Person:Michael Coffeen (2)

Michael was probably a native of Dublin, Ireland, where he was born ca 1702, and said to have descended from a respectable and wealthy family. At the age of sixteen, while attending college at Dublin (so one story goes), he with thirteen other lads, were enticed or kidnapped, brought aboard a ship that sailed to America. Another story is that he was worked-out for a sum equivalent to his passage money, and still another story states that he was impressed aboard a British man-of-war and when the vessel was at New Bedford, Massachusetts, he ran away to Boston. He settled at Topsfield and there to Kingstown, New Hampshire, and then to Lunenburg, Massachusetts in 1730. It is believed that he was in Winchendon during the early settlement of that town, being one of the original proprietors, but remained there only a short time. The History of Lunenburg tells us, "He seems to have been a nervous impulsive goodhearted Irishman, a great part of the time in "hot water" with his neighbors, but soon getting out of it. The church found him to be an unruly member, and on several occasions susbjected him to its discipline, but he minded it no more than the blowing of the wind, replying to its grave admonitions with a laugh, or a joke. or both". Michael & Lydia lived in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. We have no record of Michael's death, but his will was probated in early 1758. There is no doubt that the Coffeen Family and the Baldwin Family were neighbors and friends while living in Townsend, Massachusetts. This friendship remained constant through subsequent generations and shows itself predominately in Cavendish with the Baldwins and Coffeens living together as neighbors and sharing their lives in harmony and kinship. RE: Linda M. Farr Welch via internet