The Portledge Centuries

Portledge

Portledge House, Alwington, Devon, overlooking the Bristol Channel.

Portledge Manor sits in the parish of Alwington ↗, Devon, England. The estate overlooks the Bristol Channel ↗. The Coffin family held this land through the medieval centuries, documented in Vivian’s Visitations of Devon back to the 1100s, before a Coffin ever crossed the Atlantic.

The family consolidated its position in Devon across the reigns of the Plantagenet kings. Records name Sir Richard Coffin under Henry II (1154-1189), Sir Elias Coffin under King John (1199-1216), and Sir Jeffrey Coffin and Combe Coffin under Henry III (1216-1272). The manor at Alwington passed from father to son.

Through the catastrophes of the fourteenth century, the Great Famine, the Black Death, the Peasants’ Revolt, the Hundred Years War, the Coffins held Alwington. The estate survived because the land survived. Devon was far enough from London to avoid the worst political turmoil, close enough to the sea to sustain itself.

Peter Coffin lived through the reign of Elizabeth I, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the founding of the East India Company, and Shakespeare’s entire career. He died the year before Pocahontas arrived in England. His grandchildren would be the ones to leave.

Peter died before his most famous son was grown. Joan Kember Coffin survived her husband by 33 years, eventually crossing the Atlantic herself. She died in Boston in May 1661. The Reverend Mr. Wilson preached her funeral sermon, speaking of her as “a woman of remarkable character.”

Tristram Coffin (1609-1681). Medallion portrait.

The Tristram Coffin homestead marker, Nantucket.

From the medieval Coffins of Alwington to an island patriarch off Cape Cod: a Devon tenure documented back to the 1100s, then one crossing that changed everything. The Coffin line didn’t just arrive in America; it carried centuries of Devon behind it.

The Direct Line

Hand-drawn Coffin family tree illustration.

What the Coffins Lived Through

The Coat of Arms

The Coffin coat of arms dates from the family’s centuries at Portledge and reflects their long tenure as Devon gentry. The arms were borne by the Coffins of Portledge, Alwington, and their cadet branches across southwestern England.

Sir William Coffin, kinsman to the Portledge line, served as Sheriff of Devonshire under Henry VIII and Master of the Horse for Queen Anne Boleyn’s coronation, one of only 18 men who accompanied the King to a tournament in France. When Sir William died, he left his prize hawks and horses to the King himself.

Tristram’s Departure

Tristram did not leave the Portledge seat itself. By his generation the family had divided into branches: the senior line held Portledge and Alwington in unbroken male succession until 1766 (John Coffin, d. 1622, then Richard Coffin, 1623-1700, Sheriff of Devon), while Tristram belonged to the Brixton branch near Plymouth in South Devon. It was from Brixton that he left England around 1642, in the English Civil War, after his brother John was mortally wounded at Plymouth Fort. He settled first in Salisbury, Massachusetts, then Haverhill, then Newbury. Within 17 years of leaving Devon he had purchased an island, leading the acquisition of Nantucket in 1659 with eight other proprietors. On the two separate 17th-century departures, see audit/07-17th-century-departures.md.

Portledge Today

Portledge House still stands in Alwington, Devon. It is now a private estate. The building visible today dates primarily from later centuries but occupies the same site the Coffin family held for over 500 years.

Traditional claims of pre-Conquest Coffin origins, including the Sir Richard Coffin at Hastings tradition and the family’s Norman name and French holdings, are preserved in the archive basement.