward. 
 Whether a closely occupied life will allow me to be at your gathering is 
 yet uncertain. I shall try for it, anyway. I wanted to make sure, through 
 your columns, if you will allow it to an old friend of expressing interest 
 in the reunion ; and will you pardon a suggestion, which may be superflu- 
 fluous. At the centennial celebrations at Concord and Lexington, I no- 
 ticed that those less familiar with the spots of interest than we who live 
 near, found great satisfaction in looking at the placards which marked his- 
 toric places and houses. To the Cofifin family especially there are many 
 such places at Nantucket. Mary Starbuck, the '* great woman," daughter 
 of Tristram Coffin, and wife of Nathaniel Starbuck, will be thought of with 
 much interest. Where her house stood is generally known. It may not 
 be so well known that the house, moved down, is still standing and retain- 
 ing much of its original form. The house of William Rotch, Sr., is also 
 standing, moved up from lower Main street, and in shape is unchanged. 
 I have the authority of Franklin Folger for these statements. If you care 
 to identify these places, and soma others, and some islander cannot readily 
 do it for you, I shall be happy to write to you further. Won't you want to 
 designate the spot "up west," which was the birthplace of Dr. Franklin's 
 mother ; and the first Friends' burying-ground, where Mary Starbuck was 
 buried ; and the house in town where Lucretia Mott was born, and lived 
 until she was twelve years old ; and the site of Keziah (Miriam) Coffin's 
 house, where, in the Revolution, she sold smuggled goods to the distressed 
 islanders ; and the site of the old Friends' meeting-house, corner of Main 
 and Pleasant Streets — an unsightly structure, guiltless of paint or architec- 
 tural design, but to many of us a sacred spot in memory, especially at 
 " quarterly meeting time," when the immense building was crowded in
 
 76 THE LIFE OF 
 
 every part with hushed and reverent worshippers, and the sweet tones of 
 some gifted messenger of the gospel (perhaps Elizabeth Robinson, from 
 England) breathed around the old oaken braces and timbers, holding us 
 children in reverent awe ? Shall we ever hear the like again ? No ; but 
 something else, and in some respects something better, has come to take 
 its place. Won't you want to write large the old doggerel we used to re- 
 peat, even if it does depreciate the Husseys, one line of which is, 
 
 " The Coffins, noisy, fractious, loud," 
 
 not omitting the last stanza, of which I only heard within the year, that 
 ends, 
 
 " The Pinkhams beat the devil." 
 
 How they beat him, my esteemed friend B., who sent me the stanza, did 
 not inform me. And so we might go on, from North Shore to Newtown. 
 If I can do anything to promote the interest or enjoyment of your reunion 
 it will give me great pleasure. 
 
 In meeting here and there with ex-Nantucketers who are interested in 
 the island, even if they give less sign of interest than some others, it has 
 seemed to us that there is a dearth of circulars or something to tell us what 
 to do. If it be not much, it will have the merit of a hearty regard for old 
 and new Nantucket. Do save us a copy of the albertype of Tristram 
 Coffin's house, at Newbury. A friend of ours this way has a friend who 
 has been in the house in old England from which the Coffin's came. It is 
 now about eight hundred years old, and is still occupied and well preserved. 
 This lady, who is herself a descendant of the Coffins, has a view of the 
 house, which I hope to see. Can't you get copies for your gathering ? 
 Hoping with some of my family to ride over the railroad, and in a " cart- 
 bodied wagon," too, next month, and to take the hands of many whom I 
 used to meet in other days, and still hold in much esteem, I am 
 
 Yours, 
 
 C. C. HUSSEY. 
 
 BiLLERiCA, July 28, 1 88 1. 
 
 [We are pleased to hear from our former schoolfellow of over half a 
 century ago, whom we had supposed had long since been gathered to his 
 fathers. Although we were one of the small boys, and he one of the big 
 ones at the opening of the Coffin School in 1827, we well remember him 
 as the acknowled leader of the " Chookies " in our snow-ball battles with 
 the " Newtowners," which were carried on with such relentless fury in
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. ^^ 
 
 those times. We would inform him that there are still quite a number of 
 the "Clio boys" living, and suppose many of them would be willing to 
 open a correspondence with him. Benjamin F. Coffin and Franklin Fol- 
 ger still reside on Nantucket ; Robert G. Coffin in San Francisco ; David 
 P. Eldridge in Milford, Mass. ; Frederick A. Hussey in Brookline, Mass., 
 and Andrew J. Morton in Boston. The rest of the boys are dead, only 
 two of whom died at home, one from sickness, and one — Edward Worth — 
 drowned at Brant Point. — Eds.] 
 
 When the time arrived for the celebration, hundreds of the descendants 
 of Tristram flocked to Nantucket from all over the continent. They were 
 cordially greeted and warmly welcomed by their kindred belonging to the 
 Island. The weather did not prove altogether propitious. The winds blew 
 cold and the rain fell in torrents. Occasional intervals of sunshine gave 
 hope of permanent clearing, but several of the promised repetitions of the 
 festal ways of the earliest times were given up. Enough, however, of the 
 pleasures prepared remained practicable, to render the event one long to be 
 remembered.
 
 78 THE LIFE OF 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 WILLS. 
 Will of Sir Isaac Coffin. 
 
 {Extracted from the Principal Registry of the Probate^ Divorce, arid Ad- 
 miralty Division of the High Court of Justice, in the Prerogative Court 
 of Canterbury.') 
 
 This is my last Will and Testament, hereby revoking all others I may 
 have heretofore made. Having disposed of all my property in England 
 that I had in the funds to my nearest relations, named in a Deed of Trust, 
 I bequeath the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to ray 
 nephew, John Townsend Coffin, during the term of his natural life, then, 
 at his demise, to his son Isaac Tristram Coffin, and his issue male. Should 
 the said Isaac Tristram Coffin leave no issue male, then to his brothers in 
 succession and their male heirs ; failing in male heirs in that family I then 
 leave the said Magdalen Islands to my nephew Henry Edward Coffin and 
 his male issue ; he failing to have issue male I then bequeath the said isl- 
 ands to the sons of my late Cousin, William Coffin, in succession, and 
 their male heirs ; failing in male heirs of said WiUiam Coffin, then the isl- 
 ands to become the property of the sons of my Cousin Thomas Coffin, of 
 Three Rivers, Lower Canada, in succession ; should they die and leave no 
 issue male, I then give the said Magdalen Islands to my Godson Isaac 
 Campbell Coffin, now an officer in the East India Company's Service, and 
 his sons in succession ; failing in issue male from the said Isaac Coffin, I 
 give the said Islands to his brother Sebright Coffin ; should all these above 
 enumerated Coffins die without issue male, then I leave the said Islands 
 to my nephew, Commander William Barwell and his issue male ; faihng to 
 have male heirs, I then leave the said Magdalen Islands to the person who 
 may prove to be my Heir-at-Law. As the Islands were granted to me for 
 my services during the American War, 1 775-1 783, and in Canada during 
 Lord Dorchester's time, I request they may remain as an Heir-Loom m 
 the family, and that whoever succeeds to them may assume and bear the 
 Arms of Coffin. My property at Boston, N. America, under the care of
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 79 
 
 William Foster Otis, Esq., amounting by the last account to Eleven thou- 
 sand five hundred pounds, I desire may be left under his control until it 
 amounts to Twenty Thousand pounds, then the interest to be paid to John 
 Townsend Coffin and the principal to Isaac Tristram Coffin, he having no 
 children, then to his brothers in succession, on the demise of the Father 
 John Townsend Coffin ; failing in male issue, the Family of the said John 
 Townsend Coffin, Then the Twenty thousand pounds to be divided 
 among any female children the said John Townsend Coffin may leave. I 
 name Charles Earle, Esq., William Earle, Esq., Hardman Earle, Esq., 
 Richard Earle, Esq., Barrister, and William Foster Otis, Esq., of the City 
 of Boston, N. America, as my Trustees and Executors, requesting as an 
 old friend of their families they will forgive the trouble I give them. 
 
 Isaac Coffin, Admiral, [l.s.] 
 
 Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence 
 of us, the 15th day of March, 1839. 
 
 Jno. S. Carden, Real Adm'l, Cheltenham. 
 S. Martin Colquitt, R. N., Do. Cheltenham. 
 
 This is a Codicil to my Will. Unable to make a distribution of my prop- 
 erty among my relations, from the difficulty attending my obtaining a re- 
 lease from the Trustees of the late Lady Coffin, I hereby leave to my 
 Trustees, named in my Will, with all my funded property in the Three pr. 
 Cent Consols and reduced annuities, the interest, amounting to Seven hun- 
 dred and thirty-eight pounds, to be paid to my nephew, John Townsend 
 Coffin, at his death, the said interest to be paid to Isaac Tristram Coffin 
 and his heirs lawfully begotten. 
 
 Isaac Coffin, Admiral. 
 
 : L.s. : 
 
 Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence 
 
 of us, the subscribing trustees. 
 
 Thomas Roe, Major H. E. I. C^ S., 
 
 George Dixon, Vicar of Helmsley, Yorkshire. 
 
 Appeared personally, Samuel Martin Colquitt, of the Parish of Chel- 
 tenham, in the County of Gloucester, Esquire, made oath that he is one 
 of the subscribed witnesses to the last Will and Testament of Sir Isaac 
 Coffin, late of Cheltenham, in the County of Gloucester, Baronet, de- 
 ceased, who died on the twenty-third day of July last, the said will bear- 
 ing date the fifteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty 
 pine. And he further made oath that he was present at the execution of
 
 8o THE LIFE OF 
 
 the said Will by the said deceased, and that the said Will was signed at 
 the foot or the end thereof in manner, as now appears by the said Testator, 
 in the presence of this deponent and of John Surram Garden, the other 
 witness thereto subscribed, present at the same time, who set and sub- 
 scribed their names as witnesses to the said will in the presence of the said 
 Testator. S. Martin Colquitt, R.N. 
 
 On the 24th day of December, 1839, t^^ said Samuel Martin Colquitt, 
 Esquire, was duly sworn to the truth of the above Affidavit before me, 
 
 Francis Close, 
 Perpetual Curate of Cheltenham, Commissioner. 
 
 Appeared personally Thomas Roe, of Cheltenham, in the County 
 of Gloucester, Esquire, and made oath that he is one of the subscribed 
 witnesses to the Codicil to the last will and Testament of Sir Isaac 
 Coffin, late of Cheltenham, in the County of Gloucester, Baronet, de- 
 ceased, who died on the twenty-third day of July last, the said Will bear- 
 ing date the Fifteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty 
 nine, and the said Codicil being without date. And he further made oath 
 that he was present at the execution of the said Codicil by the said de- 
 ceased, on or about the Fifteenth or Twentieth day of May last, and he 
 further made oath that the said Codicil was signed at the end or foot 
 thereof in manner as now appears by the said Testator in the presence of 
 this deponent and of the Reverend George Dixon, Clerk, the other sub- 
 scribed witness thereto, both present at the same time, who set and sub- 
 scribed their names as witnesses to the said Codicil in the presence of the 
 said Testator. Thomas Roe. 
 
 On the thirteenth day of January, 1840, the said Thomas Roe, Esq., 
 was duly sworn to the truth of the aforesaid Affidavit before me, 
 
 Francis Close, 
 Perpetual Curate of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Commrs. 
 
 Proved at London (with a Codicil), 15 January, 1840, before the Judge 
 by the oath of William Earle, Esq., one of the Executors to whom admon 
 was granted, having been first sworn by Commissioner, duly to administer. 
 Power reserved of making the like grant to Charles Earle, Hardman 
 Earle, and Richard Earle, Esquires, and William Foster Otis, the other 
 Executors when they shall apply for the same. Effects under ^^2 5,000.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 8l 
 
 The descendants of William Gayer and of his admirable daughters, Da- 
 maris and Dorcas, are so many and so estimable that in the faith that they 
 may be pleased to possess the wills of William and his brother Sir John, 
 they are printed here from the " New England Gen. Register, vol. xxxi., p. 
 297. Mr. Folger furnished full copies of these Wills, to be preserved in 
 the archives of the N. E. Historic Genealogical Society. 
 
 Will of William Gayer, Sr., Esq. 
 
 /, William Gayer, of the Island of Nantucket, being sick but of sound 
 mind and memory, make this my last will. Unto my son William Gayer, 
 one Share of land on the Island of Nantucket, with all the privileges 
 belonging (if my said son shall ever come hither again). To my dau. 
 Damaris Coffin, one eighth part of a share of land on the Island of Nan- 
 tucket, of that land I had of my Father-in-law, Edward Starbuck. I 
 give my daughter, Dorcas Starbuck, one Eighth part of a Share of [said] 
 land. My part of the Island of Muskeget to my two daughters, Damaris 
 Coffin and Dorcas Starbuck, Equally to be divided between them. To 
 my house-keeper, Patience Foot, one Cow and forty Sheep with Common- 
 age for them as also half of the barn and try house, with half the garden, 
 half the land and fence, about my dwelling house, half the lot and fence 
 towards Monomoy, the horse pasture Exepted, as also the West Chamber 
 and Garret, and half the lean to of my now dwelling house. I give to 
 Africa, a negro, once my servant, twenty Sheep and Commonage for them 
 and for one horse, as also the East Chamber of my now dwelling house, 
 and half the leanto, and the other half of my barn and try house with the 
 half of all the lands and fence about my house, and the half of the lot to- 
 wards Monomoy. I will that my dau., Damaris Coffin, have the use of 
 the rest of my Dwelling house, if she should come hither to live. My 
 two Daughters, Damaris Coffin and Dorcas Starbuck, Joynt Executrices 
 
 of this my last will and testament. 
 
 William Gayer. 
 
 Sept. 21, 1 7 ID. 
 
 In presence of 
 
 Richard Gardner, Eleazer Folger, Junr., Eunice Gardner, 
 Jabez Bunker, Judith Gardner. 
 
 Probated 24 day Oct. 17 10. 
 
 Eleazer Folger, Regr. James Coffin, 
 
 Judge of Probate.
 
 82 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Sir John Gayer's Will. 
 
 I John Gayer, of Bombay, Knight, in perfect health do make this my 
 last Will and Testament. My Body to be Interred at the Discretion of 
 my hereafter named Executrix, and if I die in India, in the tomb of my 
 former Wife. Debts discharged I give as followeth : Unto my Brother 
 William Gayer, of the Island of Nantucket, One Hundred Pounds Ster- 
 lino-. Unto his son, William Gayer, my nephew, now in the East Indies, 
 Eight Thousand Pounds Sterling. Unto the children of Eldest Sister Jane 
 Lee, Five Hundreds Pound Sterling, to be Equally devided amongst 
 them, and in case of any of their Mortality, before Marriage, their part to 
 the Survivor. Unto the children of my Sister, Joan Hooper, Seven Hun- 
 dred Pounds Sterling, to be Equally Divided amongst them, and in Case of 
 Either of their Mortality before Marriage their part to the Survivor. Un- 
 to the children of my Sister, Elizabeth Matthews, Two Hundred Pounds 
 Sterling, to be Equally Devided amongst them, etc. Unto my Niece 
 Elizabeth Gayer, Two Thousand Pounds Sterling to be kept in the hands 
 of my Execturix and Improved by her for her maintenance while she lives 
 a single life ; but if she Marry, at the Day of her Marriage, the Principal 
 and what is gained thereby, except so much as Defrays the Charge of her 
 Maintenance before, is all to be paid her, but in Case of her Decease be- 
 fore Marriage, then that sum of Two Thousand Pounds, with what is 
 Gained thereby I give to my Above Mentioned Nephew, William Gayer, to 
 be forthwith paid him, besides the sum of Eight Thousand Pounds before 
 Mentioned. Unto the children of Robert Harper, my Deceased wife's 
 Brother, Three Hundred Pounds Sterling, to be Equally devided amongst 
 them etc. Unto Joseph Harper, my Deceased wife's Brother, if he be 
 alive at the time of my Decease, One Hundred Pounds Sterling. Unto 
 the children of my Cousin, Mercy Throgmorton, Four Hundred Pounds 
 Sterling etc. Unto the children of my Cousin John Rither, deceased. 
 Two Thousand Pounds Sterling etc. Unto my cousin, James Car, 
 Two Hundred Pounds Sterling, in case he survives me. Unto my 
 Cousin, Elizabeth Thrip, Ten Pounds Sterling. Unto the children of 
 Sister-in-Law, Judith Battin, Two Hundred Pounds Sterling, to be Equally 
 devided Amongst them etc. Unto my Cousin, Lucy hole, fifty Pounds 
 Sterling. Unto my Cousin, Rachel Dale, if she be alive at the time of my 
 Decease, Ten Pounds Sterling. Unto my loving Friend, Mr. Thomas 
 Wooley, Secretary of the East India Company, Fifty Pounds Sterling. 
 Unto my loving Friend, Mr. Barnard Wiche, of Surrat, Fifty Pounds Ster-
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 83 
 
 ling. Unto Mr. Robert Luynfer, of Surrat, Fifty Pounds Sterling, if he be 
 alive at the time of my Decease. I Dedicate and Devote to God, for the 
 Service of his Church, Five Thousand Pounds Sterling, to be disposed of 
 by the persons hereafter mentioned, to yonng Students for the Ministry 
 and to such as are Newly Entered into the Sacred Office, to furnish them 
 v/ith What [may be] Needful to make them most useful in the discharge 
 of that great trust for which they are devoted to God ; and it's my Earnest 
 desire that those persons amongst whom this sum shall be distributed 
 may be men of Sober, Moderate principles, not inclined to Domination 
 nor to unnecessary Seperation, and to Express my mind more fully I 
 say unto men of such Principles as the late Reverend and truly Worthy 
 Mr. Richard Baxter was, in whom the Primitive Spirit of holiness, Love 
 and Moderation did brightly shine, from whose works I give God thanks 
 I have received great benefit. Now, the persons I most earnestly request 
 in Conjunction with my wife and Nephew William Gayer to undertake the 
 Distributing of I have so solemnly devoted, are the Right WorshipfuU 
 Henry Ashurst, Bant, and Mr. Thomas Wooley, before mentioned. I do 
 further request that they will all be assisting to my Beloved Wife in the 
 whole management of her affairs. 
 
