Person:Peter Coffin (1)

The 1627 Will of Peter Coffin of Brixton, Devon

"In the name of God, Amen, y³ 21^th day of December in y³ third yeare of the raigne of our Sovraigne Lord Charles of Greate Britaine France and Ireland Kinge Defender of y^e Faith &c. I peter Coffyn of the Parish of Brixton in y^e County of Devon being sick of body but in perfect minde and memory (thanks be to God) doe make and ordaine this my last Will and Testament in manner and forme followinge Impr^s I give and bequeath my Soule to Allmighty God my Maker and Redeemer and my body to the Earth to be Decently buried. Item I give and bequeath to y^e poore people of the Parish of Brixton XX^s in money to be delivred unto them according to the discretion of my Executrix hereafter mentioned Item I give and bequeath unto Tristram Coffyn my Sonne one feather bedd … my best brasen panne and my best brasen crocke Item I give and bequeath unto Johan Coffyn my Wife y^e issues pfitts and comodities of all my lands tenements & hereditaments w^th in y^e sayd Parish of Brixton dureing her widdowhood she yeelding and Payinge therefore yearly unto the sayd Tristram my Sonne his heirs and assignes the summe of Fifty shillings of lawfull English money at y^e four most usual feasts of the year and also sufficient meat drink & clothes and convenient lodgings unto y^e sayd Tristram according to his degree and callinge dureing her Widdowhood onely And if it happen y^e sayd yearly rent of Fifty shillings or any part thereof to be behinde and unpayd that then and from thenceforth itt may and shall be lawfull to and for the sayd Tristram Coffyn his heirs and assignes unto all and singular thesaid p^rmises to enter and distraine and the distress so there taken from thence to lead drive carry away & empound and impound to detaine and keepe untill y^e sayd rent of Fifty shillings with the arrearages of the same (if any bee) shall bee to him or them fully answered and payd. And further it is my Will that if the sayd Johan my Wife shall happen to marry that she shall immediately thereupon loose all y^e pfitts commodities and right of that one tenement called Silferhey lying in Butlers in y^e parish of Brixton aforesaid which duringe her Widdowhood by my Will she is to have and y^e same to redound & be immediately in the possession of my Sonne Tristriam his heirs and assignes Item I doe give and bequeath unto my Sonne Tristriam All my lands rents reversions services & hereditamts with the appurtenances whatsoever sett lying & being w^th in y^e sayd County of Devon To have and to hold y^e same and every part and parcel thereof to y^e sayd Tristriam Coffyn his heirs and assignes forever to y^e only pfitt & behoof of the said Tristriam Coffyn his heirs and assignes to be holden of the chiefe Lord and Lords of the Fee thereof by the rents and services therefor yearly due and payable and my Will farther is that if the said Tristriam my Sonne shall chance to dy without an heir male lawfully begotten or to be begotten of his body that then all the p^rmisses last mentioned & given to him shall redound unto John Coffyn my Sonne his heirs and assigns accordingly and in y same manner that it should to y^e said Tristriam my Sonne Item I doe give and bequeath unto Johan Coffyn Deborah Coffyn Eunice Coffyn and Mary Coffyn my four Daughters to each of them severally Thirty pounds in money that is to say amongst them CXX£ to be payd when they or each of them severally shall be of the full age of twentie years Itm I give and bequeath unto John Coffyn my Sonne Fourty pounds in money to be payd him when hee shall be of the age of twenty years. Item I give & bequeath unto the child wc my Wife now goeth withal the sume of Thirty pounds in money to be payd when he or she shall be of the age of twentie years. Provided always & my mind & will is that if either Johan Coffyn Deborah Coffyn Eunice Coffyn Mary Coffyn John Coffyn or y^e child my Wife goeth withal happen to dy before he she or they doe come to y^e age of twenty years that then his her or their portion or portions shall be equally divided amongst the survivors Item All y^e rest of the goods chattels and cattells not before given nor bequeathed I doe give and bequeath unto Johan Coffyn my Wife whome I make constitute and ordaine my full and whole Executrix of this my last Will and Testament And for y^e better pformance hereof I doe in treat my well beloved in Christ my brother in law Phillip Avent and my Brother Niclas Coffyn to be y^e Overseers to see this my last Will & Testament pformed—

Arthure Durant Phillip Avent

Proved on the thirteenth day of March 1627 by Executrix. Inventory, £236 5s. 17d. [Archdeaconry of Totnes (Exeter), 1627.]"^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Holman, Mary Lovering. Ancestry of Charles Stinson Pillsbury and John Sargent Pillsbury. (Concord, New Hampshire: Privately Printed at The Rumford Press, 1938)
   2:602-05.

