My Coffin Roots

Interesting information and stories about the descendents of the Dutch Coffins from Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

John Coffin, born 1753, Dutchess County, New York

I received an e-mail last week from Barry Moses, asking about John Coffin, who married Marytje Van Tassel. Barry descends from John Coffin through his son Isaac Coffin, through his son Isaac Jr., through his daughter Maria Elizabeth who married Aaron Stone Lee. Mr. Lynn Alitz, another descendent of Aaron and Maria (Coffin) Lee, was kind enough to send me a copy of the Lee family Bible, which had been used by Aaron and Maria's daughter Elizabeth, widow of Alexander Ray, as documentation for her Civil War pension.

John Coffin appears to have been a private in the Revolutionary War. "New York in the Revolution as Colony and State" (Albany, NY, 1904) lists a John Coffin on page 136 as an enlisted man in the Second Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia. "Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York" (Berthold Fernow, 1887, Albany, NY), pages 278, 279, and 345, indicate that John Coffin was a private in the Second Regiment, which was from Rombout Precinct. John Coffin is found in the Tax Lists of Rombout Precinct for 1772-1775, and 1777-1779. It is interesting to note that Tucker F. Morian, in his S.A.R. application, erroneously used this resource to show that the John Coffin who married Mary Davis was a Revolutionary War soldier, and then used Cutter's "Genealogical and Family History of Northern New York" to prove that he descended from that John Coffin.

The records of The First Reformed Dutch Church of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, show a marriage between Marytje Van Tessel and John Coffin on 16 Jan 1772. "The Genealogy of the Van Tassel and Allied Lines of North America", by Mary McRae (Van Tassel) Pazurik, shows the family of Hendrick and Mettie (Kraukheit) Van Tassel, who lived in Fishkill, New York. They had a daughter, Marya, baptized 10 Apr 1743, which is almost certainly the Mary Van Tassel that married John Coffin.

Census records of 1790 and 1800 show John Coffin living in Albany county, New York. The 1800 census, in the town of Bethlehem, seems to indicate that John's son Isaac and family were living with John and Mary. The 1810 census of Bethlehem shows Isaac Coffin, with the same neighbors as were living near John Coffin in 1800. One researcher lists John's death as 12 Apr 1833, supposedly using a family Bible as a reference, but I haven't seen a copy of that family Bible or any other records to confirm that.

2 Comments:

Blogger GordonVG said...

I was just doing a little online reading about Henry C. Raven and Meshie and came across your site. Did you see the recent NY TIMES articles about Raven's son seeing Meshie on display at the American Museum of Natural History? They're online here...but be warned that they don't paint a pleasant portrait of the chimp:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/the-story-behind-a-chimp-off-the-old-block/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/nyregion/06chimp.html?adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1325217082-Q8rlR7SoSF1tKssJWRJaJA

---Gordon Van Gelder

8:12 PM  
Blogger H said...

Hi Gordon -- I just came across this blog. Your text "Be warned that they don't paint a very pleasant picture of the chimp." Perhaps not, but reporter Joyce Wadler and I were correcting misperceptions as to what it was like for my mother, my older sister and me to suffer through those four years. All scenes in photos and the one film in which sister Jane and I appeared were staged -- one time only events. Meshie never slept in a bed and was hardly a sibling. Meshie was a caged animal and only released by my father -- FYI. Just sayin' --

Cordially,

Harry Raven

2:49 PM  

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