 If my Estate amounts to less than what is in my present books, Ending 
 the last of July, 17 10, when it arrives in England, amounting what is in 
 Rupees at two shillings and six pence to a Rupee, then I order that Every 
 Legacy herein mentioned shall be so much less in proportion as the whole 
 of my Estate at the time of all its arrival in England falls Short of what it 
 is in Said books. The rest of my Estate, whether Money, Plate, Gold or 
 Silver, Jewels, Goods, Household Furniture, wearing Apparel, Books, 
 Debts, Lands, and whatsoever, both Real and Personal, I shall be pos- 
 sessed of at my decease, I give unto my wife, Dame Mary Gayer, whom I 
 make Sole Executrix of this, my last will and Testament. In witness 
 Whereof I have hereunto set my hand and Seal in Bombay Castle, 5th of 
 October, 1 7 10. John Gayer. 
 
 In presence of us, where no stampt paper is procurable, &c., &c., &c,, 
 William Aislabie, William Barnes, Abraham Barnot, Richard 
 WiLMER, John Hill. 
 
 A true copy from the original. 
 
 Witnesses, John Eaton Dodsworth, James Osborne, William 
 Gayer, Richard Bull.
 
 84 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Will of William Gayer, Junr. 
 
 9"" Nov., 1 712. 
 /, William Gayer, Gentleman of y' Parish of Beckenham in Kent, be- 
 ing sick, but of sound and disposing mind and memory, do make my last 
 will. Payment of all debts. To my elder sister, Damaris Coffin, one- 
 half part. To my younger sister, Dorcas Starbuck, y" other half of what 
 belongs to me in New England. To my two sisters aforesaid, two thou- 
 sand pounds sterling, that is, to each one thousand pounds. To my 
 aunt, Jane Lee, of Plymouth, Aunt Elizabeth Matthews, Mr. Epiphamius 
 Holland [each] ;^ioo. To Mr. George Musole, ^25. To Mrs. Martha 
 Deacon, Mrs. Abigail Fitch [each] ^100. Remainder of my estate to 
 my wife, Elizabeth Gayer, whom I 'appoint sole Executrix of this my last 
 \Y\\\. William Gayer. 
 
 In y* presence of ' • ^ 
 
 Susanna Holland, William Norman, Andrew Stoddart.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 85 
 
 XIX. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 William Gayer, Esq., came to this country from Devonshire, Eng- 
 land.* He married Dorcas Starbuck, daughter of Elder Edward Starbuck, 
 by his wife, Katherine Reynolds, of Wales. He was an early settler of 
 Nantucket ; probably had been a ship-carpenter ; was a farmer and a Jus- 
 tice of the Peace. I find by the records in the office of our Secretary of 
 State, that Captain John Gardner and Mr. William Gayer were representa- 
 tives to the General Court from Nantucket on the 8th of June, 1692, being 
 the first representatives from that island after its transfer from the Colony 
 of New York to the Province of Massachusetts Bay. William Gayer, 
 Esq., was one of five judges appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts, 
 in 1704, to try an Indian of Nantucket, named Sabo, for the crime of 
 murder. 
 
 He lived in a double house, one and a half stories in height, on Church 
 Street, in Nantucket, occupied long since my first remembrance by descend- 
 ants of his daughter, Damaris Cofiin. This house for a long time was con- 
 sidered the oldest on the island, and I think was built in 1682, of solid oak 
 timber, the growth of the island, and strengthened with oak knees, like a 
 ship, and very firmly. It passed into the hands of strangers about 1839 ^^ 
 1840, and was taken down to give place to a modern dwelling-house. A 
 bureau with a sort of book-case or cupboard on top — which was made in 
 Oliver Cromwell's time, and brought over by William Gayer, probably in 
 Charles the Second's reign, belonged to my grandmother, a great-grand- 
 daughter of William Gayer, Esq. It was made in part of English oak, col- 
 ored a dark red, and ornamented with turned pieces of maple, painted 
 black and nailed on ; and the top part, or cupboard, was in part supported 
 by two maple urns, or short pillars, painted black. It was altogether an 
 unique but useful piece of furniture. After the death of both of my grand- 
 parents, it was placed in the cabinet of curiosities of the Nantucket Athe- 
 neum, but was burned up in the great fire of 1846, when that building, with 
 
 * N. £. Gen. and Hist Register, vol. xxxi., page 297.
 
 86 THE LIFE OF 
 
 its fine collections of books, South Sea shells, war weapons, etc., was de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 The following letter is from Jane Gayer, mother of William Gayer, Sr., 
 from Plymouth, England, to her son, William Gayer, at Nantucket : 
 
 " Son, my dearest love to you and your wife, and to my grandchildren, 
 hoping that these few lines will find you in good health, as through mercy I 
 enjoy at this present writing. I have sent you two letters by Mr. Blag, of 
 New York, and I have sent several letters by other means, but I never re- 
 ceived none from you since the i" of October, 1692, bearing this date. 
 Dear son, I should request you that I might hear from you. Your brother 
 Sir John sailed from the downs the last of May, was a 12 month gone, and 
 all his family with him. A month after he went away he put in for the 
 Madeira. I received a letter from him out of the Madeira's, since I have 
 not heard from him, for there has not a ship come home from that place 
 since. I did not know whether there was a New England man here or no 
 before your uncle's land come to me to know how to direct a letter to you 
 and that is concerning Cousin Jane Bray's business. I shall be like a fool to 
 double my request to you that I might hear from you, and that I might 
 know how lo direct my letters to you, for I do fear that they do not come 
 to your hand. Your brother Hooper and his wife, and your sister Marcy, 
 desired to be remembered to you and yours. Your uncles and aunt 
 doth the same ; my kind respects to Cousin Jane Bray and her family ; not 
 else at present but my prayers constantly to the Lord for you, & remain 
 your loving mother, . Jane Gayer. 
 
 From Plymouth, this ii June, 1694. 
 
 These for Mr. William Gayer. 
 
 Living on the Island of Nantucket, New England. 
 
 Note. — I heard during the present month, February, 1877, from a 
 lady, a descendant of William Gayer, Esq., that when her mother was 
 very young, some seventy years ago probably, news came to Nantucket 
 that a very large property in England had been left for descendants of the 
 Gayer family. Thomas Starbuck of Nantucket was desirous his son Jo- 
 seph, a very smart business man, should go to England to investigate the 
 matter ; but he felt he could not spare the time it would require, so he, 
 with his older brothers, Simeon and Levi, sent over an agent to Great Brit- 
 ain, who returned and reported he had not carried out sufficient documents 
 and there the case ended, as far as Nantucket interest was concerned. 
 
 William C. Folger, '
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 8/ 
 
 {William Gayer, Sen., to his daughter Datnaris Coffin, wife of Capt. 
 
 Nathaniel Coffin.) ■ 
 
 Daughter Damaris, 
 
 These may serve to inform you we are all well. When I wrote you your 
 mother Coffin was designed to Boston by Land. I find I was mistaken. 
 She tells me since her intent was only to the main. Christian is now at 
 her grand ffather Coffins. Mr. Folger came home from Boston yesterday 
 and informs me that John Sowters brother came from England lately, and 
 says he spoke with your brother William G. in the East Indies Eighteen 
 months since. If you have a convenient opportunity I wish you would 
 speak with him and inquire what you can about William. I hope you will 
 let me hear from you as often as you have opportunity for I take great 
 Delight to hear of your welfare so with my love to yourself and Children 
 with all other friends I remain your father 
 
 William Gayer nantucket Septr : 9 : 1 709. 
 
 Mr Nathaniel Coffin | in [ Charls Towne. 
 
 In a letter from Thomas and James Hooper to William Gayer, Nan- 
 tucket, dated " Stone house, near Plymouth, the 15th of February, 1699-70," 
 they say, " Mother desires to be remembered unto all." His wife had been 
 sick about six months. They had heard by his son William from their brother 
 William, of Nantucket, nothing else important. 
 
 {Mrs. Damaris Coffin, wife of Captain Nathaniel Coffin and daughter of 
 William Gayer, Esq., of Nantucket, to her uncle, Sir John Gayer, then 
 in the East Indies.) 
 
 Boston, N. E. loth Jan y" 1711-12. 
 Most Hon° Uncle 
 
 Inclosed is a copy of what my husband wrote you in his last, advising 
 you of the death of my hon'^ father y"' brother William Gayer & of the Dis- 
 position we had made of our son William &c to which refer you. 
 
 I have now before me the hon' of your kind letter of the 5*^ Jan'ry 
 1709-10. Directed to my deceased father. 
 
 The Good Character and Hopeful State of my brotlier with you is very 
 reviving and the more Comfortable seeing you Express an Inclination to 
 send him for Brittain, and in hopes you will soon follow him yourself. For
 
 88 THE LIFE OF 
 
 which Blessing I daily Elevate my Prayers to my God, That he would 
 Bless prosper and protect you both and send you to the height of your 
 desires therein in health and safety. 
 
 My son goes on hopefully with his book. I am in hopes that God will 
 bless you and send you Safe to yo' native Country, and will prepare my 
 boy to wait on you to your content and Satisfaction, whenever you please 
 to put your Commands on him So to do. My Good Husband hath met 
 with hard Fortune in his last voyage from Lisboa being taken and Carried 
 into France, where he hath been a Prisoner a long time and was not re- 
 leased in last but was in hopes to procure his Liberty in a short time 
 and go for London from whence probably you may hear from him. He has 
 been from home now for months and when he will be set free which is un- 
 certain. God direct him and us for the best. I must conclude with my 
 Duty to you & my true respects to my brother if with you & am most sin- 
 cerely Hon'^ Uncle 
 
 Your most afifec " 
 
 Niece. 
 
 {Sir Isaac Coffin to Jona Atnory of Boston.) 
 
 Charleston, 12th May, 181 7. 
 My Dear Cousin : 
 
 Letters from England, received yesterday, oblige me to leave this coun- 
 try much sooner than was expected, for 1 fully intended at least to pass 
 a week with you, prior to my departure. Inclose to you the Secret of 
 the accumulation in the American Funds and beg your kind attention as 
 far as is convenient to my Magdalen Island concerns. 
 
 The inclosed for Messrs. T. Belcher and Wright will explain to you 
 what my intentions are, and the remittances you may expect from that 
 Quarter. 
 
 It will be necessary you should by some careful person remit the cer- 
 tificates of the stocks to me under cover to Messrs. Thos. Wm. Earles 
 Co., Liverpool, taking the proper precaution by notarial copies or other- 
 wise as you may judge best, and you may continue to draw on Messr. Thos. 
 Coutts & Co., Strand, London, until the interest in the 7 and 6 yrs. Cents, 
 amounts to three hundred sterling, adding to it any remittance you may 
 receive from Messrs. Belcher and Wright, and the interests of the Stock 
 already invested as it becomes payable, until further order. 
 
 The loth of January and loth of July, one hundred and twenty-five 
 pounds, are at each period, paid into my bankers' hands. The loth of
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 89 
 
 April and loth of October, two hundred and fourteen pounds are received 
 by them. Manage the time of drawing for these sums periodically, and that 
 the bills may be presented with regularity. The half pay in advance quar- 
 terly, may be drawn by you, as it becomes due. 
 
 Bill the ist of July, ^167 ; October ist, ^167 ; ist January, ^,^167 ; 
 ist April, ;^i67. I will on my arrival in England, immediately prepare my 
 banker for this arrangement ; and now for the Secret, it is for a Charitable 
 Institution, so as you are known to be one of the best of men, help me as 
 well as you can. Thanks for your offer of credit, I shall have no occasion 
 at present for it. 
 
 Most truly do I lament this unforseen event has deprived me of the 
 pleasure of seeing you, your family, and my friends. 
 
 Remember me kindly to them all, my aunt and Dr. Dexter. 
 
 By some kind master forward my baggage to Liverpool, that is in your 
 custody and believe me 
 
 Ever Affectionately yours, Isaac Coffin. 
 
 {^To Commodore Hull). 
 
 London, 5 May, 18 19. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 Long, very long, have I been expecting the huge Lobster you were so 
 kind as to promise me. '* Better late than never." I send you a simple 
 contrivance for to examine the when you have as 
 
 many line of Battle Ships as we have its application may be useful. 
 
 A Petition against my return to Parliament was presented to the House, 
 and, in the event of my being thrown out, it was my intention to take a 
 trip again across the Ocean and visit my friends at Boston ; but, by a 
 Resolution of the Committee, I am reseated, my Opponent having 
 
 I must, therefore, now defer my voyage to some more favoiable op- 
 portunity. In any way that I can be useful to you here, I pray command 
 me. Offer my best wishes to your spouse and all friends. 
 
 Believing me very truly yours, 
 
 Isaac Coffin. 
 
 P. S. When you have the goodness to write me, send the letter via 
 Liverpool, the lobster to the care of Col. Aspinwall. Address to the care 
 of Messrs. Tho. and Wm. Early & Co., Liverpool. 
 
 Admiral Coffin.
 
 go THE LIFE OF 
 
 London, 3rd June, 18 18. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 In looking over some old charts, I found one of Boston Harbour which, 
 though of an ancient date, may still be correct. It shows the state of the 
 Town, when the troops of Great Britain were shut up in it, and most of 
 the surrounding Forts, Dorchester excepted, 
 
 I beg your acceptance of it, and when placed in your office it will 
 serve to remind you of one who holds you in high estimation. 
 
 Offer to your spouse and her lovely sister my best wishes, and believe 
 me always, yours very truly, 
 
 Isaac Coffin. 
 
 Capt. Hull, 
 
 London, i6th April, 18 19. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 My reputation will sink to the lowest ebb, unless your efforts are 
 crowned with success relating to the Lobster. Should you fail to cross the 
 Ocean again, I long to try my luck by travelling in the Bay between Cape 
 Cod and Cape Ann. I lament the situation I hold prevents me paying 
 you a visit this Spring, as my Spirits were never better, and the Gout not 
 within hail. 
 
 Remember me kindly to your spouse and all my relations. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 Isaac Coffin. 
 Captain Hull, Boston. 
 
 London, May 20th, 18 19, 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 Allow me to offer for your acceptance the Telegraph, 
 With my new occupation little time is left me to look into a Signal 
 Book. Besides, there is little chance of ever being employed again, and 
 certainly none in fighting against that country that gave me birth. If at 
 your leisure moments you can pick out anything that may be useful or 
 ornamental, I shall be gratified. 
 
 Should one of those huge lobsters be forthcoming, remember that you 
 do not forget me. In looking over some papers the other day, I found
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 91 
 
 some charts of old Massachusetts, which may one of these days find their 
 way to you. 
 
 Kind remembrances to all friends. 
 
 Always Yours Truly, 
 
 Captain I. Hull. 
 
 Isaac Coffin. 
 
 London, 13th July, 18 19. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 The lobster you committed to the care of Captain Tracy arrived in 
 good condition. It is considered a marvellous one here. Still, my friend, 
 Sir Joseph Banks, longs for one of ninety pounds, which your letter speaks 
 of, so that you must be on the lookout still for me ; and should you be 
 successful in procuring another of uncommon size, you must have the 
 goodness to forward it, taking care first to boil it in strong pickle or brine ; 
 then it wiU become dry in the interior very soon, and bear being moved 
 about with greater facility. I have been offered by some showmen a 
 large sum, but I decline parting with him, intending it for a Lady's 
 Museum. A Hodge-Podge, as you will perceive in the Signal line, was 
 months since deposited with Col. Aspinvvall ; but no opportunity has 
 offered of sending it before Captain Tracy's arrival. I am too old to pry 
 into modern curiosities, never meaning to serve again against friend or foe, 
 but do as much good as I can for the rising generation, who may, when I 
 am under ground, fight it out in any way most convenient to the parties. 
 I have this winter fired a shot now and then, avoiding close action, as 
 I soon observed, like our Dr. Sewell's Meeting-House in Summer, many 
 members fast asleep during long and tedious harangues, in the House of 
 Commons. I thought at first the sound of my own voice would have 
 alarmed me before such an audience. Having had occasion often to ad- 
 dress my ship's company gave a facility at first setting off, so that when 
 blowing hard I did not broach to or get becalmed while delivering my 
 sentiments to the House. Nothing will give me more pleasure than once 
 more meeting my old friends at Boston, a town I shall ever regard as long 
 as my heart is left to beat. 
 
