ried Abigail, daughter of Edward and Catherine (Reynolds) Starbuck; died in Exeter, New Hampshire, March 21, 1715. 2. Tristram Jr., 1632, married Judith, daughter of Edward and Sarah Dole, and widow of Henry Somerby; died in Newbury, Massachusetts, February 4, 1704. 3. Elizabeth, 1634, married, in Medbury, Massachusetts, November 13, 1651, Captain Stephens, son of Edmund and Sarah (Dole) Greenleaf, and they had five children. She died November 19, 1678, and her husband in 1690. 4. James, August 12, 1640, died in Nantucket, July 28, 1720. 5. John, died in Haverhill, Massachusetts, October 30, 1642, soon after his birth. 6. Deborah, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, November 15, 1642, and died there December 8, 1642. 7. Mary, February 20, 1645, married, in 1662, Nathaniel (1638-1719), son of Edward and Catherine (Reynolds) Starbuck, and they had five children. 8. John (q. v.), October 30, 1647. 9. Stephen, born in Newbury, May 11, 1652, died in Nantucket, May 18, 1734.

(III) John, eighth child of Tristram and Dionis (Stevens) Coffin, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, October 30, 1647. He married Deborah, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Austin, and they had eleven children born in Nantucket Island. He removed with

his parents to Nantucket in 1660, and after the death of his father settled, about 1682-83, in Edgartown, and from him all the Martha's Vineyard Coffins descended. He died September 5, 1711. He was a lieutenant in the Edgartown militia, and had previously held minor offices in Nantucket. Children: 1. Lydia, born June 1, 1669, married (first) John Logan, (second) John Draper, and (third) Thomas Thaxter, of Hingham, Massachusetts. 2. Peter, August 5, 1671, died October 27. 1749; married (first) Christian Condy, and (second) Hope, daughter of Joseph and Bethia (Macy) Gardner. 3. John Jr., February 10, 1674. 4. Love, April 23, 1676, died unmarried. 5. Enoch, 1678, was chief justice of Dakes county; married Beulah Eddy about 1700, and they had eleven children, all of whom lived to the ages of seventy-six and upwards, and died 1761. 6. Samuel, married Meriam, daughter of Richard and Mary (Austin) Gardner Jr., in 1705, and died February 22, 1764. 7. Hannah, married Benjamin, son of Richard and Mary (Austin) Gardner Jr., and died January 28, 1768. 8. Tristram (q. v.). 9. Deborah, married, June 18, 1708, Thomas, son of John and Deborah (Gardner) Macy, and died September 23, 1760.

IO.

Elizabeth. II. Benjamin, born August 23, 1682.

(IV) Tristram (2), eighth child of Lieutenant John and Deborah (Austin) Coffin, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He was married February, 1714, to Mary, daughter of William and Mary (Macy) Bunker. He lived in Nantucket all his life and died January 29, 1763. Children: David, born 1718. 2. Samuel, 1720. 3. Tristram, 1722, died 1796. 4. Jonathan, 1725, lost at sea 1755. 5. John, 1727, lost at sea 1755. 6. Richard (q. v.), 1729. 7. Timothy, 1731. 8. Mary, 1733, married Jonathan, son of Robert and Hepzibah Coffin Barnard, and died in November, 1855. 9. Matthew, 1735, lost at sea 1755. The three brothers, Jonathan, John and Matthew, were lost at sea when serving as sailors on the same whale-ship.

(V) Richard, sixth son of Tristram and Mary (Bunker) Coffin, was born in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, in 1729. He was captain in the local militia of Addison, Maine, where he lived after his marriage to Mary Cook, of Martha's Vineyard, and he served as high sheriff of Washington county. He had a large family of children, including John (q. v.).

(VI) John (2), son of Richard and Mary (Cook) Coffin, was born in Addison, Maine, July 29, 1770. He married Phoebe Coffin, of Nantucket, June 22, 1795; children: 1. Sophronia S., born September 24, 1799. 2. Hannah Ward, April 7, 1802. 3. Simeon (q. v.).

(VII) Simeon, third child of John and Phoebe (Coffin) Coffin, was born in Addison, Maine, January 17, 1806. He was an innkeeper and ship-builder, and married Rebecca W., daughter of Uriah and Anna Nash, of Harrington, Maine; children: 1. John W., born March 27, 1828. 2. Mary E., January, 1830, died 1847. 3. Voranus L. (q. v.). 4. Alphonso, October 15, 1833, in Addison, Maine, was a sea captain and farmer, and died at Matanzas, Cuba, while in that port with his ship. Married Mary W. Wilson; children: Ellinor, Annie E., Gertrude W., Alphonso. 5. Sophronia, died aged seventeen years. becca W. (Nash) Coffin, died in 1844. Simeon Coffin married (second) Harriet B. Franklin; two children: Azro; Leonora, became the wife of Dr. H. Bellamy, of Logansport, Indiana.

