Matthew Coe (1622 - bef. 1675)

Born 1622 in England

Husband of Elizabeth (Wakley) Coe — married 15 Jun 1647 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died before 9 Sep 1675 before age 53 in Falmouth, Cumberland, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Matthew Coe migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 71) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Matthew Coe's exact birth date and place are unknown. It has been estimated at 1622 in England.

He migrated to New England in 1639, living in Piscataqua, Gloucester and Falmouth.^[1]

Matthew Coe was a fishermen and lived in Portsmouth 1640. He removed to Gloucester before 1647 in which year, with Morris Somes, John Wakely, and Davis Wheeler, he was brought before a court at Salem for hunting and killing a raccoon on the Lord's Day in time of public service, to the disturbance of the congregation. In 1651 he had a grant of six acres of land "upon the neck that is on the side of the stage-nick." After having resided here several years, he sold his house and land to Thomas Riggs, in 1661, for forty pounds. 7 Oct. 1661, Thomas Riggs bought of Coe and the Wakleys, house, garden and home lots on the south side of Goose Cove. He is known to have resided in Casco, Me. and also in Salem, Mass., but removed to Falmouth in 1661, where with Thomas Wakely and his sons John and Isaac, they bought of Richard Tucker two hundred acres of land on the north margin of Back Cove.

THE HISTORY OF PORTLAND BY WILLIAM WILLIS Page 137 - there came, in 1661, Matthew Coe, who married a daughter, fisherman of Gloucester, who married Elizabeth 15 June 1647, of Thomas Wakely (entry in MA vital records document from ancestry on-line January 2016)...Matthew Coe died before the war, leaving several children, John (1), his eldest son; Isaac; Martha, married a Farnum of Boston; Elizabeth; married to a Tucker of Roxbury; who were both widows in 1731; and another daughter who married to Joseph Ingersoll, one of our early settlers. Page 195 Thomas Wakely's death The English having exposed themselves to censure by this imprudent attack without a sufficient justification, removed at once all restraint from the Indians. They had seen the blood of their companions causelessly spilt, and they now sought opportunities of revenge. These were not wanting along an extensive and entirely unprotected frontier. In every plantation the houses were scattered over a large territory, and the only defensive preparations were an occasional private garrison, which, in cases of sudden emergency, afforded the neighboring in habitants a temporary refuge. The able-bodied men in each town formed a train-band; but they lived so widely apart, and there were so many points to guard, that they could offer but little protection against the desultory and rapid attacks of their subtle enemy. The first visitation of their vengeance was upon the family of Thomas Wakely of Falmouth, about a week after the affray before mentioned. This unsuspecting family was composed of Thomas Wakely and his wife, his eldest son, John, his wife, who was far advanced in pregnancy, and their four children. They killed the old man and his wife, his son John and wife, with three children, in a cruel manner, and carried one daughter Elizabeth, about eleven years old, into captivity . Next day Lt. George Ingersoll, who had perceived the smoke repaired to the place with a file of soldiers to learn the cause. He found the body of John's wife and the three children with their brains beaten out lying under some planks, and the half consumed bodies of the old man and his wife near the smouldering ruins of the house. Why this family was selected for a sacrifice we have no means of determining; the Indians committed no further violence, but immediately withdrew to a distant place. The daughter Elizabeth was some months after carried by Squando, the Saco Sachem, to Major Waldron at Dover, where she subsequently married Richard Scamman, a Quaker. The Wakelys came from Cape Ann, and had originally settled in 1661, at Back Cove, on the west side of Fall Brook, where a son-in-law, Matthew Coe, died. The eldest son, John, had removed to the east side of Presumpscot river several years before the melancholy event which terminated his life; his farm was about three-quarters of a mile below the falls, and between the farms of Humphrey Durham and Jenkin Williams; his house fronted the river "and stood within about a gun shot of said Durham's house". His father and mother from their advanced age had probably taken up their residence with their eldest son, or had gone there at this time in consequence of the general alarm. He is spoken of by Mather as a worthy old man, "who came into New England for the sake of the gospel," and had long repented moving into this part of the country so far out of the way of it. The inhabitants in the immediate vicinity had probably drawn off at this time to a more secure place, as it appears that Ingersoll who lived at Capisic was the first to visit the scene, drawn out of the way of it.

