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- Tristram Coffin born 11 March 1609 Plymouth, Brixton Parish, Devonshire, England christened 11 March 1609 Plymouth, Brixton, Devonshire, England died 20 October 1681 Nantucket, Nantucket County, Massachusetts.
He always spelled his name "Coffyn".
In 1642 he emigrated to America with his wife, five small children, his widowed mother, and two unmarried sisters.
Tristram first settled in Haverhill, removed to Newbury in 1648, thence to Salisbury in 1654 and thence to Nantucket, of which island he was one of the original proprietors. Died at new residence on the hill, at Northham, near Capaum Pond. "Tristram Coffyn was of the landed gentry. Most probably he was a Churchman after the order of Elizabeth's time. Considering the eventful period of his life immediately following the death of his father, which probably occurred early in 1628, when he had but attained his twenty-third year, it is easy to perceive how the perplexing complications of the King and the Parliament, gave him little peace of mind or enjoyment of his estate. The whole kingdom, in 1642, exhibited a most melancholy spectacle. Each county, town, and hamlet, was divided into factions seeking the ruin of each other. The two great armies plundered wherever they came, and their example was faithfully copied by smaller bodies of armed men."
"It was his utter want of faith in the institutions of England that sent him across the ocean with a wife and five small children, a widowed mother and two unmarried dependent sisters, to found a new home among the barren hills of New England. While he could not bring his landed estates, he doubtless did not come penniless" adds day and month to birth year. "Most influential man of Nantucket I. Royalist."
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Tristram Coffin's ancestors are traced back in a direct line to Sir Richard Coffin, Knight, who accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy to England in the year 1066 ; and the Manor of Alwington, in the county of Devonshire, was assigned to him, and has remained in the family ever since, passing from father to son, in accordance with the law of primogeniture of England. The original stone house which has been occupied by the Coffins for so many centuries is still the residence of one of the family, whose name is John F. Pine Coffin, and who has an interesting family of ten children, and on a recent visit by one of the American branch seemed much gratified in recounting the history of the family. He was very cordial in his hospitality to the American Coffin, and showed the various and interesting 'manuscript deeds of the property, extending back many centuries. During this social call by the American his English kinsman said : " You will take some refreshment with me ; you will have tea and cocoa. I am a teetotaler, and do not offer wine to my guests." The butler brought in excellent refreshments. It is not probable that all of the Coffin race have been teetotalers, but it is a singular coincidence that the present owner of the original English estate and the subject of this sketch are precisely of the same habits in regard to intoxicating drinks. The estate consists of two thousand seven hundred acres. The coat of arms of the present family at Portledge has been blended with that of the Pine family, — a noted family of Devon with whom the Coffins are intermarried, — so it is not now the original coat of arms of the Coffin family. It is a singular fact that the name has become extinct in Normandy, but has increased to thousands in England and America. A careful observer cannot fail to perceive a strong family resemblance among these numerous people, and certain characteristics which are strongly marked. A French Count, by the name of Le Clere, married the last Miss Coffin, who inherited the estate of Courtiton, near Fallaise, Normandy, which is the birthplace of Sir Richard, of English fame. This estate is now owned by the great-grands/o the Count. Monsieur Le Clere is very courteous to the English and American Coffins who visit France and pay their respects to the birthplace of their distinguished ancestor. Only a portion of the original chateau is standing, but in the old church on the premises are all of the Coffin records and monuments. The name was originally spelled Cophin, then Coffyn, and now Coffin, as shown by the manuscript deeds from one generation to another. For centuries there has been a Pine Coffin in the English family. Ever since the first Sir Richard from Normandy entered England, this family has occupied honorable positions under the British government. They are now to be found in the army, navy, church, law, medical, and scientific professions, in England. The American branch has equally distinguished itself, and now men and women in every State in the Union are to be found, who came from this same family. In every college in this country may be found the name of Coffin among the alumni. Merchants, bankers, manufacturers, navigators, the learned professions, and sciences are well represented by this family in the United States.
http://www.geni.com/surnames/coffin
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Old Dead Relatives
1605 - 1681 (76 years)