   Peter Coffin (Nicholas), born probably in Brixton, Devon, Eng., about 1580; died there between 21 Dec. 1627 and 13 Mar. 1627-28. … Peter Coffin, although the eldest son of Nicholas, is not mentioned in the will of Tristram Coffin in 1601, possibly since he was of age and the rest of the legatees apparently were not. In 1614-15, Peter Coffin was a church-warden in Brixton. After his death his widow Joane who received his lands for life probably kept her children with her until they all left for America in 1642. The two daughters who did not come to America probably married in England.

2.   Cutter, William Richard. New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of the Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation. (New York, New York, United States: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913-14)
   2:989-990.

   
   The name Coffin is an ancient and honorable one in Old England as well as in New England. The family is of Norman origin, as the first of the name known in England was Sir Richard Coffin, Knight, who accompanied William, the Conqueror, in his invasion of Britain in 1066.
   
   (I) Peter Coffin, a descendant of Sir Richard Coffin, (This statement is unproved. The proven line of descent starts with Peter's father, Nicholas Coffin; see Holman's Pillsbury Ancestry, 2:101]]) married Joan or Joanna Thember (or Thimbre), and and died in England in 1628. His widow, with son Tristram and daughters, Mary and Eunice, came to New England in 1642, stopping at Salisbury. From that point they moved to Haverhill and Newbury, and the Widow Coffin died at Nantucket in May, 1661.
   
   (II) Tristram, son of Peter Coffin, was of Butler's Parish, Brixton, Devonshire, England, and accompanied his widowed mother to this country, in 1628 [1642]. He married Dionis Stevens, daughter of Robert Stevens. He was one of the Salisbury men who purchased of Thomas Mayhew nineteen-twentieths of the Island of Nantucket, whither he removed in 1660, with his wife and some of his children, and where he died. Through his sons, James and Stephen, have descended the Nantucket branch of the New England Coffins. Hon. Peter Coffin, son of Tristram, later removed to New Hampshire [if in fact he had ever removed to Nantucket in the first place], and rose to be chief justice of the superior court of that state. The distinguished loyalist, Gen. John Coffin, and Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Baronet, also descended from Tristram Coffin. Dr. Nathaniel Coffin, a distinguished physician of Portland, Maine, and his son of the same name and even greater distinction, sprang from the same stock. The children of Tristram and Dionis (Stevens) Coffin were nine in number, the first five born in England and the remaining four in this country …
   
   (III) James, son of Tristram Coffin, was born August 12, 1640. He married December 3, 1663, Mary Severance, daughter of John and Abigail Severance. He settled on the island of Nantucket, where his life was spent and where he died July 26, 1720. His children were: Mary, born in 1665; James Jr.; Nathaniel, mentioned below; John; Dianah; Deborah; Ebenezer, born in 1678; Joseph, born 1680; Elizabeth; Benjamin, born 1683; Ruth; Abigail; Experience and Jonathan.
   
   (IV) Nathaniel, son of James Coffin, was born at Nantucket, in 1671, and died there October 29, 1721. He married October 17, 1692, Damaris Gayer, daughter of William and Dorcas Gayer, of Nantucket. She was born October 24, 1673, and died September 6, 1764. Their children, born at Nantucket, were: Dorcas, born July 22, 1693; Christian, April 8, 1695; Lydia, May 16, 1697; William, December 1, 1699; Charles, January 1, 1702; Benjamin, April 3, 1705; Gayer, May 24, 1709; Nathaniel Jr., mentioned below; Catherine, born June 15, 1715.

3. ↑ Macy, Sylvanus J.; Nathaniel W. Coffin; and William S. Appleton. The Coffin Family. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (New England Historical Genealogical Society, Apr, Jul 1870)
   24:149-150.

   Peter Coffin, of Brixton, by his will dated December 21, 1627, and proved March 13, 1628, provides that his wife, Joan, shall have possession of the land, &c, during her life, and that then said property shall go to his son and heir, Tristram, "who is to be provided for according to his degree and calling;" and that his son John is to have certain property when he shall be twenty years of age. He speaks of his daughters, Joan, Deborah, Eunice and Mary, as being under twenty years of age. He refers to his tenement call Silferhay, in Butlers, and to his brother Nicholas. He was the father of the emigrant.
   
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