John Coates (1798 - 1865)

Born 23 Jul 1798 in Parson Drove, Cambridgeshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Swift) Coates — married 27 Jun 1820 in Parson Drove, Cambridgeshire, England

Husband of Phoebe (Trow) Jessup — married 9 Jun 1858 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Descendants

Died 5 Jun 1865 at age 66 in Kyneton hospital, Kyneton, Victoria, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Veronica Williams [send private message] and Stephen Coates [send private message]

Biography

John Coates was born in Cambridgeshire, England.

John Coates migrated from England to Australia.

John Coates came free to the Colony of South Australia (1836-1900)

John COATES.^[1]

It is believed that John was born/christened on 21 Oct 1800, a second son to parents William COATES and Sarah BUNTER at Parsons Drove in Cambridgeshire. This has yet to be verified. William and Sarah were believed to have 12 children. Christening records have been found for the later 9 but the earlier 3 have not yet been verified by me. The research of Graeme COATES has indicated they are all from the same family.

EXTRACTS: Graeme Coates, History of the Coates Family 1755-1987:

On June 27, 1820, John Coates married Sarah Swift of Parson Drove, she being the only daughter of Thomas Swift, who had married twice. Thomas had five children to his first wife, Fanny, before she died. Six months later he married Frances Liles, and he himself died before their only child, Sarah, was born in 1801.

Eight months after John and Sarah's wedding, William Coates, John's father, passed away at the age of 47 years. He was buried at Parson Drove. His wife, Sarah, later remarried to William Eddis. They had no children.

John was a farmer in Wisbech as a lad on his father William's farm. John Coates and his wife, Sarah Swift, carried on farming his father's 50 acres at Murrow and over the next 20 years they had 12 children, of whom two died in infancy: Ann and Eliza. (NOTE by Veronica Williams: This is incorrect at least for Ann, she is alive and well in 1820 in the 1841 census and travels to Australia with the rest of her family as Ann Griffin). The first two children were born at Parson Drove and the rest at Murrow.

The big depression hit hard in 1823-1830, particularly for farmers even though some of the best wheat was grown at Wisbech after the fens (swamps) were drained in 1835. but in 1846-1852 a worse depression hit England, crops failed in about 1851very bad whilst the depression was still on then, grain prices were at an all time low.

In the latter part of 1851, John and Sarah Coates made the decision to leave their homeland and follow the path of hundreds of others to the newly talked about colony of Australia. On board the barque Amazon, they sailed from Plymouth in 1852 as assisted immigrants, leaving their home, farm and friends, never to return. With John and Sarah came eight of their 11 children: John (with his wife, Rebecca Preswood), Elizabeth, Josiah, Mary Susannah, Sarah Jane, George, Charles Henry and Alfred Thomas. Of the other three children, Ann had passed away (NOTE by Veronica Williams: Ann was also on board married to James Griffin), Frances may have been married and William is believed to have been in the army and unable to come. William later married in England and had a family. Sarah Ellen Bemrose Kent, who was engaged to Josiah Coates, also accompanied the group. Sarah Ellen was a first cousin to Rebecca Preswood. Also travelling with the Coates party was William Pilgrim, who later married Mary Susannah Coates.

John and Sarah decided to make the move and emigrated to Australia in November 1851. The Coates family was the largest on that voyage of the Amazon, during which 19 of the 300 passengers died. There were five births. (NOTE by Veronica Williams: One of the children born was Frederick William GRIFFIN, son of Ann, therefore grandson to John and Sarah). But in 1852 the crops were the best for decades but the depression lasted until 1853/4 and the family were now farming in a new land.

On arrival in Adelaide, the family found a home in Bowden, a suburb of Adelaide, and set to work finding odd jobs. In 1852, Adelaide had only 14,580 people, but by mid-1853, thousands were leaving for the Victorian goldfields.