KING PHILIP'S WAR by Eric B. Schultz and Michael J. Tougias, 1999, Woodstock, Vermont. pages 49 and pages 303-304. This source states that the attack on the Wakely homestead took place on 9 /12/1675 and the description differs somewhat from the information provided by Lt. George Ingersoll, who led the discovery troop of militia the day after the attack (NEHGR 8:239).

MATTHEW COE OF NEW ENGLAND, 1640 MATTHEW (1) COE, born as early as 1620, first appears in America in 1640 at Portsmouth, N. H. About 1645 he settled in Gloucester, Mass., where he continued until 1661, when he sold his property there and, in company with several of his neighbors, removed to Falmouth (now Portland), Maine, where he died about 1670. His occupation was fisherman.

According to tradition among his descendants, Matthew (1) Coe came from Suffolk County, England; but extensive research has failed to secure information of his parentage, or even to locate his origin. His heirs in 1731 are shown by three deeds executed in the latter part of that year in which his son Isaac (2) Coe of Roxbury, Mass., cordwainer, his daughters Martha (2) (Coe) Farnum of Boston, widow, and Elizabeth (2) (Coe) Tucker of Roxbury, widow, his grandson John (3) Coe of Little Compton. R. I. (son and heir of John (2) Coe deceased), and his grandson Benjamin Ingersoll of Falmouth, yeoman (eldest surviving son of Sarah (2) (Coe) Ingersoll, deceased), all conveyed to Phineas Jones all their interests in the lands of Matthew (1) Coe in Falmouth (now Portland) Maine. (York Deeds, vol. 15, fols. 168-170, and vol. 16, fol. 196.)

Matthew (1) Coe married at Gloucester, Mass., June 15, 1647, ELIZABETH WAKLEY, daughter of THOMAS AND ELIZABETH WAKLEY.^[2]

Children : i. JOHN, b. at Gloucester, Mass., June 30, 1649, went to Falmouth, Me., with his parents in 1661, and on the destruction of that town by the Indians during King Philip's War in 1676, he located in Duxbury, Mass., where he resided a few years, and then settled in Little Compton, R. I., where he continued until his death, Dec. 16, 1728. He m. at Duxburv, Mass., Nov. 10, 1681, SARAH PABODIE, b. there Aug. 7, 1656, d. at Little Compton, R. I., Aug. 27, 1740, daughter of WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH (ALDEN) PABODIE, and granddaughter of JOHN AND PRISCILLA (MULLINS) ALDEN who came to New Enlgand in 1620 with the Pilgrims in The Mayflower. Children : 1. Lydia, b. Feb. 26, 1682-3, d. young. 2. Sarah, b. Feb. 25, 1685-6, d. Young. 3. Lydia, b. in 1688. 4. Sarah, b. in 1690. 5. Samuel, b. Dec. 12, 1692. 6. Elizabeth, b. Mar. 28, 1694. 7. Hannah, b. Dec. 29, 1696. 8. John, b. Feb. 1, 1699, d. at Little Compton, R. I., in Nov. 1784; m. Dec. 10, 1740, REBECCA TAYLOR, b. Jan. 4, 1719, daughter of PETER AND HANNAH (WOOD) TAYLOR. They had eight children and were the ancestors of all persons named Coe now living whose lines have been traced to Matthew Coe. 9. Joseph, b. Mar. 24, 1700.

