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Ancestors For Lucretia Coffin Mott By Robert J. Leach LUCRETIA COFFIN MOTT may be the most famous of famous people born on Nantucket. She was born in 1793, the second daughter of Thomas Coffin (1761-1815) and his wife Anna (Folger) Coffin (1771-1844). The family migrated to New York State, where in time Lucretia married James Mott and moved to Philadelphia. At the time of the Orthodox-Hicksite separation within the Society of Friends the Motts chose the Hicksite branch. After that same separation struck Nantucket in 1831 the Motts made several visits to Nantucket, when she preached in the Hicksite Meeting House on Main Street which stood on the present site of the White Eagle guest house. Who were Lucretia's ancestors? There are many evidences that she was a gifted speaker, as well as an ardent Anti-Slavery and Women's Rights advocate, in part, because of her inheritance. Nantucket is said to have been run by women, when the men were away whaling. It is interesting to note if any of Lucretia's ancestors were notable as teachers, preachers or moral advocates. The answer is obviously in the affirmative. But, exactly, who were they? First her parental grandparents come to view. Grandfather Ben jamin Coffin (1705-1780) was the keeper of a famous Quaker school from about 1730 to 1777. In addition, he was the first banker on the Island. Benjamin was an elder in Meeting, its Clerk for many years, and father of fifteen children, of whom Thomas was the fourteenth. Lucretia never knew him, but she probably did know her maternal grandmother, Deborah (Macy) Coffin (1726-?), who apparently accompanied her oldest son, Isaac to Nova Scotia, after the Revolutionary War, hence the uncertainty of her date of death. Grandfather Benjamin's parents were Captain Nathaniel Coffin (1671-1721), not a Friend, who ran a coastal vessel and Damaris (Gayer) Coffin (1675-1764), Quaker and inheritor of a third of the Gayer fortune, literate in the Latin Classics, which enjoyment she passed to Lucretia's Grandfather. Benjamin's Grandfather was Magistrate James Coffin (1640-1720). Benjamin's Grandmother was a Boston woman, Mary (Severance) Coffin, (1645-1695). Neither were drawn to Friends. And of course, James' father, Lucretia's thrice Great-Grandfather, was Tristram Coffin, (1604-1681), a principal figure in the first settling of Nantucket. Benjamin Coffin's Grandfather was Magistrate William Gayer, (1635-1710), youngest son of an English Baron, in a line