 Kind remembrances to your spouse, Nat Amory, and all the other 
 worthies. Believe me always 
 
 Very Faithfully Yours, 
 
 Isaac Coffin. 
 Capt. I. Hull.
 
 92 THE LIFE OF 
 
 London, 26 Jan., 18 19. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 There is an old sea song I used to sing when creeping in Boston Bay 
 during the Revolutionary War, in the months of January and February, 
 " What cannot be cured must be endured." 
 
 Many thanks for kind exertions. Send the Lobster when you can. 
 My reputation will be saved, though my money is gone ; consign it to the 
 care of your Consul to whom I have written on the subject, and remember 
 in return if you do not command my services in a way that I can be useful 
 to you it will be your own fault. Any intelligence you can afford me will 
 be most interesting, especially on nautical or agricultural subjects. I have 
 taken my seat in the House of Commons, and may one of these days be 
 instigated to speak, but at present play the part of " Orator Mum." 
 Remember me kindly to your spouse, Nat Amory, and all friends in 
 Boston, believing me always, my dear Captain, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Isaac Coffin. 
 
 Captain Isaac Hull, Naval Commissioner, Boston. 
 
 {^To General Dearborn.) 
 
 Leinington Spa, 23d July, 1827. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 Please to accept my thanks for your kind recollection of my wishes. 
 The Terrapin you had the goodness to send me is in the safe custody of my 
 friend William Earle at Liverpool. As many more as you can pick up in 
 your garden, except the small speckled ones and snappers, will be accept- 
 able. The latter are such determined deserters that no bounty or kind 
 treatment will keep them loyal. In early life I have seen a large sort with 
 a rough bark resembling those brought by your whalers from the Gallipagos 
 Islands. I beg you to present my kind regards to all my Boston friends. 
 Sink or swim I never can forget the place of my nativity or cease to wish 
 prosperity to it. 
 
 Ever my dear Sir truly yours, 
 
 Isaac Coffin. 
 General Dearborn.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 93 
 
 {^General John Coffin, to Stephen De Blois, of Boston.) 
 
 St. John's, N. B., Feb. 10, 1830. 
 My Dear Stephen : 
 
 You are now from various unforeseen and melancholy changes that have 
 taken place in your circle of very dear friends, left as almost the sole sur- 
 vivor. Time and chance sets all adrift. I truly condole with you and 
 them in the loss of so many excellent and worthy characters. Boston will 
 never be to me what it has been — not that my affections has in any degree 
 abated for those remaining. Such however being the will of Providence, 
 we must submit with becoming patience and fortitude, looking forward to 
 the time when it will be our turn to follow. I am passing the winter in 
 this frozen region, and what with good friends and good cheer, I am, 
 thank Providence, enabled to carry a weather helm, and maintain a toler- 
 able share of health. I hope this may find you and Mrs. Deblois and 
 family enjoying health and comfort, and that all my friends and relations 
 are doing the same. I hardly dare ask for our old and respectable friends, 
 Dr. and Mrs. Dexter ; to them and my friend Tom and wife with their 
 branches, remember me in the kindest terms ; also to Mr. and Mrs. Davis, 
 Mrs. Smith, and good little Maynard. 
 
 Does Mrs. T. C. Amory continue to be your neighbor ? To her and 
 charming family, with Mrs. Jona and their family, my kind love and affec- 
 tions. 
 
 There is also Mr. John Amory, the worthy Doctors of Old Trinity, 
 Gardiner Greene, with many others that I love in my heart, and it gives 
 me pleasure to name them, and let them know that I do not forget them, 
 and the comfort and gratification I have enjoyed in a long and early ac- 
 quaintance and friendship. I am fond of this plain old fashioned way of 
 keeping alive those cheering recollections of the past happy days, and the 
 absent. I am with them as far as the most kindly feelings towards them 
 can be allowed to exist. Have you any late accounts from our worthy 
 cousin Nat and wife, Capt. and Mrs. Derby, friends and associates rare to 
 be met with in this or any other hemisphere. Are they allowed to hold 
 their appointments under your new President, whose vacillating conduct 
 has, I understand, changed the position of many in politics. I never 
 meddle with but I must say this much, I do not envy your constitution and 
 government. 
 
 Aside and between ourselves, what has induced Sir Isaac to desert the 
 country that has conferred on him the rank and consequence he now en-
 
 94 THE LIFE OF 
 
 • 
 
 joys ? Were the American people any way behind those of Great Britain 
 in nautical tactics, he might gain some applause. But I am sure every 
 well thinking man with you must condemn him for deserting the country 
 that has conferred on him even more than he had any right to expect or 
 look for. I am afraid his fair fame and character will be much clouded 
 on the other side of the water from which he will never recover. I should 
 not be surprised to hear his Majesty had struck his name out of the list of 
 Admirals. The injury will unfortunately extend to every branch of his 
 family connected with the service in which we are all engaged. I cannot 
 but say I am deeply wounded at this not to say more inconsiderate con- 
 duct. He must have taken leave of his senses. It is, however, too painful 
 a subject to dwell on, and I shall conclude my dear cousin, with the kind- 
 est regards to all the De Blois, and remain your very attached, 
 
 John Coffin, 
 
 June, 1719. 
 Dear Coz : 
 
 Yours I received, with the half crown, and am sorry you should have 
 troubled yourself about so small a matter ; that or any command should 
 have been observed without such punctualities. I ask a thousand pardons 
 for my long silence ; my lady Duchess having been for some time indis- 
 posed that I could not gain this opportunity sooner. I have taken the 
 following accompts, from the worthies of Devonshire, out of our office ; 
 and, for those of Hants, they shew the exact arms of the seal of my 
 formers, which was my father's, given by him to one Mr. James Coffin, of 
 Christ Church, Hants, in whose possession it is. I observe those of Hants 
 spell with the letter (y), those of Devonshire, as you see. My shortness of 
 time will not allow of any regard to stops, and scarcely orthography, so 
 beg your excuse for all faults, as well as a line just to satisfy me of your 
 receipt of this. This day, se'nnight, or to-morrow, his Grace intends for 
 Nottingham, Lancashire, and York ; so that if you have any commands 
 to communicate, I shall be proud to bear them ; and am with all respect 
 (my mother and sister's services attending you). 
 
 Madam, Your most humble servant, 
 
 Richard Coffyn. 
 
 For Mrs. Mary Coffin, at Ramsdon Heath, in Essex. 
 
 [arms.] Flor., A.D. 1533. 
 
 R. R. Hen. 8.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 95 
 
 These letters afford some partial glimpse of the writers, and the times 
 in which they lived. They are presented in connection with the memoirs of 
 Sir Isaac, that his kinsfolk or collectors of autographs who possess any letters 
 of his own, or which may shed light on his career, may be disposed to send 
 the originals or copies to some central and accessible repository, where 
 they can be kept together for the benefit of other generations. The fire- 
 proof vaults of the New England Genealogical and Historical Society, 18 
 Somerset Street, in Boston, where he was born, are suggested as a fitting 
 Place.
 
 g6 THE LIFE OF 
 
 XX. 
 
 THE COFFIN SCHOOLS. 
 
 The letter to his cousin, p. 88, shows that Sir Isaac had determined to es- 
 tabhsh in Massachusetts a system of nautical schools — one for Boston, one 
 for Newburyport, and another later at Nantucket. Having had occasion to 
 learn, when in our city council and on our school board, how very general 
 an impression then existed of the importance of thus building up our com- 
 mercial marine, it seemed due to the memory of Sir Isaac to comprise in 
 this memoir the sketch of what he intended his schools should be. Mr. 
 Folger, who possesses what seems a copy of the original draught of a will 
 of his, in which he had himself set forth his plan, permits me to use it. 
 The admiral, from his own experience as a midshipman and forty years in 
 service, more or less active in the navy, had an experience which gives 
 value to his ideas of nautical education. 
 
 The Clio was bought, equipped, and used some years, and no doubt edu- 
 cated many excellent seamen. His kinsman, Hector, of the Newburyport 
 branch of the Coffins, was in many ways well fitted to take charge. It 
 will be seen that ten years after the inception of the plan, the Clio was still 
 employed in the task. It involved more cost than was contemplated, and 
 was given up about the time Sir Isaac founded the Coffin school at Nan- 
 tucket, which, with means largely accumulated, is in a full career of useful- 
 ness, though somewhat modified in its methods and scope from what the 
 founder contemplated. 
 
 The plan for the nautical schools is thus set forth in the will, revoked, 
 if it still existed, when he made his last will the year that he died. 
 
 This is the Last Will and Testament of me, Sir Isaac Coffin, 
 Baronet, an Admiral in the service of his Majesty George the Fourth, 
 King of the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Ireland. 
 
 I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses, and the costs and charges 
 of proving this my will, to be paid. And holding in grateful remembrance 
 the manifold blessings I have derived from the principles instilled into me 
 while at Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, the place of my nativity, 
 and feeling that the success I have experienced in this life is mainly to be
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 97 
 
 attributed to the excellent education I received at that place, and wishing ' 
 that none of my relations, being lineal descendants of Tristram Coffin, who 
 settled in the township of Salsbury, near Newbury Port, in the said State of 
 Massachusetts, in or about the year one thousand six hundred and forty- 
 two, and of Peter Coffin, his brother,* and bearing or taking the name of 
 Coffin, may ever want the means of obtaining those advantages so bounti- 
 fully bestowed on me, I give and bequeath all the personal property of 
 which I may be possessed, or to which I may be entitled at my death, in 
 possession, revision, or expectantly, to my executors hereinafter named, in 
 trust, to transfer the same to seven trustees, to be appointed as hereinafter 
 provided, for the establishment of three schools for naval education, one at 
 said Boston, one at Nantucket, in the State of Massachusetts, and one at 
 said Newbury Port. And for the purpose of maintaining and perpetuating 
 such establishments according to this, my last will, I do appoint five vis- 
 itors or overseers of the said trust ; that is to say : whoever shall be, for the 
 time being, successively the governor of the said State of Massachusetts, 
 the president of Harvard University at Cambridge in the said State, and 
 the Mayor of the said city of Boston, with two others to be chosen by the 
 said three ; and the said visitors shall have the power to fill all vacancies 
 that shall occur in their own body, whether by death or resignation of any 
 visitor that may be chosen as aforesaid, or from the discontmuance or 
 other change of either of the said three officers. 
 
 Item : I do authorise and request the said visitors, as soon as may be 
 after my decease, to nominate and appoint seven discreet and faithful per- 
 sons to be Trustees for the establishment of the said three schools ; and if 
 they shall not make such appointment within one year after this my will 
 shall have been duely proved and allowed, then I authorise and request 
 my Executors to appoint the said seven Trustees, and the said Trustees, 
 when appointed in either of the modes above mentioned, shall forever 
 thereafter fill all vacancies in their own body, their election in each case 
 to be submitted without delay to the said visitors for their approbation, 
 and to be void if disaproved by the visitors ; and if the Trustees shall refuse 
 or neglect to fill any such vacancy for the space of three months after the 
 same shall occur, and for the same length of time after being notified of 
 the vacancy by the visitors and being requested by them to proceed to a 
 choice, then the said visitors are authorised and requested forthwith to fill 
 such vacancy by the appointment of a Trustee. And I do further author- 
 ise the said visitors, from time to time, to remove any of the said Trustees 
 
 * His son.
 
 98 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 who shall in the opinion of the visitors become incapable or unfit by 
 reason of age, infirmity, or any other cause to discharge the duties of his 
 
 office. 
 
 Item : I do order and request my Executors hereinafter named, as soon 
 as may be after my decease, to pay over, deliver, assign, and transfer to 
 the said Trustees all my said personal estate herein above bequeathed to 
 the said Trustees, to be held by them upon the trusts and for the purposes 
 following ; that is to say : all that part of my said estate which may at the 
 time of my decease be invested in the British funds to be kept to accumu- 
 late by investing the interest from the time in the like stock, and adding 
 it to the principal, for sixty years after my decease, if the rules of law or 
 equity will allow it ; otherwise, for any less time than sixty years that shall 
 be allowable ; and if from any cause it should become impracticable or 
 greatly disadvantageous to the said establishment to keep the last-men- 
 tioned part of my estate invested as aforesaid in the British funds, then 
 I authorise the said Trustees, with the consent and approbation of the said 
 visitors, to withdraw the whole of said monies from the British funds, and 
 invest the same in other stocks or funds, or in real estate, or put the same 
 out at interest to be accumulated as aforesaid, as they shall think best for 
 the establishment ; and in either case, when the said fund shall cease to 
 be accumulated as aforesaid, whether by force of the above-written limita- 
 tion or of the rules of law, it shall be appropriated, together with the other 
 property herein bequeathed to the said Trustees, to the maintenance of the 
 said schools, as hereinafter provided ; and as to the residue of my said 
 estate, bequeathed as aforesaid (as also the part thereof last above men- 
 tioned, when the said trust for accumulation shall cease), the said Trustees 
 shall from time to time invest the same in any stocks or funds, or in real 
 estate, or put the same out at interest, as shall be warranted and allowed 
 by law, and shall appear to be secure and most for the advantage of the 
 said establishment ; and if it shall hereafter appear to the said Visitors and 
 Trustees that the property herein given to the said Trustees can be better 
 managed and secured, and the purposes of this my will be better attained, 
 by an incorporation of the said Trustees and Visitors, or either of them, I 
 do hereby, so far as in me lies, assent to such incorporation, and do request 
 that the same may be granted accordingly by the competent authority of 
 the said State of Massachusetts on the application of the said Visitors and 
 Trustees. And the said Trustees shall have the care and immediate over- 
 sio-ht of the said schools, and may make all necessary and proper rules and 
 ret^ulations for the discipline and instruction and the general government 
 thereof, provided they be not inconsistent with the regulations in that be-
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 99 
 
 half contained in this my will, and all such rules and regulations shall be 
 in full force and operation until repealed by the said Visitors. 
 
 Item : I will and direct that each of such schools shall be on the follow- 
 ing plan and Foundation, viz.: Each to be called "Sir Isaac Coffin's School." 
 One of such schools, being the school to be first established, to be at Bos- 
 ton, in such a situation that the scholars may be near the water-side and 
 have ready access to the Harbour, The school to consist of twenty-four 
 scholars; twelve of them, if so many may be found, are to be the male de- 
 scendants, deriving their descent through males of the said Tristram Coffin, 
 and of said Peter Coffin, respectively, or one of them, and to bear, or before 
 entrance into the school, to take and assume the name of Coffin, If male 
 relations, deriving their pedigree through males, should not be found, then 
 descendants by the female line may be chosen, and they to assume and 
 bear and write the name of Coffin before they enter into the school. And 
 I direct that such twelve scholars of each school shall be fed, clothed, and 
 lodged out of the income of the funds of the establishment. And I direct 
 that three masters be appointed for each school, viz. : a Master of a Ship, 
 a Mathematical Master, and a Drawing Master, each to be of good Morals 
 and reputation and well qualified for his department. Such three persons 
 will, in my humble judgment, be sufficient to prepare the boys for the pro- 
 fession they are designed to follow. And I direct that the remaining 
 twelve boys of the school at Boston shall be selected from the sons of hon- 
 est and industrious inhabitants of Boston who may be desirous of breeding 
 up their sons for a nautical life. And it is further my will that the sons of 
 the poorest citizens shall be preferred, and that no boy shall be eligible 
 who shall have any bodily deformity, or who shall not be of a sound con- 
 stitution, or who shall not have had the small-pox, or have been vaccinated. 
 It is further my will that no boy shall be admitted until he shall have at- 
 tained the age of fourteen years, and that each boy should be able to read, 
 and also to write a legible hand, and have a competant knowledge of Arith- 
 metic, and be of Christian persuasion, and if a classical scholar, he is on 
 that account to be entitled caeteris paribus to preference. Each boy shall 
 leave the school at the age of eighteen. And I direct that the Ship Master, 
 Mathematical Master, and Drawing Master should respectively be native 
 citizens of Massachusetts. 
 