Re

(VIII) Captain Voranus L., second son of Simeon and Rebecca W. (Nash) Coffin, was born in Addison, Maine, October 3, 1831. He received his primary school training in the public schools of his native place and at Harrington, Maine, and was prepared for college

at Waterville Academy, taking a three-years preparatory course. He then taught school at Addison, Harrington and Milbridge, and in 1863 enlisted in the Thirty-first Maine Infantry, and was with the regiment of the Army of the Potomac during the remainder of the war. He was taken prisoner while on picketduty near Cold Harbor, Virginia, a few days after the battle, June 1-3, 1864, in which he participated, and while the opposing armies were idle, except the sharpshooters, who were picking off many men on both sides. He was carried to Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, where he was in slave confinement for a number of weeks, when he was removed with others to Camp Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he remained July, August and September, 1864. His next prison was at Savannah, Georgia, and his fourth at Charleston, South Carolina, where he was among the prisoners placed under fire of the Union guns then besieging the city. His fifth prison was Camp Sorghum, South Carolina, where he was until Christmas, 1864, when he was removed to the prison stockades in front of the Insane Asylum at Charleston. While in the stockade he connived, with H. L. Bixby, of Maine, a fellow prisoner, to effect their escape, but he was recaptured sixty miles outside the city, and one of his captors was a lieutenant and he was recognized as a brother Mason, and received from him many favors, including a gift of $50 in Confederate money, a liberal supply of rice and flour and many personal favors. This lieutenant was from Grove Station, North Carolina, but after the war no communication was established between them. He was next sent to the military prison at Raleigh, North Carolina, then to Goldsboro, in the same state, and then to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was paroled. After being allowed a vacation home of thirty days, he was ordered to rejoin his regiment before Petersburg, and while on his way heard of the fall of the city and the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox. He marched in the final grand review at Washington, D. C., and was mustered out at Bangor, Maine, in 1865. He had enlisted as a private, but before leaving Augusta, Maine, was commissioned second lieutenant, and on June 11, 1864, first lieutenant, his promotion being a reward for his action at Cold Harbor before his capture. He was acting captain of Company B, Thirty-first Maine Regiment, most of the time while with his regiment, and was in command of his company on their return trip from Washington to Bangor.

The war over, he engaged in trade and shipbuilding at Harrington, Maine, where he launched a large number of schooners, barks and brigs, the shipyards being owned by Ramsdell, Rumball & Coffin. He subsequently purchased the interests of his partners and conducted the shipbuilding business as V. L. Coffin for about eight years, 1876-84. In 1884 the firm became V. L. Coffin & Son, his partner being his son, Charles A. Coffin. Captain Coffin retired from active business in 1906, his son assuming the active management of the same. His home in Harrington is one of the pleasantest sites in that sightly place, and the hospitality there dispensed is proverbial for its entire freedom from formality or restraint. Captain Coffin holds a high position in the Masonic fraternity. He is a member of Narragansett Lodge, of Cherryfield, member of the St. Elmo Commandery, No. 18, Machias Royal Arch Chapter; Bangor Council, Royal and Select Masters; Delta Lodge of Perfection; Scottish Rite, Princes of Jerusalem, at Machias, and Rose Croix Consistory, in Portland, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree. His service as a soldier in the civil war gained him comradeship to Hiram Burnham Post, No. 50, Grand Army of the Republic, of Cherryville, Maine, and he served the post as commander for three years, and the state of Maine as past senior vice-commander, and the National body by a place on the staff of General Walker, commander-in-chief. His military service also was recognized by the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, of which he was a companion, by his being accorded a place on the staff of the state commandery. He represented the fifteenth district in the state senate from 1881 to 1885; member of the executive council of state of Maine in 1897-98, under Governor Llewellen Powers, and for thirty-five years was treasurer of the town of Harrington; he has also filled most of the local offices of his town. His political position in the Republican party is shown by his appointment as a delegate to the National convention at Chicago which nominated Theodore Roosevelt as the Republican candidate for president in 1904. He held the important financial position of treasurer of Washington county, Maine, 1900-04, and his interest in the cause of education was recognized by the trustees of the University of the State of Maine by electing him a member of their body. in 1899, for a term of eight years. In matters of religious observance Captain Coffin remained independent.

