John Coggeshall
M, #12872, b. 9 December 1601, d. 27 November 1647
Parents
Family: Mary Lnu (b. about 1604, d. 8 November 1684)
Biography
John Coggeshall was born on 9 December 1601 in Halstead, Essex, England. He and
Mary Lnu were married in October 1624. He died on 27 November 1647 at age 45 in Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island. He was buried in Coggeshall Cemetery, Newport, Rhode Island.
John Coggeshall arrived in Boston in September, 1632, on the ship Lyon, the vessel which also brought the Indian Apostle John Eliot and Roger Williams. Where he first located is still a matter of conjecture, though it is presumed to have been Roxbury, as he joined the First Church of that place, then under the pastoral charge of the Apostle John Eliot. This must have been done very soon after his arrival as he was admitted a freeman November 6, 1632, and one of the necessary qualifications for this membership, was the fellowship of some one of the churches. On the list of church members, his name appears number thirty and that of his wife number thirty-one. For some unknown reason, possibly because of the better business outlook, he withdrew from the Roxbury church and united with the First Church of Boston, April 20, 1634, Rev. John Wilson, pastor, where he was soon elected a deacon. He lived on Washington Street, opposite Water Street, next to the home of Anne Hutchinson. We note from old records, that in the allotment of lands for pasturage to the inhabitants of Boston, from territory adjoining the town, one William Townsend received from Muddy River, now called Brookline, eight acres-- "bounded on the northwest with a swamp by Mr. John Coggeshall's wigwam." By "wigwam" was meant a shelter for his cattle. A further grant was allotted him of two hundred acres of pasturage at the south of Saugus River, which must have embraced a portion, if not the whole, of the present Point of Pines. Wherever his name occurs, it invariably has the prefix "Mr.," signifying in those times dignity and quality, and indicating something more than the simple form of polite address of the present day. His abilities were not long in being recognized, for September 1, 1634, he appears as one of the board of selectmen, and at the meeting of the General Court, May 14, 1634, his name leads the list of deputies from Boston, the whole number being twenty-four, representing eight different towns. He was also a member for the years 1635, 1636, 1637. We find him public spirited in various other ways. To assist in the erection of a fortification on Fort Hill, he is one of twelve to loan the colony five pounds. In March, 1636, he is appointed, with others, to superintend the allotment of land to all newcomers. On August 12, 1636, at a meeting of the richer inhabitants of the town his name is the tenth on the list of forty-five subscribers to the support of public instruction. However, since he favored the heresy of Anne Hutchinson and opposed the persecutions of Rev. John Wheelwright, the general court at its meeting in November, 1637, disfranchised him, and passed an order enjoining him "not to speak any thing to disturb the public peace upon pain of death." Prior to the adoption of this vote, March, 1637, the trial of Mrs. Hutchinson had taken place before this same court, which sentenced her to banishment, only three deputies, one of whom was Coggeshall, dissenting. Adhering to the fortunes of the Wheelwright and Hutchinson causes, whose religious faith he had first tolerated and then embraced, and scorning to temporize his opinion, he too, was banished in March, 1638. Mr. John Clarke, one of fifty-eight disfranchised church members, proposed to some of his censured brethren, among these being John Coggeshall, to remove from the jurisdiction. Their purpose was to go southward, but while their vessel was passing around Cape Cod, they crossed by land, with a view to sail afterwards to Long Island or Delaware Bay. At Providence they met with Roger Williams, by whose recommendation and the advice of friends at Plymouth, they concluded to settle at Aquidneck, now part of Rhode Island. Acting upon this determination, they went back to Boston and prepared for their removal. Early in the spring they took their final leave of Massachusetts, and pursuing their tedious journeys through the wilderness, which could not have been exempt from many difficulties and discomforts, reached their new point of settlement, the northern end of the island called by the Indians, Pocasset, which name was retained by the settlers till changed to Portsmouth. The civil compact formed at Providence and signed by ninteen of the settlers, was as follows: "The seventh day of March, 1638, We, whose names are underwritten, do here solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a Body Politick, and as he shall help, will submit our persons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to all these perfect and most absolute laws of his, given us in his holy word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby.--Exod. XXIV., 3,4; 2d Chron., XI, 3; 2d Kings, XI., 17." Of the signers to this compact, William Coddington's name heads the list, and John Coggeshall's comes fourth. Callender says, that the Aquidneck settlers "were Puritans of the highest form," and the peculiar phraseology of their civil compact verifies the remark. So peculiar indeed is the religious character of this instrument, that it has by some been considered, although erroneously, as being itself a church covenant, which also embodied a civil compact. As was the universal custom of the first settlers, the town was built near the spring which was located at the cove, the entrance of which is crossed by the Old Colony Railroad, just before reaching the Railroad Bridge. They deemed it their first duty to build a place of worship, and John Coggeshall and John Sanford were appointed a committee to give it due attention. The church was located on the neck of land that leads to the main part of the island. At the first general public meeting, the responsibility of allotting the land was entrusted to John Coggeshall, John Sanford and John Porter. The allotment to Coggeshall comprised six acres, twenty poles in breadth on the east, and ninety-six feet long, and was located west of the spring. On June 27, 1638, William Hutchinson and John Coggeshall were chosen treasurers of the company for one year. The colony increased so rapidly that new territory was required. Accordingly, April 28, 1639, "It is agreed by us whose hands are underwritten, to propagate a plantation in the midst of the island or elsewhere, and do engage ourselves to bear equal charges answerable to our strength and estate in common, and that our determinations shall be my major voice of judge and elders, the judge to have a double voice." The signatures to this instrument are, William Coddington, Judge, and three elders, among them John Coggeshall, composed entirely of members of the Pocasset government. This new settlement was the corner stone of the present city of Newport, the dividing line between the two settlements being about the middle of the island. In the allotment of land at Newport, John Coggeshall received next to the largest share, embracing nearly four hundred acres, situated at the southerly part of the town. A portion of this property remained in the possession of his descendants until early in the nineteenth century. The election of 1640 resulted in the choice of John Coggeshall as one of the four assistants, and he was also delegated with two others to lay out the remaining lands of Newport. He was one of the assistants too, for the years 1641-2 and 43. When the four towns of Providence, Portsmouth, Newport and Warwick were consolidated under one government, John Coggeshall was chosen first president. He lived to see Rhode Island a corporate power under a parliamentary charter and a regularly organized government of which he stood at the head. Of irreproachable character, firm in his convictions of right regardless of personal sacrifices, he died as he had lived, respected and honored, and his loss must have been deeply felt by the infant colony, to which he had so long been a leader, counselor and guide. His remains were interred in the Coggeshall burial place, which is situated at the corner of Coggeshall and Victoria Avenues, Newport, and at the time of his death stood a few rods west of his house.
Essentially the same information is in Carl Boyer 3rd, Ancestral Line, Third Edition, 1998, pp. 220-221.
Seven of his eight children are mentioned in his mother's will, all except Wayte, whom the grandmother might not known of (The Great Migration Begins, p. 407.)