 Item .-As my said property may not be sufficient to found the three 
 schools to commence at the same time, I direct the school at Boston to be 
 first established, and as the funds accumulate, to form the second of such 
 establishments at Newbury Port. And, as future funds accumulate, to 
 form the third and last of such establishments at Nantucket. And I direct
 
 100 THE LIFE OF 
 
 that each of such schools shall be conducted on similar plans, and each 
 school to be limited to the number of twenty-four boys, and all the boys 
 beyond the twelve of the Coffin family to be chosen by the Trustees out 
 of the respective Towns in which such schools are to be established ; and 
 on failure of that number, then to be selected from any other part of the 
 State of Massachusetts. But this shall not prevent the Trustees from ad- 
 mitting'- additional scholars on payment of such sums for their tuition as 
 the Trustees shall prescribe, when it can be done without injury to the 
 establishment. And, whereas the branches of the family of the said Tristram 
 Coffin and Peter Coffin are spread over the Continent of North America 
 and Europe, and are my relations, I direct that any of them, and of what- 
 ever country they may be natives, shall forever be eligible to be placed 
 in each of the said schools, the number of twelve such relations being 
 always entitled to the preference to be scholars on each of such founda- 
 tions when of a proper age, and if such relations can be traced ; and the 
 said Trustees shall have the exclusive right and power of certifying the 
 fact of descent and right of eligibility. And I direct that for the admission 
 of each boy, an application shall be made to the said Trustees three calen- 
 dar months before he can be admitted upon any vacancy ; and that the 
 day of admission shall be the sixteenth of May in every year (being the 
 anniversary of my birthday). And I direct that no candidate shall be 
 admitted unless a physician and surgeon, to be appointed by the said Trus- 
 tee? shall certify to them, after due examination, that such candidate is, 
 as to bodily health, fit for the life of a Sailor. And I direct that, as between 
 different applicants for admission, the said Trustees, or the major part of them, 
 shall have the selection and choice, and that proximity of blood among per- 
 sons of the sirname, or being descendants from the said Tristram Coffin and 
 Peter Coffin, respectively, shall not confer any right of preference. And 
 I direct that, adjacent to each school, a house should, if it be deemed 
 expedient, be obtained by purchase or hiring on lease, and furnished for 
 the residence of the Ship-Master of each school. And I direct that the 
 Ship-Master for each School shall have the direction, care, and superinten- 
 dence of the said boys on that foundation to which he shall be attached, 
 and of their board and lodging, and his board and lodging gratis in the 
 same house. And I direct that his accounts of expenditure for board 
 and lodging shall be submitted to the annual inspection of the Trustees ; 
 and that the Trustees (should there be occasion) may, with the assent 
 of the Visitors, remove any of the said Masters for misconduct or want 
 of qualification. 
 
 Item : For promoting the welfare of the said establishment, I direct
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. lOI 
 
 that for each of the said schools a sloop of fifty tons, coppered and copper 
 fastened, shall be built or provided at the expense of the establishment, 
 combining strength, convenience, fast sailing, and durability, and furnished 
 with bed-places and all requisite conveniences for the scholars ; and that the 
 scholars of the Boston foundation shall be exercised in cruising in Massa- 
 chusetts Bay and the neighboring coast, from the tenth day of May to the 
 tenth day of September in each year, by which means they will become 
 excellent pilots ; and they are to be put into and survey all the harbors from 
 Passamaquoddy to Nantucket, and to trawl and drudge on every part of 
 the coast, and on all occasions, to try to discover the treasures of the deep ; 
 and to keep an accurate journal of their proceedings, and use their fishing- 
 lines, of every kind, when opportunity may oiifer ; and, by keeping the body 
 and mind inconstant activity, they will prepare themselves for the arduous 
 career incident to the life of a seaman ; and they are not to lose any op- 
 portunity of making astronomical and nautical observations. The sloop 
 to be caulked and kept in repair and sails, rigging, and hull, by the personal 
 labor of the masters and scholars, and to be called '* The Seaman's Hope," 
 carrying a white flag with a pine-tree in the centre. And I direct that the 
 boys, in the two first classes of each establishment, shall be exercised two 
 years in the sloop of such establishment prior to leaving school. And I 
 direct that the sloop belonging to the Newbury Port School shall cruise 
 from Cape Cod, round Boston Bay to Passamaquoddy, and that the sloop 
 belonging to the Nantucket School shall cruise from Cape Cod one way, 
 to New York the other way, trawling and drudging assiduously as the 
 ground will admit, since I conceive many oyster-beds may be dis- 
 covered in Long Island Sound, and between Montauck Point and Sandy 
 Hook. And it is my further direction that the boys of each school shall, 
 from their entry to their departure, wear a blue jacket and trousers of good 
 cloth of the second or third quality, with blue knit stockings of worsted in 
 winter, and cotton in summer, and shall have an anchor on the right arm, 
 of red cloth, by which they may always be known and distinguisljed. And 
 as the vessel may go into the Bay in severe weather, I direct that a com- 
 petent number of greatcoats be provided, lined with baize made up of No. 
 4 canvas and painted, and also foraging leather caps to cover their heads, 
 and with a small anchor in front of each cap. Also, that the boat be 
 provided and hoisted up at any wharf in the vicinity of each school at 
 which permission may be obtained, and i^owing twelve oars double-banked, 
 and having cork apparatus sufficient to float her when overset ; and in that 
 boat the two junior classes of each school shall be exercised from the tenth 
 day of May to the tenth day of September in each year, thus combining
 
 102 THE LIFE OF 
 
 exertion with pleasure. And I direct that each of the scholars shall learn 
 to swim, and each acquire a knowledge of the following trades or callings — 
 that is to say : Ship-building, caulking, rope-making, block-making, mast- 
 making, boat-building, coopering, house-carpenter's and joiner's work, 
 baking, blacksmith's work, cutting and making clothes, knitting, making 
 nets of all kinds, mixing paints and painting, the art of cooking in all its 
 branches, the art of slaughtering animals with due economy, also of pre- 
 serving meat by pickling, salting, or smoking, I also direct that muskets 
 be provided and kept up, to belong to each school, that the boys of the 
 first class may be exercised by the Ship-Master, at such time as he may 
 think most convenient, in firing at a mark, and such guns always to be 
 cleaned and put by by the scholars of the said class. And I direct that 
 the scholars be taught the use of the backsword, the art of gunnery, and fire- 
 lock exercise, and be at liberty to amuse themselves at proper times with 
 athletic games, such as cricket, foot-ball, wrestling, at the discretion of the 
 Ship-Master and Mathematical Master, one of whom is always to be in at- 
 tendance on the scholars as their charge. And I will and direct that each 
 boy shall be at his studies at five o'clock in the morning in the summer, 
 and at six o'clock in the morning in the winter. The scholars to be at 
 breakfast at seven o'clock in the summer, and at eight o'clock in the 
 winter ; and winter is to be reckoned to commence from the first day of 
 November and to end on the thirtieth day of April. The boys to dine at 
 one o'clock in the summer, and to be allowed one hour and a half for the 
 interval between school ; to dine in winter at one o'clock, and to be 
 allowed one hour between school, and to have two half-holidays in each 
 week, commencing from one o'clock ; the boys on the foundation who 
 shall not have any relations in town, to be regulated as to their absence by 
 the Ship-Master ; and all the boys to sup in winter and summer at eight 
 o'clock and be in bed by nine. Their food to consist of rice, Indian meal, 
 and bread, with milk and molasses or sugar, for breakfast ; mutton, beef, 
 pork, and fish, with potatoes and other vegetables and soups, according to 
 the judgment of the Ship-Master, for dinner, and in such proportions as may 
 be equal to the several wants of the boys, avoiding waste and profusion. 
 The boys to have for supper the same kind of food as for breakfast. 
 
 Item : I will and direct that the said Trustees shall visit and examine 
 the said school in Boston at least four times a year, and oftener if they 
 think proper ; and I do request that the said Visitors join in such examina- 
 tion at least once a year ; and I further authorize and request the said Vis- 
 itors to depute and appoint the respective School Committees, or Select- 
 men, for the time being, of the said towns of Nantucket and Newbury
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 103 
 
 Port, or such other persons as the Visitors shall nominate, to make a like 
 visitation and examination of the schools in those towns respectively, and 
 to report their observations to the said Visitors, in order that all defects in 
 the course of discipline and instruction in the said three schools may be 
 discovered and corrected, and that such improvements may be made 
 therein, by the said Trustees and Visitors, as they shall judge proper, and 
 not inconsistent with the general object and plan of the schools as expressed 
 in this my Will. And in case of the misconduct of any scholar which can- 
 not be sufficiently punished or repressed by the ordinary disci[)line of the 
 school, the Trustees may, on complaint by the Mathematical Master or 
 Ship-Master, inquire into the same, and, if they think proper, admonish the 
 scholar; and on a second complaint, they may sentence him to a short soli- 
 tary confinement ; and if this should prove inefficient, such boy may be ex- 
 pelled ; or any boy may be expelled in the first instance for any aggravated 
 offence that shows him to be wholly unworthy of enjoying the benefits of 
 the school ; and no boy once expelled shall ever be reinstated. 
 
 Item : As the Lancasterian or Bell system of education has, in most 
 countries, been found very beneficial, I should wish the schools to be regu- 
 lated as nearly as possible on that plan, or any improvement thereon. And 
 I direct that in each school there may be four classes, and the boy most 
 conspicuous for talents and proficiency in each class to be placed at the 
 head of that class as a monitor. Each boy of the senior to have a boy of 
 the second class to instruct, and each boy of the second class to have one 
 of the boys of the third class to instruct, and each boy of the third class to 
 have a boy of the fourth class to instruct. By these regulations knowledge 
 will be rapidly diftused, and the education of the young men sooner com- 
 pleted. I wish the boys to be in every respect as well qualified in mathe- 
 matical and astronomical knowledge as the scholars at the Naval College 
 at Portsmouth, in England, are qualified, and to complete the like plan as is 
 observed in that academy. And I will and direct that each Mathematical 
 Master, in addition to his other qualifications, should be competent to give 
 lectures on the several heads of natural philosophy, namely, pneumatics, 
 hydraulics, optics, mechanics, electricity, astronomy, geology, geography 
 with the use of the globes ; and that a philosophical apparatus should be 
 provided at the expense of each establishment. And 1 direct that each 
 school should be provided with Ree's Encyclopaedia, printed and published 
 in America, and a competent number of books which treat or may treat on 
 professional matters. I direct also that models of a ship, brig, snow- 
 schooner, and sloop be provided in each school, and that the boys may be 
 practised in rigging and unrigging the same during the winter. And I
 
 104 THE LIFE OF 
 
 recommend that shops be built near the school wherein the different trades 
 enumerated for the boys to learn may be taught. I also direct that Arrow- 
 smith's Mercator's chart of the world, and spherical chart, together with 
 maps of the four quarters of the globe, should be hung up on springs in each 
 school, so that ready access can be had to the maps ; and that a pair of 
 globes should be provided for each school. And I direct that, when either 
 of the said schools should be complete, and the boys of the senior class 
 be about to leave it, an examination should take place touching their 
 abilities, when all the Selectmen and Magistrates, Captains and Officers of 
 the United States Navy residing at Boston, Newbury Port, or Nantucket, 
 and respectable Masters of ships should, by public advertisement, be invited 
 to attend. And after such examination I direct that each boy, on leaving 
 the school, should, if merited, have a mark of approbation, i.e., the first 
 boy a silver medal, and I direct that the silver medal shall have engraved 
 on one side a ship completely rigged with a motto, " I aspire to com- 
 mand," and on the other side " God is my Guide," with a wreath of laurel 
 and a sextant ; the second boy a sextant ; the third boy a quadrant ; the 
 fourth boy a case of mathematical instruments ; the fifth boy a treatise on 
 Navigation ; the sixth boy the book called " A Coasting Pilot," or the best 
 substitute for it ; and if there be any more, the seventh boy a fishing-line 
 of sixty fathoms with lead and six cod-hooks ; the eighth boy a chest for his 
 clothes ; the ninth boy a Gunter's scale and a pair of compasses, and each 
 of the others a jack knife ; each boy also to have a Bible, and a certificate, 
 signed by the Ship-Master and the Mathematical Master, that he was edu- 
 cated at Sir Isaac Coffin's School. And I direct that a proper book be 
 kept by each Ship-Master by way of registry of the names of all the scholars, 
 stating their ages and their respective proficiency in the sciences taught at 
 each school ; such book, together with the plans and drawings of the boys 
 who may excel, to be preserved in the library of the school. And it is my 
 direction that the Ship-Master of each school shall be thirty years of age 
 before he shall be qualified to conduct the affairs of the establishment, and 
 shall not be eligible after the age of forty-five years ; and that he may, if he 
 think fit, or be required by the Trustees to, retire at any time after the age 
 of sixty, with an annuity for his life of fifty pounds sterling per annum. And 
 that the Mathematical Master shall not be admitted after the age of thirty 
 years, and may retire at any time after sixty years, if he should so desire, or 
 be required as aforesaid, with an annuity of fifty pounds for his life. The 
 Drawing-Master to be admitted at any age between twenty-one and forty- 
 five years, and may retire at any time after sixty, if he should so desire or 
 be so required, with an annuity for his life of forty pounds per annum.
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 105 
 
 Item : Having suggested, so far as my experience enables me, the requi- 
 sites for forming a set of men who may be useful to my native country, 
 my consideration has been to provide the funds for establishing the said 
 Foundation. I have at present, standing in the names of the Trustees of 
 my marriage settlement, which, after the death of my wife, will be part of 
 my property, about seven hundred pounds a year in the English Funds, 
 and in my own name six hundred pounds a year in the Funds of the United. 
 States, and money and stock in the French Funds, which sums may be 
 more or less, and I may considerably increase them in my lifetime. Should 
 the income of the funds be adequate after what is above disposed of, I di- 
 rect that sums not exceeding fifty pounds per annum should be given to 
 each of twelve aged and infirm Masters of Merchant Ships, who may be 
 worn out and unable to support themselves, at Boston, Nantucket, or New- 
 bury Port, giving the preference to the descendants of Tristram Coffin and 
 Peter Coffin in the male or female lines. And should there be any surplus 
 fund after supporting and maintaining the aforesaid three establishments, 
 and after paying the said annuities to the said twelve aged and infirm Mas- 
 ters of ships, I direct that such surplus be given, by way of annual income, 
 for the maintenance of the aged and infirm branches, members for the 
 time being of the Coffin family from the said two stocks, in such a way 
 and proportion as the said Trustees may adjudge. 
 
 I/em : I revoke all other wills made by me at any time heretofore. And 
 I nominate, constitute, and appoint Jonathan Amory and Henry Codman, 
 both of said Boston, Esquires, William Appleton, Jonathan Amory, Jun., 
 Thomas Coffin Amory, Edward Gardiner Davis, M.D., George Minot Dex- 
 ter, William Davis Sohier, Edward William Payne, and Thomas Amory De- 
 blois, all of said Boston, Esquires, to be Executors of this my Will and 
 Testament, and desire that all their expenses may be borne and paid out 
 of my estate. 
 
 In Witness Whereof I have, to this my last Will and Testament, con- 
 tained in eight sheets of paper, set my hand and seal (that is to say), my 
 hand only to the first seven sheets, and my hand and seal to this the eighth 
 and last sheet, this fourth day of September, in the year of the reign 
 
 of George the fourth, and in the year of our Lord one thousand. 
 
 Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the said Testator as and for 
 his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, who at his request and 
 in his presence, and also in the presence of each other, have hereunto sub- 
 scribed our names as witnesses.
 
 I06 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Boston, i6th Sept., 1S29. 
 My Dear Sir : 
 
 No event of my life has ever afforded me more pleasure than my late 
 visit to Nantucket — and as you have, from the commencement of my efforts 
 to form the establishment for our young relations, mainly contributed 
 thereto, I beg once more to offer you my best thanks. 
 
 But ior jou, piobably, we should never have witnessed the affecting and 
 gratifying exhibition of the children at the seminary. 
 
 You will hear I have taken much interest in the equipment of the Brig, 
 giving the boys plenty of pumpkins, squashes, apples, and good advice. 
 They go to their work v/ith Si /leariy good wi//. I pray God they may make 
 good men. They clear out this day, and sail to-morrow. Little or no gout 
 since we parted. I start for New York to-morrow. Early, in November 
 go to Norfolk, thence to South Carolina. Kind regards to your family, 
 the Trustees, your son, and the children, and al/ relations. 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 Wm. Coffin, Esq. (Signed) Isaac Coffin. 
 
 The nautical schools involving too large an expenditure, and having, as 
 his brother John writes his cousin Stephen Deblois, provoked criticism at 
 home. Sir Isaac directed his attention to establishing a school at Nantucket. 
 This still exists, well endowed. Its pupils, once two or three hundred, are 
 not now confined to the descendants of Tristram. It is said of this school that 
 it cost Sir Isaac an earldom, but the remark applies with more likelihood 
 to the nautical schools for the education of seamen. The following letter 
 to the trustees of the Nantucket school from Mr. Folger, who sends me 
 the above intended will, is appended, with his consent. 
 
 Cambridgeport, June 30, 1881. 
 