In late September 1852, the two eldest boys, John and Josiah decided to go to Victoria on hearing of Major Thomas Mitchell's travels through the western district of Victoria, which he called Australia Felix. A party of eight, consisting of John, Rebecca, Josiah, Sarah, Charles Howe and his wife and Charles Gale and his wife, set out in bullock drays to cross unknown country in search of the rich grasslands described by Mitchell. They settled on the banks of the Avoca River in central Victoria, in the area that later became the town of Avoca, becoming the first white people to do so. For four months the party saw no other white people, and being frightened of the Aborigines, they had a guard posted permanently. But there is no record of any trouble with the Aborigines.

In 1853 there was a gold rush to Daisy Hill, near present-day Maryborough, and the party moved there, then to Amherst, scene of another gold rush. After trying their hand a prospecting with little success, John and Josiah returned to their camp site at Avoca. The Gales and Howes stayed at Daisy Hill. In May 1853, gold was found at Avoca and nearby Lamplough, and Josiah took to prospecting again. He also worked a dray on the Lamplough diggings and was a carrier from the sea port to the diggings.

After Sarah died in Adelaide in 1857, all the family members except Charles Henry moved to central Victoria, where John and Josiah by now had large land holdings. John Coates, the father, moved to Kyneton and went prospecting for gold. John was a farmer in Wisbech as a lad on his father William's farm The big depression hit hard in 1823-1830, particularly for farmers even though some of the best wheat was grown at Wisbech after the fens (swamps) were drained in 1835. but in 1846-1852 a worse depression hit England, crops failed about 1851 very bad whilst the depression was still on then, grain prices were at an all time low and that is why John and Sarah decided to make the move and emograted to Australia in November 1851. But in 1852 the crops were the best for decades but the depression lasted until 1853/4 and the familyy were now farming in a new land. John later ended up in Kyenton on the goldfields where he died in 1865. He is buried there in an unmarked plot in the old cemetery."

There were several newspaper reports about the AMAZON's arrival:-

◆ The South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), reported on Friday 30 January 1852, page 2: VESSELS LAID ON FOR THIS PORT. FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM. Sailed from Plymouth, August 15th. Amazon (ship), 791 tons, W. Crondace, master. To sail from Plymouth 15th November, with Government emigrants. Caucasian (barque). To sail 25th October, with Government emigrants. For Adelaide and Melbourne.

◆ The Sydney Shipping Gazette (SSG) also reported on February 19 1852-- Amazon, barque, Cook, from Plymouth 26th November. passengers-- Mr. & Mrs Joyner and three children, and Dr. Edward Gregory, Surgeon-Superintendent, with 286 emigrants. The Amazon arrived on Thursday from Plymouth, which port she left on 26th November last, and we regret to learn there have been the great number of seventeen deaths on board during the voyage, sixteen of them have been children, which have been taken off by the measles and hooping cough [sic] and which we understand is still prevalent on board. -5th ship from England to S.A. with government passengers for 1852; five births & nineteen deaths on the passage; note spelling and name variations and age discrepancies.

◆ The South Australian Register Friday 20 February 1852:- Thursday February 19th The Barque Amazon 797 tons, Cook Master, from Plymouth 26th November, with 285 Government Emigrants.

◆ The South Australian Register Saturday 21 February 1852:-
Passengers by the the Amazon (Arrival reported yesterday) Mr. and Mrs. Joyner and three children, and Dr. Edward Gregory Surg. Sup. In the cabin.
Birth on the passage: Mrs. Griffin and Mrs. Chisholm of sons , Mrs Weller who died, Mrs. Henderson and Mrs. Miller of Daughters. The child of Mrs. Weller, lives, Having been kindly cared for by one of the females. Death on the passage: John and Rebecca Albins, Janet Laidlaw, James Patterson, Susan Place, Emma and Esther Weller, William Thomas Wright, John O'Loughlin, James Anderson, Fanny Dodds, John Harris, Mary Richards, Mary and Ann Williams, James Ballantyne and William Phillips, also Mrs. Elizabeth Weller died shortly after confined.

