Replicas of Memorial Brass

R e p lic a s o f M em o ri a l B r a ss A v a i l a b l e f o r C o ffi n D e s c e n d a n ts

NO ONE IS certain how many descendants of Tristram Coffin, one of the original Nantucket proprietors, are living across the United States today. One thing is certain — there are a lot of them. And the small English village church where one of their ancestors lies buried is hoping that some of Tristram's descendants will want a distinctive momento of the Coffin family.

Members of the Church of St. Michael Penkivel, near Truro in Cornwall, are preparing to commission production of about two dozen replicas of the memorial brass to Marie, widow of Peter Coffin, who is believed to have been Tristram's great-grandmother.

The replicas will be exact duplicates, cast in hard resin rather than metal, of the engraved brass plate placed in the floor of the church more than 350 years ago. The brass, about 30 inches high, shows the engraved figure of a woman in ornate Elizabethan dress with this still-clear legend below:

"Here lyeth of the Body of Marie The Widdow of Peter Coffin Gent & 4th Daughter of Hugh Boscawen of Tregothnan Esq., Whoe Dyed Ye 4th Day of September 1622 Aged 71 Yeares."

N. K. Jeans, Treasurer of the church, sends word that the St. Michael Penkivel parish hopes to sell the reproductions to help solve the prime problem of most rural English churches — a shortage of funds to maintain a historic building which still contains the original foundation stone consecrated on August 13, 1261.

Americans who would like to have one of the small number of replicas can get further details from Mrs. Madeline Brenner, 3427 Executive Avenue, Falls Church, Va. 22042 (a Coffin descendant) or from Mr. Jeans at The Old Rectory, St. Michael Penkivel, Truro, Cornwall, England.

The St. Michael Penkivel replica will be suitable for either hanging or "rubbing" — a process in which paper is laid over the figure and rubbed with hard wax to produce an image.

The Coffins, of course, were a Devon Family. However, Marie was buried in the parish church of her own family, the Boscawens. The present Viscount Falmouth, a Boscawen, lives nearby at Tregothnan, once Marie's home.