The Coffin Family

T h e C o ffi n F a m i l y

by Walter Weston Folger

RECENT PUBLICATIONS CONCERNING the counties of Cornwall and Devon brought about further research into the ancestry of Tristram Coffin, of Brixton Parish, Hundred of Plympton, Devonshire. Using the family given names Nicholas (will proved 3 November 1613), Peter and Tristram as leads, several parish registers were checked. A list of these parish registers, with the Coffin entries, will be placed in The Peter Foulger Museum.

The only "Tristram" Coffing (sic) found resided in Stoke Damerell Parish, Hundred of Roborough, Devonshire, in 1641. This seems to have been only a transient record, as our Tristram was listed in the seating of the "Parishnours" of Brixton Church in 1638, and he is believed to have come to this country in 1642.

There were two Coffyns of the given name Nicholas, born between the years of 1509 and 1553, residing in Plympton (St.) Mary Parish, Hundred of Plympton, in 1569.1n 1641 we find a Nicholas Coffine (sic) in Plympton St .Maurice Parish and two of the same given name in Bickleigh Parish, Hundred of Roborough.Plympton and Roborough are adjoining hundreds.A Nicholas Coffyn married Thomasyn Russell in St.Budeaux Parish, also in the Hundred of Roborough, 29 September 1604. Still another Nicholas Coffen (sic) was listed in Colan Parish, Hundred of Pyder, co.Cornwall, in 1641.

Peter Coffyn, of St. Mawgan Parish, Hundred of Pyder, co. Cornwall, gent., whose will was dated 13 April 1605 and who was born in I elyn(t) Parish, Hundred of West, of the same county, married Mary (Marie), daughter of Hugh Boscawen and Phillip(a) Carminow, in St. Michael Penkivel, Hundred of Powder, where her memorial brass may be seen in the center of the floor of the church. Peter mentions his wife and a sister, Elizabeth Goldsmith, in his will. Pelyn Parish, incidentally, is only about twenty miles down the coast from Plymouth, Hundred of Roborough, Devonshire. This will should dispel the long-held belief that Peter was the father of Nicholas Coffyn, Tristram's grandfather. Peter Coffyn, of Brixton, whose will was proved 13 March 1627/8, was Tristram Coffin's father.

Too much effort has been made to attribute Tristram's paternal ancestry to the elder (Alwington) or more prominent branch of the Coffin family. If Nicholas Coffyn, Tristram's grandfather, represents a cadet

h branch of that family, the divergence therefrom must have been in an earlier generation than is now believed. According to the Lay Subsidy Rolls of Brixton Parish, John Coffyn resided there and had goods of 4d in 1545. The name is also listed there in 1569, but not in the Subsidy Rolls of 1571 and 1582.

Tristram Coffin, in calling the region at Cappam Harbor (Cappamet) on Nantucket "Northam", suggests a connection with the Alwington branch of the family but the Northam Parish Registers do not support this rather tenuous theory: there are no Coffyn entries from 1538 to 1700! Northam and Alwington parishes are in the Hundred of Shebbear, Devonshire. It may be significant, however, that John Coffyn, of Northam, born c. 1458, second son of William Coffyn, of Alwington, who died 11 September 1486, was the founder of the Northam branch, which he may have inherited from his mother's family.

This search failed to reveal information pertaining to the ancestry of Tristram Coffin. It is hoped that a new approach may be productive. One is only left to conclude that Tristram's grandfather, Nicholas, was one of the two of that given name residing in Plympton St. Mary Parish in 1769.