 Charles G. Coffin, Esq., President Board of Trustees, 
 Admiral Sir Isaac Coin's Sclwol, Nantucket : 
 
 My Dear and Honored Friend — Some few years ago, in looking 
 over old records in the " Town's Building," so called, at Nantucket, I came 
 across a candle-box about half filled with loose papers. On examination 
 I found among them several original letters and memorandum-books con-
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 10/ 
 
 nected with the establishment of the Coffin School. By permission I took 
 them for the purpose of making copies tending to their preservation. I 
 infer that they were saved when all the other records of the School were 
 destroyed by the fire of 1846, conveyed from the counting-room of the 
 Secretary, Gorham Coffin, Esq., to his residence, and at his death carried 
 over to the Town's Building. But this, being my own explanation, 
 may not be the correct one. The papers consist of two books of ac- 
 counts, showing the purchase and fitting the School House on Fair- 
 Street, and the general expenditures from September, 1826, to May, 
 1835 ; four memorandum books containing the names of scholars, male 
 and female, commencing with the first quarter of the second year, June, 
 1828, and continuing to March, 1834, and sundry documents numbered 
 by the Secretary, Gorham Coffin, Esq., i to 81 — of which 22 were miss- 
 ing — and there are 9 not numbered. They consist of original letters 
 from Admiral Coffin and his relative, Hector Coffin, to William Coffin, 
 President of the Board of Trustees ; copies of letters to the Admiral, and 
 copies of papers connected with the gift by Union Lodge of F. & A. 
 Masons, under certain conditions, of their Lodge Building standing on 
 Main street. These documents I have carefully copied into a record book, 
 and, in connection therewith, other information connected with the estab- 
 lishment of the school, showing some of the influences leading thereto, to- 
 gether with such biographical notices of Admiral Coffin as have come under 
 my observation. It appears that on the loth of September, 1826, Admiral 
 Coffin visited Nantucket a second time, after an interval of about twenty 
 years. He found the inhabitants very much exercised in relation to the 
 establishment of public schools. The only schools of this nature then ex- 
 isting were charity schools, supported by the Town from an appropriation 
 of $1,500 per year, with an expenditure of about $800 in a population of 
 some 8,000 persons. The School Committee of 1825 had reported " that 
 they had not recommended a large sum of money, because it is presumed 
 that no individual who is competent to support the education of his chil- 
 dren, will at this period of embarrassment be induced to place them under 
 the direction and control of the School Committee." 
 
 The names of those participating in the appropriation were required to 
 be published by the Committee. At the March Town Meeting, 1826, the 
 School Committee reported, " that immediately after their appointment 
 they gave public notice that they would be in session to receive applica- 
 tions for admission into the public schools. They sat several evenings for 
 the purpose, and until applications had ceased. Having ascertained by 
 this course the number of children for which they had to provide schools.
 
 I08 THE LIFE OF 
 
 they proceeded to institute schools, and locate them in different parts of 
 the town for the accommodation of the inhabitants ; one under the direction 
 of a master, and four under the direction of mistresses. These schools 
 have embraced, on an average, about i8o scholars. Besides these five 
 schools, provision has been made for a few scholars in four private schools, 
 in such a manner that it has been advantageous to the scholars themselves, 
 and economical to the town. The Committee have frequently visited the 
 schools in order to take cognizance of any existing difficulty, as well as to 
 ascertain the advancement of the schools in their several studies, and to 
 this end have examined every individual scholar. The condition of very 
 many of the scholars," say the committee, " was indeed deplorable at the 
 time they were received, and although their advancement has generally 
 equalled the most sanguine expectations of your committee, yet very much 
 remains for the town to do, that the education, which, in many instances, 
 received its beginning the present year, may be continued, till an object 
 fraught with the most beneficial effects shall be fully accomplished. One 
 of the above female schools is composed of colored children, whose ad- 
 vancement in education has afforded satisfaction to the Committee, when 
 they have visited the schools. They have expended $845.94, and have 
 drawn $650, and there is due to the treasurer $194.94. They recommend 
 the like appropriation of last year, $1,000, with liberty to hire $500 more 
 if necessary. And in conclusion, recommend thet)wn so far to recon- 
 sider a vote of last year as to dispense with publishing the names of each 
 individual who has participated the last year in the appropriation." In the 
 meantime the columns of the Nantucket Inquirer were teeming with power- 
 fully-written articles, showing the necessity and express duty of the town 
 to adopt a public school system. The able and talented editor, the la- 
 mented Samuel Haynes Jenks, in sharp and incontrovertible statements 
 showed that the schools supported by the town were strictly and only 
 " charity " schools for the destitute, and not in any sense public schools ; 
 that although the Commonwealth had passed laws more than thirty-five 
 years previous for the general education of youth, yet no provision in 
 accordance had ever been made bv the town of Nantucket, and that no 
 legal public school then existed in the place. 
 
 At the session of the General Court held in 1826 additional laws were 
 passed in relation to public education and the establishment of schools for 
 this purpose by the several towns. At the same session an act was passed, 
 approved March 2, 1826, establishing sessions of the Supreme Judicial 
 Court in the county of Nantucket, and at its first session the inhabitants 
 of the town were indicted for neglect of schools, whereupon notice was
 
 ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. lOQ 
 
 issued to the said inhabitants and the case continued to the next term of 
 the Court, on the first Tuesday of July following, 1827. 
 
 At the height of this excitement Admiral Coffin visited Nantucket, and 
 undoubtedly his attention was drawn to the " deplorable condition " of 
 some of his young kinsmen, as described by the school committee of the 
 town, and he was induced to carry into execution a plan he had lont^ had 
 in contemplation — the establishment of a school upon the Lancaster-ian 
 system, designed for the youthful descendants of whatever name, of Tris- 
 tram Coffin, his ancestor, who first emigrated from England and settled in 
 Saulsbury near Newburyport, and in 1661 removed to Nantucket and there 
 spent the remainder of his days. The Coffin school was opened on the 
 29th day of May, 1827, and on the same day two public schools by the 
 town of Nantucket, which, at the previous March meeting, had appropri- 
 ated for the purpose $2,500, The Nantucket Inquirer of June 4th records 
 that " on Monday last, two of the large public schools recently established 
 by a vote of this town were opened for the admission of scholars. These 
 seminaries, which will contain an aggregate of nearly 350 scholars, were 
 immediately filled with children above the age of nine years. It is ascer- 
 tained that about 300 younger candidates for public instruction now re- 
 main to be provided for. The schools nowestabHshed are to be conducted 
 on the improved monitorial plan. The Principal Schools in this town are 
 as follows : South public school, under the direction of Mr. William 
 Mitchell, containing 202 scholars. North Public School, under the joint 
 care of Messrs. Nathaniel and Obed Barney, 143 scholars at present. 
 Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin's Lancasterian school, conducted by William 
 Coffin, Jr., and Miss A. Meach, comprising 230 scholars." This noble 
 institution, founded in 1827, has extended its benefits not only to the 
 descendants of Tristram Coffin, but to the children of Nantucket generally 
 for a period of more than fifty years, increasing in usefulness with its years, 
 and bidding fair to continue to an indefinite period of time. While disas- 
 ters and misfortunes without number have fallen thick and heavy upon the 
 old town, while her children have been driven to the ends of the earth to 
 earn a livelihood, while her wharves have fallen in decay, the grass grown 
 in her streets, and the sound of labor become low or ceased altogether, yet 
 this grand old institution, founded in love and good will, standing almost 
 alone, has flourished and grown strong amid a general wreck. 
 
 The prophetic words of the Boston Evening Bulletin on the founda- 
 tion of the Coffiu School seem to be fulfilled, and the lesson therein in- 
 culcated is worthy our serious consideration at the present time : " When 
 it is recollected that in the compact town of Nantucket, comprising a
 
 no THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 
 
 population of nearly eight thousand, there were, two years since, no semi- 
 naries for the public instruction of youth ; and that upon the establishment 
 of the institution in question, designed for the benefit of a numerous class 
 of the community, the town itself, provoked and ashamed, as it were, by this 
 magnanimous example, was incited to the erection of three similar schools, 
 what thanks will not be awarded by the future inhabitants of that island ; 
 what magnificent results to coming generations may not be justly antici- 
 pated. This is the way to insure immortal fame ! This is the judicious 
 and generous mode which Admiral Coffin has adopted for the transmission 
 to after ages of the remembrance and the benefits of his bounty, instead of 
 vainly providing for the erection of marble monuments or bestowing his 
 wealth for the propagation of sectarian doctrines," 
 
 My connection with the school was as a pupil at the second quarter 
 in the second year, and I had the honor of receiving a first medal in the 
 boys' school at the end of the fourth quarter. I was a pupil when the 
 school was visited by Admiral Coffin in 1829, and recollect being play- 
 fully taken upon his knee at visits he made at my grandfather's at that 
 time. I was also a member of the Board of Trustees several years, where 
 we had always the pleasure of your company and the benefit of your ad- 
 vice and co-operation, which you have so freely and generously given 
 through the entire existence of the school, having been one of the original 
 Board of Trustees appointed by the Admiral, and for many years the only 
 surviving member thus appointed, and distant is the day, all must join in 
 wishing, when your connection therewith shall cease. The great obliga- 
 tion I feel to the school of my early days, through which I stumbled with 
 weak and faltering steps, but to which distance lends a sweet enchantment, 
 has led me to ask the acceptance by the Trustees of this book of records 
 which I take the liberty to forward to you with the original papers before 
 mentioned. I also ask their acceptance of one of the original medals, 
 struck off by direction of Admiral Coffin in memory of Tristram Coffin, 
 the first of his race that settled in America, and copies of which he sent 
 to the members of the first Board of Trustees. This medal was given to 
 me by the late Paul Mitchell, Esq., an acquaintance and near relative to 
 the great Admiral. 
 
 With my best wishes for the continued prosperity of the school, and as- 
 surance of my high regard and esteem to yourself and the other Trustees 
 I am, very respectfully, 
 
 Your friend and ob't servant, 
 
 George H. Folger.
 
 GLEANINGS.
 
 CONTENTS OF GLEANINGS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 John "5 
 
 TURBOT ^^7 
 
 Haverhill ^^^ 
 
 Nantucket Deeds ^^9 
 
 Papers connected with Government of Nantucket .... 124 
 
 Tristram's Deeds to his Children 129 
 
 Number of Tristram's Descendants i35 
 
 Obituary of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin 136 
 
 List of Vessels to which Admiral Coffin was attached . . 139 
 
 Conclusion ^4°
 
 GLEANINGS. US 
 
 "JOHN." 
 
 p. S7. 
 
 As our memoir was on its way to the corner bookstore, in search of a 
 reader, a friend, whose boyhood had been spent in Brighton, recalled to 
 remembrance a character too intimately associated with the admiral to 
 pass unnoticed. His Yes, Sir Isaac ; No, Sir Isaac, recurring at every 
 sentence, as he received his master's orders, still reechoes on the ear. 
 Thoroughly English in appearance, speech, and dress, his spatterdashes, 
 corduroys, jockey coat, and cap with a gold band somewhat tarnished, 
 worn as a badge of his master's rank in the British navy, attracted atten- 
 tion the more that our people then scrupulously refrained from any such 
 pretensions. His manners, warm and magnetic with his equals, defer- 
 ential to those he regarded as his superiors, were rather domineering over 
 the stable-boys who served under him. If, like a true Saxon, he used or 
 dropped his aspirates somewhat erroneously, he was, when at ease, 
 loquacious and sensible, and left the impression that he was thorough- 
 bred for his peculiar walk. 
 
 Exuberant in health, his well-knit frame solid and muscular, half- 
 sailor, half-groom, he had the credit of being besides an accomplished 
 personal attendant, either as valet, nurse, or butler, as the occasion 
 served. In earlier days, in his capacity as master's man, then deemed 
 indispensable to all personages of means, military rank, or social posi- 
 tion, he had attended Sir Isaac about the world, afloat or ashore. On 
 an occasion like that of the Nore, when the admiral one stormy night 
 plunged into the wintry billows to save a drowning sailor, John, at the 
 imminent risk of his own life, had rescued his master from the sharks. 
 Such a service the admiral was not likely to forget. 
 
 However extended his social circle, numerous his acquaintances and 
 friends, and frequent a guest under many hospitable roofs, ever ready to 
 receive him with cordial welcome. Sir Isaac, without domestic ties or 
 other home than his cabin, had often to lead a lonely life. He had few 
 dependants in whom to take an interest, for whose welfore and happi- 
 ness he felt under obligation to care. One in whom he placed implicit
 
 Il6 GLEANINGS. 
 
 trust, who in so many ways contributed to his own comfort, intelligent 
 and respectful, yet companionable, and who had rendered him such ex- 
 cellent service on the occasion to which we have alluded, occupied a 
 high place in his regard to their mutual advantage. 
 
 His special charge, when, at this suggestion of my friend, the substan- 
 tial presence of John stalked sturdily back into my own consciousness, 
 was the stable at Brighton, near the hall on the hill-top, then standing 
 in lonely dignity against the sky but long since removed, of the Massa- 
 chusetts Agricultural Society. In its spacious stables, befitting their an- 
 tecedents, the victors of Epsom and Ascot and of other well-known 
 courses, imported by Sir Isaac to improve our breeds, reposed upon their 
 laurels, or transmitted them to other generations. In buildings round 
 about frolicked their progeny of frisky and comely foals. John, well-versed 
 in horse-flesh, an admirable veterinary surgeon, watched with parental 
 solicitude over these precious animals committed to his care, ambitious to 
 bring them up in the way they should go. 
 
 The Society in whose keeping the horses had been placed, and under 
 whose sanction and auspices the benevolent purposes of the admiral were 
 carried ouL, then reigned in solitary supremacy. The numerous county 
 organizations were not in existence. Its annual fairs attracted crowds 
 from all over New England. Its members were from among the most 
 eminent of the State. Still remembered well the day when Sir Isaac, who 
 was then residing not far away, at Belmont, then my uncle's, where we 
 also had our dwelling, attended as their guest. His presence there, and 
 that of these fine steeds confided by him to their care, was an event, and 
 John, as master-of-hoi'se, in his glory. 
 
 Naturally generous, and ever thoughtful of the wants of whoever had 
 any claim upon him, the admiral purchased a farm of many acres near 
 the stables at Brighton, and gave it to John. There, with his buxom wife 
 and healthy children, still clinging to the ways and customs of England, 
 he lived on long past maturity, if not to a great old age. His chief pride 
 as long as they remained here, for they eventually went back to England, 
 were the horses, and with them he shared the regard of his neighbors, 
 many of whom had profited by the opportunity and possessed them- 
 selves of scions of such illustrious sires. Two splendid colts of Barefoot's 
 were killed by lightning when pastured on an island in the harbor. 
 Morgan and other breeds, better adapted to hard work and the intensities 
 of heat and cold, superseded Barefoot's ; but doubtless still may be traced 
 on the famous Brighton road near by, his fleetness and elegance of 
 form grafted on more sturdy stock.
 
 GLEANINGS. 11/ 
 
 Our climate, with such extremes of temperature often abrupt, is better 
 suited for wheel or runners than for the saddle. Population crowding 
 along shore has well-nigh exterminated the fox and deer, and the chase 
 without useful purpose lost much of its fascination. Even racing is be- 
 coming confined to trotting in harness. But when Sir Isaac sent over 
 Barefoot and Serab to improve our stock, New England, like the Old, had 
 not lost its taste for running. There were other champions of the turf to 
 be remembered besides Winslow Blue. Foxes, too, abounded up to the 
 suburbs of our larger municipalities. Well-mounted clubs of the best 
 and wealthiest, for their extermination, in traditional splendor of apparel, 
 leaped the stitl' stone walls that bounded the fields, as much for their 
 own enjoyment as for the benefit of the farmers. Even at this day, at 
 Newport and Beverly, men and women gather in large numbers to the 
 meet, with well-trained hunters and dogs of high degree, though Reynard 
 rarely puts in an appearance, and a bag of aniseseed in a cart proves a 
 sorry substitute. 
 
 Our late civil war quickened the taste for equitation. vSpacious parks 
 gird round our cities or compose large portions of their extended areas. 
 Attractive drives, well-shaded, by the sea or through the forest about 
 our summer resorts, tend to promote a taste once more common abroad 
 than here. What we still need are better horses for the saddle, from 
 stocks with hereditary aptitudes, well-trained till training becomes second 
 nature. The best will then become more abundant, and be less costly. 
 Other public benefactors will introduce from abroad, or other parts of our 
 own land, choice breeds for the purpose, acclimatize them here, teach them 
 their paces, and to apprehend instinctively the intent of the rider. 
 Then the Boston boy, who did so much half a century ago in this same 
 direction, will be appreciated and held in grateful remembrance by all, 
 who estimate aright the healthy exhilaration of speeding through the air 
 on a perfect mount. 
 
 TURBOT. 
 
 P- 57- 
 
 It is a curious fact that deep-water fish, soles and turbot, change 
 gradually through their generations, — change not only their accustomed 
 habits and habitats, but their form and color, to accommodate themselves 
 to tlieir new conditions and perils. On the different sides of a broad 
 channel, of the broad ocean between Europe and America, the mouth opens
 
 Il8 GLEANINGS. 
 
 sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other, according to the slope 
 of the shore. Our American turbot, if not equal in flavor or delicacy to 
 its English congener, is very similar in general appearance, but with 
 sufiicient modifications of form not to be mistaken for it. Sir Isaac had 
 been so constantly from early childhood in constant proximity to the sea 
 in climates so various, that he was conversant with all the innumerable 
 tribes of the ocean, and, realizing how much better the English turbot 
 was than ours he brought over, on one of his voyages, in crails both 
 turbot and sole, in the hope they might in time become acclimatized 
 and multiply in our waters. Our own fishermen say that the English 
 turbot has occasionally, though rarely, been caught here retaining in 
 large measure the delicacy and other characteristics of the race. Possibly 
 with time they will gradually, by selection of breed, and for self-preserva- 
 tion, conform more to our type, yet be a better fish. Our chicken hali- 
 but, and the larger variety, good and abundant, leave, however, little 
 more to be wished. 
 
