John Coffin (judge)

John Coffin (1756 – May 12, 1838) was a British army officer, merchant, judge, enslaver and political figure in New Brunswick. He represented King's County in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick from 1785 to 1816.

Coffin Family Lineage and Legacy

John Coffin is a descendant in Line C of James Coffin Sr., who was a son of Tristram and Dionis (Stevens) Coffin Sr. Born into this family line in Boston, Massachusetts,, he was the son of Nathaniel Coffin and Elizabeth Barnes. His brother Isaac was an Admiral in the British Navy and a prominent land owner in Quebec.

The progenitor of the Coffin Family, Tristram Coffin Sr., was a colonist who came to Massachusetts from Butlas Parish, Devon, England with his family in 1642. Many of his descendants became triangle traders who were merchants, enslavers, and Captains or Masters of vessels dealing in the slave trade for their own profit and benefit. Other descendants became anti-slavery activists and abolitionists who worked with both free and enslaved African Americans to expand the underground railroad network in the United States.

Oral history of the Coffin family passed down to some living descendants speaks to the smuggling of slaves into Canada for freedom, while other Coffin descendants at the same time were illegally smuggling slaves into Canada to enslave them, despite the international slave trade being banned in 1808.

Military and Political Career

As a staunch loyalist, he entered the British Army and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was a Major in the Orange Rangers in 1777, serving in New Jersey and New York, and later transferred to the New York Volunteers, which saw action in Georgia and South Carolina. In 1781, he married Ann Mathews, the daughter of a very wealthy and influential slaveholder from South Carolina.

In 1782, he became a major in the King's American Regiment. In 1783, he was placed on half pay and brought his family to what is now New Brunswick.

In New Brunswick, he acquired a large estate from Beamsley Perkins Glasier, where he built a grist mill and a sawmill. He also sold fish, lumber and rum. He was named a Justice of the Peace and a Judge in the Inferior Court of Common Pleas. In 1812, he was named to the New Brunswick Council. He raised the New Brunswick Fencibles during the War of 1812. In 1819, he was given the rank of full General. In 1817, he moved to England, but he retained his position on the New Brunswick Council until 1828. He later returned to New Brunswick and died in Westfield Parish.

John Coffin, Enslaver

In April of 1783, a man named Mr. Greentree sold three people who had been forced into slavery to Major John Coffin. The enslaved people came to New Brunswick on the vessel "PEGGY," which was commanded by a ship Master named Jacob Wilson. The names of the enslaved were:

Paul Coffin, male, age 29 Harry, male, age 23 Phebe, female, age 21

Burial

General John Coffin was buried along with his son Nathaniel in St. Peter's Cemetery at Woodman's Point where the Nerapis meets the Saint John River. Their markers, under a huge Oak tree simply read General Coffin age 87, Nath Coffin age 15.

References

• Elliott, Robert S (1988). "John Coffin". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved 2011-02-02.