Joshua Coffin

Joshua Coffin (October 12, 1792 – June 24, 1864) was a historian, an American antiquary, and an abolitionist.[1]

This article is about the abolitionist. For the whaler and discoverer, see Coffin (whaling family).
Joshua Coffin
BornOctober 12, 1792
Newbury, Massachusetts, US
DiedJune 24, 1864 (aged 71)
Newbury, Massachusetts, US
NationalityAmerican
OccupationTeacher
Known forAntiquary and abolitionist
Spouse(s)Clarissa Harlow Dutch (married 1817-1821), Anna Wood Wiley Chase (married 1835-)
Children5
Parent(s)Joseph and Judith (née Toppan) Coffin

Life

Coffin was born to Joseph and Judith (née Toppan) Coffin in Newbury, Massachusetts October 12, 1792[1][2] in the Coffin House.[2] He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1817, and taught school for many years, numbering among his pupils the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who addressed to him a poem entitled "To My Old School-Master".

Coffin was ardent in the cause of emancipation, and was one of the co-founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832, being its first recording secretary.[1] From 1834 to 1837, Coffin was the manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society.[1]

He published The History of Ancient Newbury (Boston, 1845), genealogies of the Woodman, Little, and Toppan families, and magazine articles. As an adult, Coffin lived for a time in the downstairs southwest room of the Coffin House, his ancestral home; in a tiny study housed within an ell of the house, Joshua wrote his History of Ancient Newbury.

Family Life

On December 2, 1817, Coffin married his first wife Clarissa Dutch of Exeter, New Hampshire.[2] They had two children together: Sarah Bartlett (born Nov. 21, 1818) and Lucia Tappan (born Sept. 6, 1820).[2] His first wife passed away in 1821.

On April 20, 1835, Coffin married his second wife Mrs. Anna Wiley Chase, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2] They had three children together: Elizabeth Wiley (born Jan. 26, 1836), Anna Lapsley (born July 17, 1838), and Mary Hale (born Dec. 29, 1840).[2] Their three children were born in Philadelphia.[2]

Death

Coffin died on June 24, 1864, in Newbury, Massachusetts[2] and is buried at the Newbury First Parish Burying Ground.

Further reading
  • Coffin, Joshua (1845). A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury from 1635 to 1845.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Coffin, Joshua (1860). An Account of Some of the Principal Slave Insurrections.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Attribution:

References
  1. "New England Anti-Slavery Society". www.americanabolitionists.com. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  2. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register
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