 HAVERHILL. 
 
 " It appears that Tristram did not aftect a permanent settlement at 
 Salisbury, but removed the same year to the new settlement of Pen- 
 tucket, soon afterward called Haverhill. This settlement was com- 
 menced in 1640, Christopher Hussey being among the first settlers, but 
 no deed from the Indians w^as obtained until 1642, when the name of 
 Tristram Coftyn appears as one of the witnesses thereto. It was first 
 recorded in the county records of Norfolk (lib. 3, p. 209) ; and, in 1S32, 
 the original deed was said to be in the possession of Charles White, Esq. 
 As it is the first appearance of the name of Tristram Cofi'yn upon any 
 document in America, I make a copy of it from the ' History of Hav'^er- 
 hill,' by B. L. Mirick. The marks made by the Indian sachems were 
 representations of the bow and arrow : — 
 
 ' Know all men by these presents that we, Passaquo and Saggahew, 
 with the consent of Passaconaway, have sold unto the inhabitants of 
 Pentucket all the lands we have in Pentucket, that is, eight miles in 
 length from the little river in Pentucket westward ; six miles in length 
 from the aforesaid river northward, and six miles in length from the 
 aforesaid river eastward, with the island and the river ; that the island 
 stand in as far in length as the land lies by as formerly expressed, that is, 
 fourteen miles in length. And we, the said Passaquo and Saggahew,
 
 GLEANINGS. IIQ 
 
 with the consent of Passaconnaway, have sold unto the said inhabitants 
 all the right that we or any of us have in the said ground and island and 
 river ; and we warrant it against all or any other Indians whatsoever 
 unto the said inhabitants of Pentucket, and to their heirs and assigns 
 forever. Dated the fifteenth day of November, A. D. 1642. 
 
 Witness our hands and seals to this bargain of sale the day and year 
 above written. We, the said Passaquo & Saggahew, have received in 
 hand, for and in consideration of the same, three pounds and ten 
 shillings. 
 
 In the presence of us 
 
 John Ward. The mark of 
 
 Robert Clements, Pasac^jos X [Seal]. 
 
 Tristram Coffyn, 
 Hugh Sherratt, 
 William White, 
 The sign of (i) 
 
 "^ The mark of 
 
 Thomas Davis. 
 
 Saggahew, X [Seal].' 
 
 Tristram Coffyn settled in Haverhill near Robert Clement, and tradi- 
 tion says he was the first person who ploughed land in that town, con- 
 structing his own plough. The following year he settled at the Rocks, 
 so called. He resided in Haverhill several 3ears, when he removed to 
 Newbury (1648-9) , and thence to Salisbury ( 1654-5) , where he organized 
 the company for the purchase and settlement of Nantucket." 
 
 NANTUCKET. 
 
 Ch. IV., p. 21. 
 
 " These documents, printed thirty years ago from the records of New 
 York at Albany, are not accessible to many who may read this volume. 
 Some of them are of value as showing by what conveyances Nantucket 
 and Martha's- Vineyard vested in the colonists. Others have peculiar 
 interest at this time that systems of government for dependencies, or for 
 associated nationalities, are under discussion. The plan evidently origi- 
 nated on the islands. What part of it was the work of Mayhew, Coffin, 
 or Macy, does not appear. They probably all participated, and were 
 alike competent to adapt sound political methods and principles to the 
 circumstances and exigencies with which they had to deal.
 
 I20 GLEANINGS. 
 
 Deeds from James Fforrett to Thoinas Mayhevj and Son. 
 [Deeds, i, 71 ; iii, 64, and iii, 76, Secretary's Office, Albany.] 
 
 These presents do witness, That I, James Fforrett, gentleman, who 
 was sent over into these parts of America, by the Honorable Lord 
 Sterling, with a commission for the ordering and disposing of all the 
 islands that lie between Cape Cod and Hudson river, and have hitherto 
 ■continued his agent without any contradiction, do hereby grant unto 
 Thomas Mayhew at Watertown, merchant, and to Thomas Mayhew 
 his son, free liberty and full power to them, their heirs and assigns, to 
 plant and inhabit upon Nantucket, and two small islands adjacent, and 
 to enjoy the said islands to them, their heirs and assigns forever. Pro- 
 vided, that Thomas Mayhew, and Thomas Mayhew his son, or either 
 of them or their assigns, do render and pay yearly unto the Honorable 
 the Lord Sterling, his heirs and assigns, such an acknowledgment as 
 shall be thought fit by John Winthrop, Esq., the elder, or any two 
 magistrates in the Massachusetts Bay, being chosen for that end and pur- 
 pose by the Hon. the Lord Sterling, or his deputy ; and by the said 
 Thomas Mayhew and Thomas Mayhew his son, or their assigns. 
 
 It is agreed, that the government that the said Thomas Mayhew, and 
 
 Thomas Mayhew his son and their assigns shall set up, shall be such 
 
 as is now established in the Massachusetts aforesaid, and that the said 
 
 Thomas Mayhew, and Thomas Mayhew his son, and their assigns shall 
 
 have as much privilege touching their planting, inhabiting, and enjoying 
 
 of all and every part of the premises, as by the patent to the patentees of 
 
 the Massachusetts aforesaid, and their associates. \\\ witness hereof, I, 
 
 the said James Fforrett, have hereunto set my hand and seal this 13th 
 
 day of October, 1641. 
 
 James Fforrett. (Seal) 
 
 Witnesses: Philip Watson, Clerk. 
 
 Robert Corane, 
 
 Nicholas Davison, 
 
 Richard Stillman. 
 
 A Deed made to Mr. Mayhew by Richard Vines. 
 [Deeds, iii, (i()., Secretary's Office.] 
 I, Richard Vines, of Saco, gentleman, steward-general for Sir Ferdi- 
 nand Georges, Knight, Lord Proprietor of the province of main land 
 and the islands of Caparrock and Nantican, do, by these presents, give
 
 GLEANINGS. 121 
 
 full power and authority unto Thomas Mayhevv, gentleman, his heirs 
 
 and associates, to plant and inhabit upon the islands of Caparrock, alias 
 
 Martha's Vineyard, with all rights and privileges thereunto belonging, 
 
 to enjoy the premises unto himself, his heirs, and associates forever, 
 
 yielding and paying unto the said Sir Ferdinand Gorges, his heirs and 
 
 assigns, forever annually, as two gentlemen, indifferently by each of them 
 
 chosen, shall judge to be meet by way of acknowledgment. 
 
 Given under my hand this 25th day of October, 1641. 
 
 Richard Vines. 
 Witness : 
 
 Thomas Page, 
 
 Robert Long. 
 
 Deed of Nantucket to ten Purchasers. 
 [Deeds, iii, 56, Secretary's Office.] 
 
 Recorded for Mr. Coffin and Mr. Macy aforesaid the day and year 
 aforesaid. 
 
 Be it known unto all men by these presents, that I, Thomas Mayhew, 
 of Martha's Vineyard, merchant, do hereby acknowledge that I have 
 sold unto Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard 
 Swayne, Thomas Bernard, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleafe, John 
 Swayne, and William Pike, that right and interest I have in the land of 
 Nantucket, by patent ; the which right I bought of James Fforrett, 
 gentleman, and steward to the Lord Sterling, and of Richard Vines, 
 sometimes of Saco, gentleman, steward-general unto Sir Gorges, 
 knight, as by conveyances, under their hands and seals, do appear, for 
 them the aforesaid to enjoy, and their heirs and assigns forever, with all 
 the privileges thereunto belonging, for and in consideration of the sum of 
 thirty pounds of current pay, unto whomsoever I, the said Thomas May- 
 hew, my heirs or assigns, shall appoint. And also two beaver hats, one 
 for myself and one for my wife. And further, this is to declare that I, 
 the said Thomas Mayhew, have reserved to myself that neck upon Nan- 
 tucket called Masquetuck, or that neck of land called Nashayte, the neck 
 (but one) northerly of Masquetuck, the aforesaid sale in anywise not- 
 withstanding. And further, I, the said Thomas Mayhew, am to bear my 
 part of the charge of the said purchase abovenamed, and to hold one- 
 twentieth part of all lands purchased already, or shall be hereafter pur- 
 chased, upon the said island by the aforesaid purchasers or heirs and
 
 122 GLEANINGS. 
 
 assigns forever. Briefly, it is thus : That I really sold all my patent to 
 the aforesaid nine naen, and they are to pay me, or whomsoever I shall 
 appoint them, the sum of thirty pounds in good merchantable pay in the 
 Massachusetts, under which government they now inhabit, and two 
 beaver hats, and I am to bear a twentieth part of the charge of the pur- 
 chase, and to have a twentieth part of all lands and privileges ; and to 
 have which of the necks aforesaid that I will myself, paying for it ; only 
 the purchasers are to pay what the sachem is to have for Masquetuck, 
 although I have the other neck. 
 
 And in witness hereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 
 second day of July, sixteen hundred and fifty-nine (1659). 
 
 Per me, Thomas Mayhew. 
 Witness : 
 
 John Smyth, 
 Edward Scale. 
 
 Deed of Tucka7iucket Island. 
 [Deeds, iii, 57, Secretary's Office.] 
 
 Recorded for Mr. Coffin and Mr. Macy aforesaid, the day and year 
 
 afore written. 
 
 The tenth day of October, one thousand six hundred fifty-nine : These 
 presents witness, that I, Thomas Mayhew, of Martin's Vineyard, mer- 
 chant, do give, grant, bargain, and sell all my right and interest in 
 Tuckanuck Island, alias Tuckanucket, which I have had or ought to 
 have, by virtue of patent right purchased of the Lord Sterling's agent, 
 and of Mr. Richard Vines, agent unto Sir Ferdinand Gorges, Knight, 
 unto Tristram Coffin, Sr., Peter Coffin, Tristram Coffin, Jr., and James 
 Coffin, to them and their heirs forever, for and in consideration of the 
 just sum of six pounds in hand paid, and by me, Thomas Mayhew, 
 received in full satisfaction of the aforesaid patent right of the aforesaid 
 
 island. 
 
 • And in witness hereof I have set my hand and seal. 
 
 Per me, Thomas Mayhew. 
 Witness hereunto : 
 
 Roger Wheeler, 
 George Wheeler.
 
 GLEANINGS. 1 23 
 
 Deed of Wanockmamack . 
 
 This witnesseth that I, Wanochmamack, chief sachem of Nantucket, 
 hath sold unto Mr. Tristram Coffin and Thomas Macy, their heirs and 
 assigns, that whole neck of land called by the Indians, Pacummohquah, 
 being at the east end of Nantucket, for and in consideration of five 
 pounds, to be paid to me in English goods or otherwise to my content by 
 the said Tristram Coffin aforesaid, at convenient time as shall be de- 
 manded. Witness my hand or mark this 22d of June, 1662. 
 
 Wanockmamak. 
 Witness hereto : 
 
 Peter Folger & Wawinnesit whose English name is Amos. 
 
 Indian Deed of Nantucket. 
 
 [Deeds, iii, 54, Secretary's Office.] 
 
 Recorded for Mr. Tristram Coffin and Mr. Thomas Macy, the 29th of 
 June, 1 67 1, aforesaid. 
 
 These presents witness, that I, Wanackmamack, head sachem of the 
 island of Nantucket, have bargained and sold, and do by these presents 
 bargain and sell, unto Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Richard Swayne, 
 Thomas Bernard, John Swayne, Mr. Thomas Mayhew, Edward Star- 
 buck, Peter Coffin, James Coffin, Stephen Greenleafe, Tristram Coffin, 
 Jr., Thomas Coleman, Robert Bernard, Christopher Hussey, Robert 
 Pike, John Smythe, and John Bishop, these islands of Nantucket, 
 namely, all the west end of the aforesaid island, unto the pond commonly 
 called Waquittaquay, and from the head of that pond to the north side 
 of the island Manamoy ; bounded by a path from the head of the pond 
 aforesaid to Manamoy ; as also a neck at the east end of the island called 
 Poquomock, with the property thereof, and all the royalties, privileges, 
 and immunities thereto belonging, or whatsoever right I, the aforesaid 
 Wanackmamack have, or have had in the same ; That is, all the lands 
 aforementioned, and likewise the winter feed of the whole island from the 
 end of an Indian harvest until planting time, or the first of May, from 
 year to year forever ; as likewise liberty to make use of wood and timber 
 on all parts of the island ; and likewise half of the meadows and marshes 
 on all parts of the island, without or beside the aforesaid tracts of land 
 purchased ; and likewise the use of the other half of the meadows and 
 marshes on all parts of the island, without or beside the aforesaid tracts
 
 1 24 GLEANINGS. 
 
 of land purchased ; and likewise the use of the other half of the meadows 
 and marshes, as long as the aforesaid English, their heirs and assigns, live 
 on the island ; and likewise I, the aforesaid Wanackmamack, do sell unto 
 the English aforementioned, the propriety of the rest of the island belong- 
 ing unto me, for, and in consideration of forty pounds already received 
 by me, or other by my consent or order. To have and to hold, the afore- 
 said tracts of land, with the propriety, royalties, immunities, privileges 
 and all appurtenances thereunto belonging to them, the aforesaid pur- 
 chasers, their heirs and assigns forever. 
 
 In witness whereof, I, the aforesaid Wanackmamack, have hereunto 
 set my hand and seal, the day and year above written. 
 
 The sign of Wanackmamack. 
 
 Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of 
 Peter Foulger, 
 Eleazer Foulger, 
 Dorcas Starbuck. 
 
 Jndiaft Receipt for Land — Receipt of Wanackmamack. 
 [Nantucket Records, Old Book, page 27.] 
 Received of Tristram Coffin, of Nantucket, the just sum of five pounds 
 which is part of the seven pounds that was unpaid of the twenty pound 
 purchase of land that was purchased of Wanackmamack and Neckanoose, 
 that is to say, from Monomoy to Waquettaquage pond, Nanahumack 
 neck, and all from Wesco westward to the west end of Nantucket, I say, 
 received by me, Wanackmamak, of Tristram Coffin, five pounds sterling, 
 
 the iSth of the eleventh month, 1671. 
 
 The X mark of 
 
 Witness hereunto : Wanackmamack. 
 
 Richard Gardner, 
 
 Elezer Folger. 
 
 Two Letters or Certificates from the Lnhabitants of Nantucket. 
 [Deeds, iii, 58, Secretary's Office, Albany.] 
 
 Recorded for the aforesaid Mr. Coffin and Mr. Macy, two lives on certi- 
 ficates, from the inhabitants of Nantucket, as follows, viz. : — 
 
 Whereas, the Honorable Colonel Lovelace, Governor of New York, 
 gave forth his summons for the inhabitants of the isle of Nantucket to
 
 GLEANINGS. 1 25 
 
 make their appearancfe before His Honor at New York, either in their 
 own person or by their agent, to show their claims in respect to their 
 standing or claim of interest on the aforesaid island. Now we, whose 
 names are underwritten, having intrusted our father, Tristram Coffin, to 
 make answer for us, we do empower our father, Tristram Coffin, to act 
 and do for us with the honored Governor Lovelace, so far as is just and 
 reasonable, with regard to our interest on the isle of Nantucket and 
 Tuckanuckett. 
 
 Witness our hands the second day of the fourth month, sixteen hundred 
 and seventy-one (1671). 
 
 James Coffin, 
 Nathaniel Starbuck, 
 John Coffin, 
 Stephen Coffin. 
 
 This is to signify that the inhabitants of Nantucket have chosen Mr. 
 Thomas Macy their agent to treat with the Honorable Colonel Lovelace 
 concerning the affairs of the island, to act for them in their behalf and 
 stead, and in all considerations to do what is necessary to be done in 
 reference to the premises, as if they themselves were personally present. 
 
 Witness their hands, dated June 5, 1671. 
 
 Edward Starbuck, 
 Peter Folger, 
 John Rolfe. 
 
 The inhabitants aforesaid do also, in the name of the rest, desire Mr. 
 Tristram Coffin to assist their aforesaid agent what he can in the matter 
 or business concerning the Island Nantucket. 
 
 Proposals to the Governor from the InJiabitants of Nantucket about 
 
 Settling that Government. 
 
 [Deeds, iii, 59, Secretary's Office.] 
 
 Imprimis. We humbly propose liberty for the inhabitants to choose 
 annually a man or men to be chief in the government, and chosen or 
 appointed by His Honor to stand in place, constantly invested with power 
 of confirmation, by oath or engagement, or othei-vvise as His Honor shall 
 appoint, one to be chief in the court and to have magistratial power at 
 all tim.es with regard to the peace, and other necessary considerations.
 
