Stories

The family’s history as a book, in parts and chapters, each chapter told from the records.

Overview: Four Centuries of Movement. The whole route, from the Devon Coffins to New Bedford, on one page.

Contents

Part I. Leaving England

  1. I.1Rev. John Robinsonc. 1576-1625Theological founder of the Pilgrim movement, pastor of the Separatist congregation at Leiden (1609-1625) that became the Mayflower Pilgrims. He died in Leiden before the crossing, but his church became Plymouth Colony.
  2. I.2The Mayflower1620-1621102 passengers, 66 days at sea, and the founding of Plymouth Colony. Four of the family's ancestors were aboard.
  3. I.3Tristram Coffinc. 1605–1681Founder of Nantucket. Led the nine original purchasers who bought the island in 1659 for £30 and two beaver hats. First Chief Magistrate of Nantucket.

Part II. New England Dissent

Chapters in preparation.

Part III. Nantucket

  1. III.1Thirty Pounds and Two Beaver Hats1659-1681From Dionis Coffin's beer case to the purchase of Nantucket.
  2. III.2The Wreck and the Fine1678-1681A French ship on the Nantucket shoals, two thousand hides, and the fine that nearly sent the island's first magistrate to prison.
  3. III.3The Island That Lit the World1712-1846How the Coffins, Folgers, Macys, Starbucks and Gardners of Nantucket built the whaling industry that lit the world.

Background: Nantucket, an Island Run by Shares

Part IV. Revolution & Reform

  1. IV.1The Liberty Tree1646-1775The most famous tree in American history, and the family's connection to both sides of it.

Background: Service in the Revolution

Part V. America Moves West

  1. V.1Leroy E. Swift1836–after 1874A Falmouth mariner’s son who served as a Navy officer in the Gulf, married in New Orleans, and left a son who found his way back to New England.

Part VI. Within Living Memory

  1. VI.1The Annotator's Album1840s-1910sFamily photographs, a blue-ink pen, and the women the labels name.
  2. VI.21928: The Strike1928Twenty-seven thousand textile workers, a ten per cent wage cut, and a captain of the National Guard whose battery stood by and was never used against a crowd.

Part VII. Tradition & Legend

  1. VII.1The Domesday Book & the Coffin Name1086What the Domesday Book of 1086 records about Alwington, and the history of the Coffin name and the Coffins of Alwington.