He married, September 20, 1855, Christina, daughter of Samuel N. Wilson, of Harrington, Maine; children: 1. Charles Augustus, born July 13, 1856, married (first) Anna Edith Nash; one child, who died in infancy; married (second) Ethel M. Green; no children. 2. Edwin Voranus, December 5, 1867, graduated from the University of Maine in 1887, and was a civil engineer; married (first) Frances Ricker Rumball, who died May 24, 1904; children: Edwina, born May 18, 1892; Frances Rumball, January 12, 1894; Voranus Lothrop, December 30, 1897; married (second) Maude, daughter of Gilman G. Smith, of Bangor, Maine; no children. 3. John Alphonso, June 12, 1869, graduated at the University of Maine in 1889 and became a mechanical engineer; he died unmarried in 1903.

THOMPSON

From New Brunswick the states have drawn freely for additions to their citizenship, and in those who have crossed the border the commonwealths have secured some of their best manhood and womanhood. From New Brunswick came the Thompson family whose lineal descendants it is now our pleasure to follow.

(I) Andrew Thompson was born in Frederickton, New Brunswick, came to Maine, and died in Bangor. He served in the war of 1812, and was captured at Castine. He had a son William.

(II) William, son of Andrew Thompson, was born in Frederickton, New Brunswick, in 1832, and came to Maine as a boy, receiving his learning in the poor boys' university, the district school. Mr. Thompson worked in sawmills his whole life, and was superintendent of Walker's plant at Basin's Mills, Maine. He was of Catholic religion and voted with the rock-ribbed democracy. He married, in 1862, Maria Dempsey, born in Galway, Ireland, in 1840. Children: 1. Maria J., born in 1865, married William H. Coffy, of South Brewer, Maine. 2. Frances A., 1867, married Frank J. Lovely, of Roxbury, Massachusetts. 3. William, married Lizzie A. Mitchell, of Old Town, Maine; children: Raymond, Francis A., George E., Harry and Howard. 4. George Edward, see forward.

(III) George Edward, youngest son of William and Maria (Dempsey) Thompson, was born in Orono, Maine, August 9, 1871. He was taught the fundamentals in the district schools of his native town, followed by four years in the University of Maine, graduating in 1891, after which he took a law course

in Boston University, graduating from this institution in 1899. He was admitted to the Cumberland county bar in the same year, and began the practice of his profession in Orono, continuing to the present time (1908). He is a Democrat and his party has recognized his fitness for positions of responsibility and his unimpeachable integrity, and have accordingly elected him tax collector from 1898 up to the present time, town treasurer for two years, representative to legislature from 1903-05 to 1907, and in 1908 was elected county attorney for Penobscot county. He is considered a safe counselor for those who have recourse to the courts to redress their wrongs, and is held in high esteem by his associates of the Penobscot bar. He is a member of B. P. O. E., of Bangor. He married, in 1900, Belle A., daughter of Joseph and Lenore (Bradbury) Pretto, of Orono. Children: Esther Louise, born July 18, 1904, and Ruth Maria, July 29, 1906.

Early writers mention various EngCOX lish settlers named Cox, Cock or Coxe, as the name is indifferently spelled in New England between 1639, the date at which Moses Cox is found at Hampton, and the end of that century. Some of the lines of descent are easily and clearly traced, while others, on account of defective records, cannot be traced with certainty to an ancestor known to be an immigrant. Whether Elisha Cox of this article was an immigrant or a native of parentage not now discoverable cannot now be known.

(I) Elisha Cox was of Weston, Massachusetts, and as the record states, "under 21 years of age" and "servant of Ebenezer Hobbs of Weston," in April, 1741. The fact that he was married in 1741, taken with the other facts, indicates that he attained his majority about that time; hence was born about 1721. An Elisha Cox, born in Dorchester, enlisted in 1760, and was at that time thirty-eight years of age, therefore, he was born in 1722. Elisha Cox was an ensign in Colonel Gardiner's regiment, the Thirty-seventh, in November, 1776. He died, probably of smallpox, June 25, 1776, at Isle au Noix, on the expedition against Canada. Colonel William Bond, commander of the Twenty-fifth regiment, wrote, under date Crown Point, July 11, 1776, "Ensign Cox, a good officer, died June 25." Elisha Cox, of Weston, married, about 1741, Anna, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah WarElisha Cox and Anna owned the covenant January 31, 1742. They probably had

ren.