 126 GLEANINGS. 
 
 Second. We take for granted that the laws of England are standard 
 of ofovernment, so far as we know them, and are suitable to our condi- 
 tion ; yet we humbly propose that the inhabitants may have power to 
 constitute such law or orders as are necessary and suitable to our condi- 
 tion not repugnant to the laws of England. 
 
 Third. In point of carrying on the government from time to time, we 
 are willing to join with our neighbor island, the Vineyard, to keep 
 together one court every year, one year at our island, the next with them, 
 and power at home to end all cases not exceeding twenty pounds ; and 
 in all cases liberty of appeal to the general court in all actions above 
 forty pounds. And in all actions amounting to the value of one hundred 
 pounds, liberty of appeal to His Highness, his court at the city of New 
 York, and in capital cases, or such matters as concern life, limb, or 
 banishment. All such cases to be tried at New York. 
 
 Fourth. And feeling the Indians are numei'ous among us, we propose 
 that our government may extend to them, and power to summon them 
 to our courts with respect to trespass, debt, and other miscarriages, and 
 to try and judge them according to laws, when published amongst them. 
 
 And, lastly, some military power committed to us respecting our 
 defence, either in respect of Indians or strangers invading, etc. 
 
 The Answer to the Nantucket Proposals. 
 [Deeds, iii, 60, Secretary's Office.] 
 
 At a council held at Fort James, in New York, the 28th day of June, 
 in the twenty-third year of His Majesty's reign, Anno Domini 1671. 
 
 In answer to the proposals delivered in by Mr. Coffin and Mr. Macy 
 on the behalf of themselves and the rest of the inhabitants upon the 
 Island Nantucket, the governor and council do give their resolutions as 
 follows, viz. : — 
 
 Imprimis. As to the first branch in their proposals it is thought fit 
 that the inhabitants do annually recommend two persons to the governor, 
 out of which he will nominate one to be the chief magistrate upon that 
 island, and the island of Tuckanuckett, near adjacent, for the year ensu- 
 ing, who shall, by commission, be invested with power accordingly. 
 
 That the time when such a magistrate shall enter into his employment 
 after the expiration of this first year shall commence upon the 13th day 
 of October, being His Royal Highness's birthday, to continue for the space
 
 GLEANINGS. 12/ 
 
 of one whole year, and that they return the names of the two persons 
 they shall recommend three months before that time to the governor. 
 
 That the inhabitants have power by a major vote annually to elect and 
 choose their inferior officers, both civil and military, that is to say, the 
 assistants, constables, and other inferior otficers, for the civil government, 
 and such inferior officers for the military as shall be thought needful. 
 
 Second. The second proposal is allowed of: That they shall have 
 liberty to make peculiar laws and orders at their General Court for the 
 well government of the inhabitants, the which shall be in force amongst 
 them for one whole year, during which time, if no inconvenience do 
 appear therein, they are to transmit the said laws or orders to the 
 governor for his confirmation. However, they are (as near as may be) 
 to conform themselves to the laws of England, and to be very cautious 
 they do not act in any way repugnant to them. 
 
 Third. To the third it is granted that they join with their neighbors 
 of Martha's Vineyard in keeping a General Court between them once a 
 year, the said court to be held one year in one island, and the next year 
 in the other, where the chief magistrate in each island where the court 
 shall be held is to preside, and to sit in their respective courts as presi- 
 dent, but, withal, that upon all occasions he counsel and advise with the 
 chief magistrate of the other island. 
 
 That the said General Court shall consist of the two chief magistrates 
 of both islands, and the four assistants, where the president shall have a 
 casting voice ; for the time of their meeting, that it be left to themselves 
 to agree upon the most convenient season of the year. 
 
 That in their private courts at home, which are to be held by the chief 
 magistrate and two assistants, where the chief magistrate sl)all have but a 
 single voice, they shall have power finally to determine and decide all 
 cases not exceeding the value of five pounds without appeal ; but in any 
 sum above that value they have libei'ty of appeal to their General Court, 
 who may determine absolutely any case under fifty pounds without 
 appeal ; but if it shall exceed that sum the party aggrieved may have 
 recourse, byway of appeal, to the General Court of Assizes, held in New 
 York. 
 
 And as to criminal cases, that they have power both at their private 
 courts at home, as well as at the General Court, to inflict punishment on 
 oflTenders so far as whipping, stocks, and pilloring, or other public 
 shame. But if the crime happen to be of a higher nature, where life, 
 limb, or banishment are concerned, that such matters be transmitted to 
 the General Court of Assizes likewise.
 
 128 GLEANINGS. 
 
 Fourth. In answer to the fourth, it is left to themselves to order those 
 affairs about the Indians, and to act therein, according to their best dis- 
 cretions, so far as life is not concerned : wherein they are also to have 
 recourse to New York, but that they be careful to use such moderation 
 amongst them that they be not exasperated, but by degrees may be 
 brought to be conformable to the laws ; to which end they are to nomi- 
 nate and appoint constables amongst them who may have staves with the 
 King's arms upon them, the better to keep their people in awe and good 
 order, as is practised with good success amongst the Indians at the east 
 end of Long Island. 
 
 To the last, that they return a list of the inhabitants, as also the names 
 •of two persons amongst them ; out of whom the governor will appoint 
 one to be their chief military' officer, that they may be in the better ca- 
 pacity to defend themselves against their enemies, whether Indians or 
 .others. 
 
 Nantucket Affairs. 
 [Deeds, iii, 85, Secretary's Office.] 
 
 Additional instructions and directions for the government of the Island 
 Nantucket, sent by Mr. Richard and Captain Jno. Gardner, April the 
 iSth, 1673. 
 
 Imprimis, that in regard that the town upon the island of Nantucket 
 is not known by an}^ peculiar or particular name, it shall from henceforth 
 be called and distinguished in all deeds, records, and writings by the 
 name of the town of Sherborne, upon the Island Nantucket. 
 
 That all ancient and obsolete deeds, grants, writings, or conveyances 
 of lands upon the said island, shall be esteemed of no force or validity, 
 but the records of every one's claim or interest shall bear date from the 
 first divulging of the patent granted to the inhabitants by authority of His 
 Royal Highness, and so foiward, but not before the date thereof. 
 
 That the time of election of the chief magistrate, and other civil 
 officers, be and continue according to the directions and instructions 
 already given ; but in regard of the distance of the place and the uncer- 
 tainty of the conveyance betwixt that and this place, the chief magistrate 
 and all the civil officers shall continue in their employments until the 
 return of the governor's choice and approbation of a new magistrate be 
 sent unto them, which is to be with the first convenient opportunity. 
 
 That in case of mortality, if it shall please God the chief magistrate 
 shall die before the expiration of his employment, the assistants for the
 
 GLEANINGS. 1 29 
 
 time being shall manage and carry on the affairs of the public until the 
 time of the new election, and the governor's return and approbation of a 
 new magistrate in his stead. 
 
 That the chief military officer shall continue in his employment during 
 the governor's pleasure, and that he have power to appoint such persons 
 for inferior officers as he shall judge most fit and capable. 
 
 That in case of the death of the chief military officer during the 
 time of his employment, that then the inhabitants do forthwith make 
 choice of two persons, and return their names unto the governor, who 
 will appoint one of them to be the officer in his stead. 
 
 That in regrai-d to the General Court to be held in the Island Nantucket 
 or Martha's Vineyard is but once in the year, where all causes or actions 
 are triable without appeal to the sum of fifty pounds, liberty be granted 
 to try all actions of debt or trespass at their ordinary courts to the value 
 of ten pounds without appeal, unless upon occasion of error in the pro- 
 ceedings there, because of complaint from the ordinary court unto the 
 General Court, or from the General Court to the Court of Assizes. 
 
 That what is granted in the general patent to the inhabitants, free- 
 holders of the Island Nantucket, is to be understood, unto them alone who 
 live upon the place and make improvement thereof, or such others who 
 having pretences of interest shall come to inhabit there. 
 
 Given under my hand at Fort James, in New York, the day and year 
 afore written ; and in the twenty-fifth year of His Majesty's reign. 
 
 Soon after the marriage of Mary Coffin, the youngest daughter ot 
 Tristram, with Nathaniel Starbuck, the old gentleman concluded to 
 make his son-in-law a landed proprietor ; and, with as much care for the 
 contingencies of the future as kind parents exercise in the present age, 
 and with equal nicety in the choice of language as may be found in 
 modern conveyances, executed the following deed to his daughter and 
 her husband. It will be seen that it was made some years before it was 
 acknowledged, and acknowledged some years before it was recorded : — 
 
 Tristram conveys to daughter^ Mary Starbucks and her husband^ 
 Nathaniel^ 07te-half of all estates. 
 
 [Nantucket Records, ist Book, Page 97.] 
 Know all men by these presents, that I, Tristram Coffin, of Nan- 
 tucket, do for divers good considerations, as also in regard of my fatherly
 
 1 30 GLEANINGS. 
 
 affections, do give unto my daughter, Mary Starbuck, the one-half of my 
 accommodation of my purchase, on Nantucket Island, namely, the half 
 of my tenth part which I bought with the other nine first purchasers 
 of Mr. Thomas Mayhew, in patent right, and of the Sachems Indians 
 right, as by their grant in the deed will at large appear : I do as afore- 
 said give and grant unto my daughter, Mary Starbuck, all the one-half 
 of my accommodation of patent right, and all my right of the half of all 
 lands, meadows, marshes, commons, timber, wood, and all appur- 
 tenances thereunto belonging, as fully as myself or any of the other 
 twentv part shares have or ought to have, in manner and form follow- 
 ing : the one-half to her own and her husband's disposal, namely, her 
 husband, Nathaniel Starbuck, to them and their heirs and assigns, for- 
 ever, the other half to my aforesaid daughter, Mary Starbuck, and 
 Nathaniel Starbuck, her husband, during their lives, and when they die, 
 then it shall be for the use of my daughter, Mary Starbuck's child, or 
 children, to him, her, or them, and their heirs, forever ; but if my 
 daughter, Mary Starbuck, have no child or children living when she 
 dieth, then it shall be in the power of her husband, Nathaniel Starbuck, 
 to dispose of all the aforesaid lands and accommodations, with all appur- 
 tenances, as he shall judge most meet. In witness whereof, I, the said 
 Tristram Coflin, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this 14th fourth 
 month, 1664. 
 
 Tristram Coffyn. 
 [Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of — 
 
 Thomas Macy, 
 
 Mary Swain, 
 
 Sarah Macy. 
 
 This deed was acknowledged before me, Thomas Mayhew, upon 
 the island of Nantucket, this 15th day of January, 1677; I say before me, 
 
 Thomas Mayhew, Mag. 
 
 July 26, 1736. — Then received the original of this above written 
 deed, and by the desire of same concerned, perfected the record above 
 by making the sign of the seal. Attest : 
 
 Elezer Folger, Regr. 
 
 While Tristram was generally reputed to be quite wealthy in goods 
 and lands, owning, together with his sons, at one time about one-
 
 GLEANINGS. 131 
 
 fourth part of the island of Nantucket and the whole of Tuckernuck, 
 he did not die rich. He fully realized that he could not take his riches 
 with him to another world, and that the amount of land he would re- 
 quire at his death would be very small. He made no will, but disposed 
 of much of his land while he lived, by deeds, the consideiation always 
 being his ' regard and natural affection.' Most of the remainder of his 
 estate he deeded to his two youngest sons, John and Stephen, and they 
 were to take after the decease of both himself and his wife. To each of 
 his grandchildren he gave ten acres of land upon the island of Tucker- 
 nuck, or to such of them as would plant it. 
 
 Tristram to Stephen^ his youngest son., conveying half his accommo- 
 dations., exceptiftg his new house on the hill. 
 
 [Nantucket Records, Old Book, Page 63. 1 
 
 Know all men by these presents that I, Tristram Coffin, of Nan- 
 tucket, Senior, do give, grant, bargain, and sell unto my son, Stephen 
 Coffin, the one-half of my land at Cappam, alias Northam, within the 
 township of Sherborn, situated upon Nantucket island, that is to say, the 
 one-half of my house lot, with half my accommodations and privileges 
 and appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging, all buildings, except 
 that is to say, my new dwelling-house upon the hill, and my old dwell- 
 ing-house under the hill, by the herb-garden ; now, for and in consid- 
 eration of the aforesaid premises, my son, Stephen Coffin, shall always 
 from time to time do the best he can in managing of my other half of 
 my lands and accommodation during mine and my wife's life, and that he 
 be helpful to me and his mother in our old age and sickness, what he 
 can : now I, Tristram Coffin, abovesaid, do for this and for divers other 
 considerations me moving thereunto, do, as abovesaid, give, grant, 
 bargain, and sell unto my son, Stephen Coffin, his heirs and assigns, all 
 my one-half of my house lot, with all appuitenances thereunto belonging : 
 To have and to hold forever, to him, the said Stephen Coffin, his heirs 
 and assigns, executors and administrators, upon the conditions afoi-esaid : 
 and my son, Stephen Coffin, shall always, from time to time, have free 
 liberty to go to and fro to the new barn that he hath lately built with 
 horse, foot, and cart, as he hath occasion, and to have the free use of 
 half an acre of land adjoining the said barn on the east side, and south
 
 132 GLEANINGS. 
 
 and north side. In witness whereof I have set my hand and seal, the 
 fifteenth of the eleventh month, one thousand six hundred and seventy- 
 six. Tristram Coffyn. 
 
 Acknowledged before me the deed within written this 15th day of 
 June, 1677. Thomas Mayhew, 
 
 Magistrate. 
 
 Agreement bet-ween Stephen Coffijt and his father^ as to rights in barn 
 to Tristram and his wife Dionis. 
 [Nantucket Records, 2d Book, Page I3.] 
 Articles of agreement between Tristram Coffin, Senior, and Stephen 
 Coffin, son of the aforesaid Tristram Coffin, both of the town of Sher- 
 born, on the island of Nantucket, as follows : imprimis, we do jointly 
 and severally agree that whereas there is a barn built at Coppamet by 
 us, this present year, one thousand six hundred seventy-seven, that the 
 aforesaid Stephen Coffin had been at the most part of the charge, there- 
 fore I, Tristram Coffin, do covenant and agree with niy son, Stephen 
 Coffin, that he shall have the aforesaid barn and lean-tos for himself, and 
 his heirs and assigns, forever : to have and to hold and quietly to enjoy, 
 in consideration whereof, as also in consideration of the receiving of 
 two thousand feet of boards, and some timber, and some labor of 
 several persons in framing the works, I, Stephen Coffin, do consent and 
 agree that my father, Tristram Coffin, and my mother, Dionis Coffin, 
 shall have the use of the one-half of the aforesaid barn, coming in and 
 going to the barn and lean-tos without any kind of hindrance, let, or 
 molestation, by, from, or under me, Stephen Coffin, my heirs, executors, 
 administrators, or assigns ; and if my father and mother aforesaid do 
 happen to die in some short time, as namely, within seven years after 
 the date hereof, then I, Stephen Coffin, do engage to pay the sum often 
 pounds to my father or mother's order, within one year after their de- 
 cease, if they or either of them order me so to do. Witness our hands 
 and seals to this agreement, the i8th of July, 1677. 
 Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of " 
 us, who are witness to these present within 
 written articles of agreement. 
 
 Martha Hussey. Thomas Macy. 
 Nathaniel Barnard, 
 This deed was acknowledged this 24th day of July, before me, 
 
 Thos. Macy, Mag. 
 
 Tristram Coffyn. 
 Stephen Coffin.
 
 GLEANINGS. 133 
 
 Tristram grants his new dwclli ng-house to his son John. 
 
 [Nantucket Records, 2d Book, Page 19.] 
 
 To all Christian people to whom these presents shall come, Tristram 
 Coffin, Senior, in the town of Sherborn, on the Island of Nantucket, 
 sendeth greeting, and declareth that, in regard to my natural affection 
 unto my son, John Coffin, now of Sherbon, as also for divers other good 
 and lawful considei'ations, I, the above said Tristram Coffin, do freely 
 give unto my son, John Coffin, and to his heirs, forever, my new dwell- 
 ing-house, with all other houses adjoining unto it ; and also the whole 
 half share of land and accommodation and appurtenances thereunto be- 
 longing, namely, my part of the house lot and all commonage of timber, 
 wood, pasturages, and all meadows, marshes, and creek grass thereunto 
 belonging; and, I, the aforesaid Tristram Coffin, do freely and firmly by 
 these give, grant, and confirm the above said dwelling-house, with all 
 privileges and appurtenances as aforenamed, unto my son, John Coffin, 
 and to his heirs : to have and to hold forever, immediately after the decease 
 of me, the aforesaid Tristram Coffin, Senior, and my now wife, Dionis 
 Coffin, free and discharged against all persons or person la^'ing any claim 
 unto the above said house or any appurtenances thereunto belonging, in, 
 by, or under me ; and in witness hereof I, Tristram Coffin, Senior, have 
 set my hand and seal the third day of December, one thousand six hun- 
 dren and seventy-eight. 
 
