Mary Coffin

1645 - 1717  (72 years)

• Name	Mary Coffin  [1, 2, 3]
  Birth	20 Feb 1645	Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts   [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
  Gender	Female
  Death	13 Nov 1717	Nantucket, Massachusetts   [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
  Burial	Friends Burying Ground, Nantucket, Massachusetts   [5]
  Siblings	4 siblings
  + 1. Elizabeth Coffin ,   b. Abt 1631   d. 19 Nov 1678, Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 47 years) ▻ Capt. Stephen Greenleaf + 2. Lt. Tristram Coffin ,   b. 1632, Brixton, Devon, England d. 4 Feb 1704, Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts  (Age 72 years) ▻ Judith Greenleaf ,  m. 2 Mar 1653 + 3. James Coffin ,   b. Bef 11 Sep 1639   d. 28 Sep 1720, Nantucket, Massachusetts  (Age > 81 years) ▻ Mary Severance ,  m. 3 Dec 1663 + 4. Mary Coffin ,   b. 20 Feb 1645, Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts d. 13 Nov 1717, Nantucket, Massachusetts  (Age 72 years) ▻ Nathaniel Starbuck ,  m. Bef 30 Mar 1663 + 5. John Coffin ,   b. 30 Aug 1647, Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts d. 5 Sep 1711, Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts  (Age 64 years) ▻ Deborah Austin ,  m. 1668
  Person ID	I13182	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of JTS, Ancestor of LDN
  Last Modified	30 Jan 2024

  
  

  Father	Tristram Coffin, Governor of Nantucket,   b. Bef 11 Mar 1610   d. 3 Oct 1681, Nantucket, New York (Age > 71 years)
  Mother	Dionis Stevens,   b. Bef 4 Mar 1610, Brixton, Devon, England d. Aft 29 Nov 1681, Nantucket, New York (Age > 71 years)
  Marriage	Between 16 Dec 1627 and 18 Jul 1630	Brixton, Devon, England   [10]
  Family ID	F6298	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Nathaniel Starbuck,   b. Abt 1635   d. 6 Aug 1719, Nantucket, Massachusetts (Age ~ 84 years)
  Marriage	Bef 30 Mar 1663  [6]
  Children	+ 1. Mary Starbuck,   b. 30 Mar 1663, Nantucket, Massachusetts d. Aft 12 Sep 1696 (Age > 33 years) + 2. Jethro Starbuck,   b. 14 Dec 1671   d. 12 Aug 1770, Nantucket, Massachusetts (Age 98 years)
  Family ID	F8221	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	2 Apr 2020

  
  

• Notes

  From Alison M. Gavin, "A Tale of Two Women: Seventeenth-Century Coffin and Starbuck Matriarchs", citation details below: Tristram and Dionis's daughter Mary Coffin Starbuck undertook first alone, and later with her eldest son Nathaniel, a number of commercial ventures, including a country store, extensive land trading, and investment in the nascent Nantucket whaling industry. Mary not only knew how to read and write; she also mastered Latin and Greek, and was "well read in the Scriptures." Despite the fact that children growing up in the Bay Colony were required to attend school, Mary's level of education would have been unusual. The ability to read and write classical languages was usually a skill possessed only by young men studying for the ministry at Harvard College. All sources point to Mary being precocious and charismatic. From Noyes-Gilman Ancestry, citation details below: She was a remarkable woman, and in the language of a preacher of the day, "The Islanders esteemed her as a judge among them, for little of moment was done without her." She attended town meetings and took part in the debates, usually beginning "my husband thinks" so-and-so, or "my husband and I, having considered the matter, think" so-and-so; in 1701 she became a Quaker, and was distinguished as a teacher.

  
  

• Sources

  [S2272] Vital records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the year 1850. Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1925-1928. Also online here and here. [S3420] Thomas Gardner, Planter, and Some of His Descendants by Frank A. Gardner. Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Institute, 1907. [S3449] New Englanders in Nova Scotia, manuscript and collection of articles and research material, including articles written by Fred E. Crowell in the 1920s and 30s for the Yarmouth Herald, and also Crowell's research notes. R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Searchable at americanancestors.org. [S544] Noyes-Gilman Ancestry: Being a Series of Sketches, with a Chart of the Ancestors of Charles Phelps Noyes and Emily H. (Gilman) Noyes, His Wife by Charles Phelps Noyes. St. Paul, Minnesota, 1907. [S630] Ancestry of Charles Stinson Pillsbury and John Sargent Pillsbury by Mary Lovering Holman. Concord, New Hampshire: The Rumford Press, 1938. [S756] Early New England Families Study Project: Accounts of New England Families from 1641 to 1700 by Alicia Crane Williams. Online database, New England Historic Genealogical Society. [S1562] The History of Nantucket, County, Island, and Town, Including Genealogies of First Settlers, by Alexander Starbuck. Boston: C. E. Goodspeed & Co., 1924. [S1568] Alison M. Gavin, "A Tale of Two Women: Seventeenth-Century Coffin and Starbuck Matriarchs." New England Ancestors 9.4, Fall 2008, p. 21. [S5882] Ancestral Lines from Maine to North Carolina by Carl Boyer III. Santa Clarita, California, 2015. [S756] Early New England Families Study Project: Accounts of New England Families from 1641 to 1700 by Alicia Crane Williams. Online database, New England Historic Genealogical Society., says "Probably at Brixton".