There are other families on board (including Ann’s new family the GRIFFIN's) that may be related (then or at a later time) including the names Bradley, Richards, and Pilgrim.

The following information was recorded on the ships passenger list:

Coates John 52 Agr. Labourer 289/1 Cambridge, Sarah 50, Charles Henry 11, Alfred Thomas 8. Coates John 22 289/1 Cambridge with parents Rebecca 22 with parents Coates Josiah 19 Agr. Labourer 289/1 Cambridge with parents Coates George 14 Agr. Labourer 289/1 Cambridge with parents Coates Elizabeth 20 Domestic Servant Cambridge with parents Coates Sarah Jane 15 Cambridge with parents Coates Mary Susannah 17 Cambridge with parents.

Graeme COATES' research suggests the family originally came from North Yorkshire (Buckden, Hubble Home area) prior to being at Parson Drove, Murrow in 1774. There is however a place called Buckden in Cambridgeshire only 41 miles from Murrow, perhaps this is more likely.

Sources

1. ↑ Veronica Williams creatied WikiTree profile Coates-682 through the import of GRIFFIN_2013-08-12.ged on Aug 12, 2013 and Bazz Hoey also created Coates-653 on 12 Aug 13.

• England Births and Christenings 1538-1975 - Family Search, www.family search.com, COATES Elizabeth 1831 and John 1829 Christenings - IGI Index, C135348; Wisbech St Mary Cambridgeshire.

• BDM - Cambridgeshire Baptism Index 1801-1837, www.cfhs.org.uk, COATES - Wisbech St Mary and Parson Drove.

• Australia Death Index, 1787-1985 (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.Original data - Compiled from publicly available sources.Original data: Compiled from publicly available sources.), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, Database online.

• IGI Pedigree file, COATES, John 1800 - Compact Disc #89, Pin #361915.

• 1851 England Census (Provo, UT, USA, Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005), www.ancestry.com.au, COATES Charles Henry. Database online.

• Australia Cemetery Index, 1808-2007 (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.Original data - Cemetery transcriptions compiled from various local family history societies. Name of compiler is provided for each record.Original data: Cemetery transcriptions compile), Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, Database online.

• BDM - SA, Digger index, COATES Sarah - Death - Bowden 5/71.

• Genealogy reports, Various, COATS - Descendants of Charles Henry.

• BDM - Cambridgeshire Baptism Index 1801-1837, www.cfhs.org.uk, COATES - Ann - Parson Drove. http://www.cfhs.org.uk/cgi-bin/baptismindex.cgi.

• Email, V Williams, MERRITT L. 23 February 2014.

• History of the COATES family, 1755-1987, Graeme Coates, From the old country to the new.

• DNA Match - GEDmatch, www.gedmatch.com, K.E, paternal 4C1R, 21 Nov 2016. Confirmed GEDmatch with Veronica Williams (T350954) and (A210601) . Shared ancestors John COATES and Sarah SWIFT.

• 1841 England Census, COURTS Ann, parents and siblings. Database online.

• BDM - Certificates, GRIFFIN to COATS - Marriage GRO 177/1850.

• Shipping - The Ships List, www.theshipslist.com, 1851/2 Amazon; Plymouth to Port Adelaide - The Ships List www.theshipslist.com.

• BDM - SA, Digger index, COATS to Brown marriage ADE 57/334.

• BDM - Cambridgeshire Baptism Index 1801-1837, www.cfhs.org.uk, COURTS Frances 1827 - Wisbech St Mary and Parson Drove; John and Sarah.

• BDM - SA, Digger index, COATES to Wells marriage 1858 ADE 38/30.

• Research conversations, COATES Graeme - Letter received 21st September 2012.

• One World Tree, www.findmypast.com, COATES John, 1800 - http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi.

• IGI Pedigree file, COATES, John 1800 - Compact Disc #89, Pin #361915.