 Tristram Coffyn, Senior. 
 Witness hereunto : 
 
 James Coffin, 
 
 Stephen Coffin. 
 
 This was acknowledged by Mr. Tristram Coffin to be his act and deed 
 the 3d 10 m., 167S. 
 
 A true copy : William Worth, Assistant. 
 
 William Worth, Recorder. 
 
 Tristram grants ten acres of land to each of his grandchildren to 
 
 plant. 
 [Nantucket Records, 2d Book, Page 17.] 
 All men shall know by these presents that I, Tristram Coffin, of 
 Sherborn, on the island of Nantucket, with or in regard of my natural
 
 134 GLEANINGS. 
 
 affection unto my grandchildren, I do freely give unto every one of 
 them ten acres of land to plant or sow English grain on, or any other 
 improvement, for oats, or what is fit for food for men. And I, the above 
 said Tristram Coffin, senior, do freely and firmly give unto all and every 
 one of my grandchildren that are now living, or that shall be born here- 
 after, each of tliem ten acres of land upon the island of Tuckernuck : 
 To have and to hold, to plant Indian corn, or to sow or plant any other 
 grain on, and if they or any of them shall sow their land with English 
 hay-seed they shall have liberty to keep four sheep upon every acre 
 during the lifetime of any one that shall so improve the above-named 
 land or any part of it. In witness hereof, I, Tristram Coffin, have set 
 my hand and seal 3d loth, 1678. 
 
 Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of 
 us the within written deed. 
 
 James Coffin, John Coffin, 
 Stephen Coffin. 
 
 >■ Tristram Coffyn. 
 
 This deed was acknowledged by Mr. Tristram Coffin, to be his act 
 and deed before me, William Worth, assistant, 3 m loth 167S. 
 
 This is a true copy of the original by me. — William Worth, Regr. 
 
 By these deeds above quoted we shall learn that Trystram Coffyn had 
 a new dwelling-house, which stood on a hill, and another dwelling- 
 house which stood under the hill. Also, that he last lived in his new 
 house on the hill. With this information, and by tracing the title of the 
 new house on the hill, which was conveyed to John Coffin, and from 
 John to his son Peter, and from Peter to his son Robert, the said 
 Robert's estate being defined within the recollection of the present 
 generation, I think we can know the exact spot where Tristram Coffyn 
 last resided, and from which place his mortal put on immortality. His 
 wife, who survived liim, doubtless breathed her last in the same mansion, 
 as she was to have a life-right carved out of the estate which subsequently 
 became vested in John and Stephen Coffin. The Court of Sessions, at 
 that time exercising probate jurisdiction, allow'ed to Mrs. Dionis Cofiyn 
 the use of the entire estate of her husband during her life, the three sons, 
 James, John, and Stephen, as administrators, so recommending."
 
 GLEANINGS. 1 35 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 p. 25. 
 Tristram Coffyn left a posterity of seven children, sixty grandchildren, 
 and a number of great-grandchildren. His posterity is more numerous 
 now. In 1722 there had been born 1,138 descendants, of whom 871 
 were then living. In 1728, six years later, there had been added to the 
 number born 444, making the total number born 1,582; and of that 
 number 1,128 still survived. This computation, by Stephen Greenleaf, 
 the first grandchild, was made more than one hundred and fifty years 
 ago. What the number now is will never be definitely ascertained. 
 Their name is legion.
 
 136 GLEANINGS. 
 
 OBITUARY OF ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BART. 
 
 [ " Gentleman's Magazine," 1840, vol. xiii., p. 205.] 
 
 July 23. At Cheltenham, aged 80, Sir Isaac Coffin, Bart. G.C.B., 
 Admiral of the Red. 
 
 This gallant old officer was the fourth and youngest son of Nathaniel 
 Coffin, Esq., Cashier of the Customs in the port of Boston, America, 
 by Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Henry Barnes, merchant, of the same 
 place. 
 
 He entered the Royal Navy in May, 1773, under the auspices of Rear- 
 Admiral John Montagu, who confided him to the care of the late Lieut. 
 Wm. Hunter, of Greenwich Hospital, at that period commanding the 
 brig "Gaspee"on the American station. "Of all the young men," 
 said Lieut. Hunter, " I ever had the care of, none answered my expec- 
 tations equal to Isaac Coffin. . . . Never did I know a young man 
 acquire so much nautical knowledge in so short a time." 
 
 Mr. Coffin afterwards served as midshipman in the "Captain," " King- 
 fisher," "Fowey," and "Diligent," on the Halifax station; and from 
 the last named was removed into the " Romney " of 50 guns, bearing 
 the flag of his patron at Newfoundland. In the summer of 1778 he 
 obtained a lieutenancy, and the command of the "Placentia" cutter; 
 and the following spring he served as a volunteer on board the " Sybil " 
 frigate, commanded by Captain Pasley, and was soon after appointed to 
 the command of le " Finson " armed ship; in which he had the mis- 
 fortune to be wrecked on the coast of Labrador, but on a court-martial 
 was acquitted of all blame. 
 
 Having visited England he was, in November, 1779, appointed to the 
 " Adamant," about to be launched at Liverpool ; and in the following 
 year he escorted in her the outward-bound trade to New York. He was 
 next appointed to the " London 98," the flag-ship of Rear-Admiral 
 Graves, on the coast of America ; and from her he removed into the 
 " Royal Oak," a third-rate, under Vice-Admiral Arbuthnot, to whom 
 he acted as Signal-Lieutenant in the action off' Cape Henry, March 16, 
 1781. 
 
 In July following he was made Commander, and on his arrival at New
 
 GLEANINGS. 1 37 
 
 York joined the " Avenger" sloop. He was afterwards received as a 
 volunteer, by Sir Samuel Hood, on board the " Barfleur 98," in which 
 he shared in much active service. Having subsequently rejoined his 
 sloop, he was appointed Captain of the " Shrewsbury 72," at Jamaica, 
 and confirmed in that rank June 13, 1782. In the following December 
 he exchanged to the " Hydra 20," in which he returned to England, 
 and was put out of commission. 
 
 After spending some time in France he was, in 1786, appointed to 
 the " Thisbe " frigate, and ordered to take Lord Dorchester and his 
 family to Quebec. 
 
 In the course of 1 7S8, being irritated by some treatment experienced 
 from the Admiralty, Captain Coffin took the extraordinary' step of pro- 
 ceeding to Flanders, where he entered into the service of the Brabant 
 patriots ; but the event which shortly ensued, of the conduct of Lord 
 Howe and his colleagues at the Board being declared illegal by the 
 twelve judges, decided his return to the sei^vice of his King and country ; 
 and at the Spanish armament in 1790 he was appointed to the " Alli- 
 gator" of 28 guns. At that period, when lying at the Nore, during a 
 strong wind, a man fell overboard, and Captain Coffin, impelled by his 
 generous spirit, immediately leaped after him. He succeeded in rescu- 
 ing a fellow-being from death ; but his exertions produced a severe 
 rupture, which frequently afterwards reminded him of this act of 
 humanity. 
 
 In the spring of 1791 our officer, having previously been to Cork, 
 where he received the flag of Admiral Cosby, was once more ordered 
 to America, from whence he returned with Lord Dorchester and his 
 family in the ensuing autumn. The " Alligator " was soon after paid 
 off at Deptford. 
 
 At the commencement of the war with the French republic Captain 
 Coffin, who had in the interim visited Sweden, Denmark, and Russia, 
 obtained the command of the " Melampus " frigate, in which he was 
 employed on Channel service until the close of 1794, when one night, 
 by exerting himself too violently, he became ruptured on both sides, 
 which obliged him to quit his ship, and for some months he was literally 
 a cripple. On his recovery he went to Leith, being appointed to the 
 recruiting service at that port; and in October, 1795, he proceeded to 
 Corsica, where he served as Resident Commissioner until the evacua- 
 tion of that island, Oct. 15, 1796. From thence he removed to Elba, 
 and subsequently to Lisbon, where he continued for two years, actively 
 employed as the head of the naval establishment of that place.
 
 138 GLEANINGS. 
 
 Towards the latter end of 1798, when Minorca fell into the hands of 
 the English, Commissioner Coffin was appointed to the superintendence 
 of the arsenal at Port Mahon ; and after the lapse of a few months 
 returned to England on his way to Nova Scotia, whither he proceeded 
 in the " Venus " frigate. 
 
 Our officer continued to perform the arduous duties of a Resident 
 Commissioner of the Navy, first at Halifax, and subsequently at 
 Sheerness, until April, 1S04, when he was advanced to the rank of Rear- 
 Admiral, and soon after hoisted his flag on board the " Gladiator," 
 being appointed to superintend the harbor duty at Portsmouth. On 
 the 19th of May, 1804, he was created a Baronet as a reward for his 
 unremitting zeal and persevering efforts for the good of the public 
 service. 
 
 Sir Isaac Coffin hauled down his flag on being promoted to the 
 i-ank of Vice-Admiral, April 28, 1808. He became full Admiral 
 June 4, 1814. 
 
 At the general election of 181 8 he was returned to Parliament for the 
 borough of Ilchester, for which he sat until the dissolution in 1826. In 
 Parliament he constantly paid much attention to naval matters, and not 
 unfrequently in a style of facetiousness that relieved the subject of its dry 
 technicality. His charity was extensive ; and within a few weeks of his 
 death he remitted an additional and liberal donation to the Royal Naval 
 Charity, " for fear," as he humorously expressed himself, " he should 
 slip his wind and forget all about it." 
 
 Sir Isaac Coffin married, March, 181 1, Elizabeth Browne, only child 
 of W. Greenly, Esq., of Titley Court, Herefordshire. She died not 
 long before her aged partner, on the 27th January, 1839, having had no 
 issue. Previously to his marriage Sir Isaac obtained the royal permis- 
 sion to take the name and arms of Greenly, in addition to his own, but 
 he relinquished that name in March, 1S13. 
 
 He was possessed of considerable estates in the Magdalene islands, in 
 the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He had crossed the Atlantic on service or 
 pleasure no less than thirty times.
 
 GLEANINGS. 
 
 139 
 
 Gaspee. 
 
 Captain. 
 
 Kingfisher. 
 
 Fowey. 
 
 Diligent. 
 
 Romney frigate. 
 
 Placentia cutter. 
 
 Sybil frigate. 
 
 Pinson. 
 
 Adamant. 
 
 London. 
 
 Vessels to -which Coffiit was attached. 
 
 Royal Oak. 
 
 Avenger. 
 
 Pocahontas. 
 
 Barfleur. 
 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
 Hydra. 
 
 Thisbe. 
 
 Alligator. 
 
 Melampus. 
 
 Venus. 
 
 Well-known Officers in the Navy, friends of Coffin. 
 Sir John Montague. 
 
 Sir George Montague. 
 
 Graves. 
 
 Arbuthnot. 
 
 Hood. 
 
 Rodney. 
 
 Linsee. 
 
 Hallowell. 
 
 Cochrane. 
 
 Drake. 
 
 William IV. 
 
 Pasley. 
 
 Hunter.
 
 I40 GLEANINGS. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The preface of a book usually contains its last words to the reader. 
 Our own has long since been struck off, and it still remains to account 
 for some lack of arrangement too glaring to escape unobsei-ved, for 
 which, if explained, some allowance may be made. This sketch of my 
 subject had long been in manuscript, much more minute in detail, when 
 invited to condense it into a discourse. In order to bring it within the 
 specified limit of an hour for delivery, much that had been prepared 
 was omitted. When printed for the January Record the twelve pages 
 originally allotted were extended to nearly as many again. It was 
 impossible, even within these limits, to embrace all that might be useful 
 or interesting for the descendants of Tristram to know, or for the 
 many besides who, for other reasons, should find it instructive. It 
 seemed better that it should contain too much than too little, enough to 
 make the rest understood. 
 
 Besides, its value depended upon finding a place upon the shelf as a 
 volume, where it could be easily consulted, not among the pamphlets in 
 a closet to pass out of view. It seemed, also, an object that its title 
 should be in the catalogue of bound books in the libraries where it could 
 easily be found. That it might not only attract attention, but be of use 
 to the numerous class whose history it partially related, it seemed worth 
 while to improve the occasion, without neglecting the principal subject, 
 and incorporate whatever else would shed new light on the family annals. 
 While passing through the press many precious documents and other 
 papers, previously unknown, came to my knowledge ; to insert some of 
 them appeared indispensable to a full and fair view of the career of the 
 admiral. 
 
 The writer would be glad to have copies of all correspondence that 
 exists of Sir Isaac, letters that he wrote or which were addressed to him, 
 and to learn all incidents and anecdotes of him or other members of the 
 CoflSn race, which if known would have added to the value or entertain- 
 ment of this volume. If not his privilege to perfect this work by adding 
 such contributions now, they will be kept together where they cannot be 
 lost. There will be perhaps other memoirs to be written in the times to
 
 GLEANINGS. I4I 
 
 come where they will find a place. There are reasons why biographers 
 should be of other names than their subjects. Sharing their stock and 
 familiar with all that concerned the admiral from his earliest days, he 
 hopes that it may not be considered presumption in him to have 
 undertaken the task. 
 
 It has been an ancient custom, not yet passed away, for educational 
 and eleemosynary institutions in our mother-country and other lands, to 
 hold in remembrance the birthdays of their founders In " Pendennis," 
 Col. Newcomb celebrated such an anniversary among the Blue Coats of 
 London. Sir Isaac, setting forth in his revoked will the rules for his 
 nautical schools, followed simply this time-honored custom in providing 
 that his own should be kept, and that prizes and presents should be 
 bestowed on that day upon the pupils, that he, too, might be pleasantly 
 remembered. He was not sanctimonious enough to be canonized for a 
 saint, nor will it be fifty years since he died before 18S9. He possessed 
 nevertheless many of the qualifications for such a place in the calendar, 
 in his generous consideration of others. This tribute is paid to his 
 memory, about whom much more that is interesting might be said, on 
 this anniversary of his birthday. 
 
 Boston, May 16, 1SS6. 
 
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 THE STORY OF AN OLD NEW^ ENGLAND TOWN. 
 
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 How IT IS MADE TO DO MECHANICAL WORK. By ThOMAS 
 
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 the late John A. Andrew, famous as the War Governor of Massa- 
 chusetts. 8vo. 10th edition 0.50 
 
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 er's Kecii'e Book. By W. It. Mallock, author of "New Re- 
 public," &c. nth edition. i6mo 0.2s 
 
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 phlet. 1 vol. Square iSvo. pp.65 025 
 
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 A tiy of the above works sent postpaid to any part of tite United States or Canada 
 on receipt of tfw price. 
 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM, & CO., Publishers, Boston.
 
 THE PICTURESQUE ARCHITECTURE OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 In One Volume. Oblong quarto. Price Five Doliara. 
 
 F:ARLY new ENGLAND INTERIORS; 
 
 Sketches m Salem, Maiblehead, Portsmouth^ 
 and Kittery. 
 
 By ARTHUR LITTLE. 
 
 The autUor of " Early New England 
 [nteriors" may well congratulate himself 
 upon the success he has achieved in this 
 Ills first production. He has chosen a 
 difficult task on which to exercise his tal- 
 ents, — a tasl< requiring no small amount 
 of taste, and which to handle well re- 
 quires high artistic abilities, strong pow- 
 ers of observations, immense persever- 
 ance, and a genuine inborn liking for tlie 
 antiiiue, — i. e., anti<iaity as displayed 
 in the now fast crumbling-away edilices 
 reared by our comfort-loving ancestors in 
 the ohi Colonial times. . . . That task he 
 has done well; and in a manner that will 
 bring upon him the obligations of that 
 fast-growing class whose taste Incline 
 them to revering thi honest, sturdy work 
 executed a century or more ago: to such 
 the book will be a boon. To those far 
 ■listant unfaiailiar with the nooks and 
 corners ot New England, and prone to 
 consider the work of the Puritanical Col- 
 
 onist noticeable only for its lack of taiite 
 and conspicuous simply for green blinds 
 and white painteil walls, these sketchci! 
 will be revelations. They will ever be so 
 to the New Englander. . . . The creiiit 
 of following in the footsteps of Nash, and 
 of first attempting to do for New England 
 what was done so nobly for Old England 
 ill the famous " Stately Mansions," be- 
 longs, therefore, to the delineator of the 
 sketches before us. Many of the interiors 
 he has portrayed, especially of those old 
 halls where carved staircases are shown, 
 and the ornamental work on and around 
 windows, are exceedingly well done; and 
 the proper degree of light thrown in, 
 here and there, to show up the architect- 
 ure, and to get at a clear aspect of the 
 whole, supposing one to be entering at 
 the porch door, is marvellously bronght 
 out, to say the least. . . . Nothiiig li:ie 
 escaped his eye to what is interesting ami 
 picturesque. — Boston Daily Adverliaer. 
 
 4 Work to be studied by all contemplating remodelling old hou$p.s. 
 
 Published by CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO. 
 
 2S;J Wa.suixotox ."SriJKLT, Boston
 
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