Person:John Coggeshall (8)

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John Coggeshall Jr. (c. 1624 - 1 October 1708) was a deputy governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The son of Rhode Island President John Coggeshall Sr., he was raised in the village of Castle Hedingham in northeastern Essex where his father was a merchant. Aged about eight, he sailed from England with his parents and surviving siblings, arriving in New England in 1632. He was first active in civil affairs in 1653 when he became treasurer of the island towns of Portsmouth and Newport. The following year brought the re-unification of the colony, with the island towns rejoining the government with Providence and Warwick, and he served as treasurer of the four towns for a year. His name appears on a list of Newport freemen in 1655, and for the following 35 years he served almost continuously in one or multiple roles including Assistant, General Treasurer, Deputy, General Recorder, and Major for the Island. He was one of ten Assistants named in the Royal Charter of 1663, which would become the basis for Rhode Island's government for nearly two centuries. In 1686 he became the Deputy Governor under Governor Walter Clarke, but his term lasted only a month when the English crown assigned Edmund Andros to be Governor of all the New England colonies under the Dominion of New England. Following the demise of this dominion and the arrest of Andros in 1689, Coggeshall was once again selected as Deputy Governor for the year ending in May 1690, serving under Governor Henry Bull. In April 1676, during King Philip's War, he was on a committee to procure boats for the colony's defense. Later that year, in August, he was a member of a court martial for the trial of several Indians.

Coggeshall had 16 children with three different wives. IN 1647 he married his first wife, Elizabeth Baulston, the daughter of magistrate William Baulston, and this marriage ended in a divorce which was granted by the Assembly in 1655. Elizabeth then married Thomas Gould, and Coggeshall was married later that year to Patience Throckmorton. This marriage produced nine children and lasted until her death in 1676, after which he married a wife named Mary (Hedge) Sturgis, with whom he had four more children. Coggeshall wrote a will in June 1708, and died on 1 October of that year.

Since he was the oldest son and his father died suddenly without a will, John probably got all of his father’s lands. He sold 160 acres on 30 May 1652, but he seems to have kept a good portion, as he had 510 acres southeast of Newport by his death (now one of the nicest areas of town). He was the General Treasurer for Newport and Portsmouth in 1653-4 and for the colony for 8 years 1664-1672. He also served as Deputy to the General Assembly from Newport 8 times between 1665 and 1683 and as General Recorder 1676-77. His appointment as Major of Militia for the Island in 1683 seems to indicate he had thrown off his father’s Quaker tendencies. The now “Major” Coggeshall was elected Deputy Governor in May 1686 and served until James II appointed a governor of New England, when he because a member of Gov. Andros’ Council of New England in Boston. After the Glorious Revolution, Andros fled (and was captured) and Coggeshall and the governor (Clarke) resumed their positions. he served until 1690, when at age 86 or so, he was elected Governor, but declined to serve.^[8]

John and his second two wives are buried in the family plot in Newport; his first wife and children by her are not.

1.   Newport Historical Magazine
   Vol. 5, p. 177.
2.   The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   Vol. 73 p. 31.
3. ↑ Major John Coggeshall, in Coggeshall, Charles Pierce (compiler), and Thellwell Russell (compiler) Coggeshall. The Coggeshalls in America: Genealogy of the Descendants of John Coggeshall of Newport: genealogy of the descendants of John Coggeshall of Newport, with a brief notice of their English antecedents. (Boston, Mass. : C.E. Goodspeed & Co., 1930)
   13.

   MAJOR JOHN COGGESHALL..died at Newport, R. I., October 1, 1708

4.   John Coggeshall, Jr., in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
5.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   1:421.

   JOHN, Newport, s. of the preced. b. in Eng. m. a. 1647, Elizabeth youngest d. of William Balstone, had William; and John, b. 12 Feb. 1650; beside one or more ds. of wh. Elizabeth m. John Warner. He and w. by mut. cons. separat. in 1654, and he gain. leave of Ct. to m. again, she obtain. the same license next mo. and m. Thomas Gould of Narraganset next yr.; and he m. Dec. 1655, Patience Throgmorton, prob. a. of John, had Freegift, 1 Mar. 1658; James, 17 Feb. 1660; Mary, 10 Mar. 1662; Joseph, 30 May 1664 or 5, but which, is uncert.; Rebecca, 20 June 1667; Patience, 13 Aug. 1669; Benjamin, 27 July 1672; Content, 28 Mar. 1674; and Content, again, 10 May 1676; and his w. d. 7 Sept. foll. aged 36 yrs. says gr. stone. He was oft. assist. and dept. gov. bef. and aft. Andros, and d. 1 Oct. 1708, in his 90th yr. Descend. are still in repute

6. ↑ Maj John Coggeshall, in Find A Grave.
7. ↑ John Coggeshall, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   i JOHN, b. say 1624

8. ↑ Coggeshall, Robert Walden. Ancestors and Kin