ii. SARAH, b. at Gloucester, Mass., Mar. 14, 1650-1, d. there May 29, 1714; m. about 1670, JOSEPH INGERSOLL, b. there Oct. 4, 1646, son of GEORGE AND ELIZABETH INGERSOLL. He was a carpenter and they lived at Falmouth, Me., Charlestown, Mass., and finally at Gloucester, Mass., where he d. Mar. 12, 1718. Children: 1. Martha 2. Stephen 3. John 4. Benjamin 5. Joseph 6. Hannah

iii. MARY, b. at Gloucester, Mass., May 15, 1653, probably left no descendants. Children: None

iv. MARTHA, b. probably about 1656, m. about 1684, CAPT. JONATHAN FARNUM, b. at Dorchester, Mass., Jan. 16, 1639-40, son of JOHN AND ELIZABETH FARNUM. They resided in Boston, Mass., where she was living, a widow, as late as 1731. Children: 1. Jonathan 2. John 3. Elizabeth d. young 4. Joseph 5. Martha 6. Elizabeth

v. ABIGAIL, b. at Gloucester, Mass., June 5, 1658, probably left no descendants. Children: None

vi. MATTHEW, b. at Gloucester, Mass., Jan. 3, 1660-1, d. there Feb. 8, 1660-1.

vii. ISAAC, b. at Falmouth (now Portland), Me., about 1665, was in Roxbury, Mass., in 1703, where he appears as a witness on several deeds and is mentioned several times on the town records up to 1732, after which time no trace of him has been found, but he probably continued in Roxbury until his death. He m. at Roxbury, Sept. 11, 1706, MARTHA RAMSEY, who was b. about 1665 and is mentioned in the records of the church in Roxbury as early as 1683. No records of any children have been found and they probably had no issue. Children: None

viii. ELIZABETH, b. at Falmouth (now Portland), Me., about 1670, d. at Roxbury, Mass., Sept. 11, 1740; m. about 1696, BENJAMIN TUCKER, b. there Mar. 8, 1670-1, son of BENJAMIN AND ANN (PAYSON) TUCKER. They resided in Roxbury where he d. in 1728. Children: 1. Ann 2. Elizabeth 3. Benjamin 4. Stephen 5. Henry 6. Catharine 7. Samuel

The descendants of Matthew (1) Coe, through his son John (2), resided as far as known in Little Compton, R. I., until about 1800, since which time most of them have lived in or near Boston, Worcester, and New Bedford, Mass., Portland, Me., Little Compton, Newport, Smithfield, Woonsocket, and Block Island, R. I., Ashford, Woodstock, and Groton, Conn., Madison, N. Y., and Englewood, N. J. This family is a small one, all the known descendants of Matthew (1) Coe born of the name amounting to only about three hundred persons, among whom the late George Simmons (5) Coe, a distinguished banker of New York City, and his nephew Henry Clark (7) Coe, M.D., a prominent physician of the same city, are the most widely known.

Henry F. (7) Coe (b. 1835, d. 1906) of Boston, Mass. (Joseph (6), Ezra (5), Benjamin (4), John (3), John (2), Matthew L (1), compiled and published in 1894 a small forty-seven page genealogy of this family entitled "Descendants of Matthew Coe."

Death

Date: 1661/1675

Place: Falmouth, Cumberland, Maine

Imported only 1661 from Death Date and marked as uncertain.

DB-ERROR in date of birth of Elizabeth Coe - she was born more than 9 months after her father's death. Alternate death date shown in biography, so probably not a real error Nally-4 13:34, 24 September 2016 (EDT)

Sources

1. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson. "The Great Migration Directory, Immigrants to New England 1620-1640." New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA. (2015). p. 71.
2. ↑ Great Migration 1634-1635, T-Y. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VII, T-Y, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011. p. 191.subscription

• Little Compton Families: From Records Compiled by Benjamin Franklin Wilbour, (Baltimore, Maryland: Clearfield Co, Fifth edition, 1997) Vol. I, p. 195.

• New England Marriages Prior to 1700 by Clarence Almon Torrey (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011) Vol. I, p. 341. COE, Matthew & Elizabeth WAKLY/WAKELEY; 15 Jun 1647; Goucester/Falmouth, ME

• Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCHC-4JT : 4 December 2014), Mathew Coe and Elizebeth Wakly, 15 Jun 1647; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 0823641 V. 1-2.

• "Robert Coe, Puritan his Ancestors and Descendants, 1340-1910, With Notices of Other Coe Families" By J. Gardiner Bartlett Page 531-532: