the first day of the week, 21st of 10th month, came the scout in the morning and asked me, if they should let me have liberty to go see my wife and friends, whether I would promise to come there again on the 3rd day at evening. I told him: Yea if the Lord would; or else he said the Governor would set me free if I would promise to remove myself and family out of his jurisdiction in a months time, but I could not make any such promise. So I had liberty to go home. Then on the 3rd day of the week, before my time was out I came to Manadose [Manhattoes] and went amongst the merchants, by the Weigh House, and Steenwyck went with me to his house, and as he did knock at the door, Resolved came by. So Steenwyck spoke to him to tell the Governor I was come and to ask him if I might have [liberty] to be abroad in the town; and I spoke to him also. And he turned himself about on his heal and laughed, and seemed to bite his tongue and wonder. It's like he thought I would not have come again. So I passed to and again in the town all that week out, and could hear nothing what they did intend. But when I asked any question about it, I was bid "let it alone awhile," and my chest, clothes and bedding were kept still in the prison. Then on the 2nd day of the week, 29th of 10th month, the ship being fallen down the Bay, before the boat came up to fetch the passengers aboard, so I walked to the Bridge where the boat lay because I was not willing to be out of sight, and there meeting with Resolved I asked him if he had anything to say to me from the Governor. He said he should tell me presently. So a little after, he came and told me I might get a cart and fetch my things from the prison and put them in the boat. So I answered him something to it and told him I did desire to speak with the Governor myself. So being free to take that opportunity to have my things out of prison I got a cart and brought my things and put them in the Widdow Wessels house near where the boat lay, and then went to my lodging to write a letter to my wife, and while I was a writing it, the scout came and told me I might speak with the Governor, if I had any business with him. So I went to his house and was called into a private room, where he with one of his writers was a writing to send for Holland, and was very busy as he told me. So I told him I heard he meant to send me away in the ship, and I did desire to know wherefore. So he told me: Because I did not answer the sentence of the Court. So I asked him if that was only and alone the cause. He said: Yea. Then I desired he would give me so under his hand, that if any should ask me, I might have it by to show. So after some more words he went to writing himself and then gave it to his Secretary to write fair, and then set his name to it and the Secretary also. Then they gave it me, but it was not in those words as we had spoken. I also asked him : What the ship-master should do with me. He told me: "Put me ashore either in Holland or anywhere, where the ship put in," or[words]to that purpose. So he spake then after some words to several things. He told me he was very busy, and if we should talk till the morrow morning we should do one another no good. But he carried himself very moderate to me all that time, and said if I would promise to go out of the jurisdiction in 3 months time, he would set me free. So after I had spoken something as to my innocency towards them and how clear I was from desiring any hurt unto them or any revenge upon them for any thing they had done against me, the Governer answerd I thank you for it, and called me Goodman Bowne. -So not having further liberty I passed away. So that night my things were put in the boat, but by whome I know not. Then on the 3rd day of the week when the people were ready to go, the scout put me in the boat and so I was carried aboard. Then the 4th day of the week being the 31st day of the 10th month, old style, we set sail about the middle of the day, and went out to sea. ***** On the 29th of 2nd month, 1663, we [I, and Benj. Forely] came to Amsterdam. Then the 30th, being the 5th day of the week, we went to the West India house and livered in my first paper which was read and then left to a committee before whom (after much waiting) 14 days after, Wm. Caton and I were called in. They were very moderate to us and did not speak one word against us or any of our friends in any particular, tending to the liking of any thing the Governor had done against me or any other, but asked what we desired of them. And when they understood our minds, they freely promised that the next day my goods should be delivered to me; but for the other thing, they could not do it of themselves, but would speak of it to the Company of whom we must look for answer. This was the 14th of the 3d month. O. S. Then the next day to have the goods which were ordered to be delivered; but after consultation amongst some underlings, they were denied, except I would pay for my passage. This put me upon a 2d writing to them, which we gave in by the 18th day, but at [torn] that day and the next we [torn]also. Then having had some turns with the merchant about passage, because he wanted pay for the first, at length promised me I should have passage for my money as well as others, if I got a pass, which all that went thither are to have. So I went with others for a pass but he denied to give me one except he had orders from the Company or some of them. This did put me upon a 3d writing to them, which I, being alone, sent in on the 25th day, and after some time I was called in and the man called Lord Pergens (or Perkins) sitting at the head of the table asked if I would any thing with them. I said I had given in several writings to which I did desire their answer. He said Have you any [thing] further to say by word of mouth. I said: Nay, but that you would consider of these things and do therein as you would be done unto. Then he said if you please to withdraw, we shall consider of them afterward.-I was called again. Then he said; The gentlemen here have considered of the things and desire to know whether you intend to go to fetch your wife or to stay there. I said: Nay, I have no intent to fetch my wife and children here, but to labor to maintain [them] there as I used to do. But we think, said he, you were best to stay here and send for your wife and children, for we do not give liberty there. I said, Liberty was promised to us in a Patent given by virtue of a commission from the Prince of the States General and the West India Company. He said: Who gave that Patent.-Gov'r Keift. Oh, said he, that was before any or but few of your judgment [ie way of thinking] was heard of. I said we are known to be a peaceable people. He said but if you be a peaceable people and will not be subject to the laws plakados [placards] which are published, we cannot suffer you in our jurisdiction. I said: It is good first to consider whether that law or placard that was published be according to justice and righteousness or whether it be not quite contrary to it and also to that liberty promised to us in our Patent; and I desire the Company would read or hear it read. I have a copy of it by me. He said if I would walk out a while they would. A pretty time after they called me in again. Then he standing up set a bold face on a bad cause and told me they had read it and considered of it and did find it very good and like it well. Then after some words about it, I seeing their wickedness, said: What you are pleased to give in answer to these things, I desire to have it in writing under your hands. Nay, said he, we will give you nothing under our hands, but we will draw up a writing of such particulars, as unto which if you will set your hand, you may go and dwell there, and also said that all those that will not be subject to that placard and all other that either are already or shall be hereafter made, shall not live in our Jurisdiction. Then it was concluded that I should come to the next sitting, being the 28th day, to see their writing and give my answer to it, when, he said, I should have them all together. So I and my friend came expecting an opportunity of speech with them but had it So when they were risen, the speaker called us into another room and gave not. us a bad paper in Dutch, which I got translated and left my answer in writing for them in Dutch.-After two of them (Perkins and the Advocate) had read it, and promised to liver it in to the whole. So after a month waiting of them at their house, eleven sittings, being pretty clear of them I came away on the 30th day, and the 2d of 4th month, at Rotterdam came aboard the same ship that carried me thither. **** 1664, 30th of Ist month. in the morning we arrived at New Amsterdam, and the same day I came to my own house, being the first house I ventured into in the country, where I found my family in good health. Praises to the Lord forever!1 John Bowns THE FIRST TRISTRAM COFFYN, OF NANTUCKET. wife and five children, viz: Peter, Nicholas, One of these sons was the famous Tristram Coffyn the ancestor of the numerous families of that name now in this country. Nearly all his descendants are enabled by means of the accurate genealogical records in existence, to trace their lineage back to him, although nearly two centuries have elapsed since his death. He was born at Brixton, near Plymouth, in the county of Devonshire, England, in the year 1605 Sir Richard Coffin, Knight, accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy to England in the year 1066, and the manor of Alwington, in the county of Devonshire, was assigned to him. The authorities respecting the County of Devonshire make honorable mention of Sir Elias Coffin, Knight, of Clist and Ingarby, in the days of King John; of Sir Richard Coffin, of Alwington, in the time of Henry II; of Sir Jeffrey Coffin and Combe Coffin, under Henry III., and of other Knights, descendants of these, during successive reigns, until the time of Henry VIII, when we find Sir William Coffin, Sheriff of Devonshire, highly preferred at Court, and one of eighteen assistants chosen by labor, expenditures on account of travelling Friends or Qua the King to accompany him to a tournament in France, in 1519. He was also High Steward of the manor and liberties of Standon in Hertford. By his will he bequeathed his horses and hawks to the King, and devised the manor of East Higgington, Devonshire, to his nephew Richard Coffin, Esq., of Portledge. His monument in Standon Church, is mentioned in Weever's "Funeral Monuments," at page 534. Nicholas Coffin, of, Butler's Parish, in Devonshire, died in 1603. His will, which was proved at Totness, in Devonshire, November 3, 1603, mentions his 1 John Bowne was a thrifty farmer at Flushing, Long Island. He bought slaves when he needed them on his farm, raised barley, tobacco, corn, oats and wheat,and made cider, which he shipped to New York and some boiled cider to Philadelphia for William Penn and others. He left an account-book replete with interesting items concerning his daily business. In it are inventories of household effects, specifications for building his houses, and barns, and alterations of rooms, contracts for kers such as neck-cloths, muslin pocket-handkerchiefs, mending boots and clothes, shocing horses, mending saddles, buying bridles and horses, and a barrel of cider put on bourd of a vessel for the use of voyaging friends. Here is an interesting item: "1700 the 7th month, then disburst Jamaica on the account of entertainment for William Penn and other Friends. £1, 10 8." In this account book he has also some poetry addressed to one he wished to make his second wife, and accounts of expenses for building and keeping up meeting houses at Flushing and New York. "The case of John Bowne" says Besse in his Sufferings of the Quakers "was verry hard. The Dutch Governor took him from his aged father, and from his wife and children, confined him a long time in a close dungeon where he was almost famished to death, and shipped him to Holland without being suffered to see his family before his departure. Sometime after his return home the Governor meeting him in the street, seemed ashamed of what he had done, and told him he was glad to see him safe home again, and that he hoped he should never do so any more to any of his friends. A token of repentance of an ingenuous disposi tion, such as few, if any of the rigid persecutors in New England did ever show," The Journal of Bowne shows some of Besse's statements to be overcharged. [HENRY ONDERDONK Jr.] (another account says 1609); married Dionis Stevens, and in 1642, came to New England, bringing with him his wife, mother, two sisters and five children. The names of these children were Peter, Tristram, Elizabeth, James and John. He first settled at Salisbury, Mass.; thence moved the same year to Haverhill, where his name appears on the Indian Deed of that town Nov. 15, 1642, and where his children Mary (Starbuck) and John (the first John having died at the same place in 1642) were born. In 1648, he removed to Newbury, where his youngest son, Stephen, was born. After residing there several years, (during which time he was licensed to keep an inn, and a ferry over the Merrimac river,) he returned to Salisbury, where he became a county magistrate, and in 1660, or 1661, he abandoned New England, and with his wife, four children and his aged mother, settled upon the Island of Nantucket. Prior to his last removal, (and early in the year 1659) he made a voyage of inquiry and observation to the group of islands off the Massachusetts coast, with a view to this change of residence. He first visited Martin's Vineyard, and taking from there Peter Folger, (the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin) as an interpreter of the Indian language, proceeded to Nantucket. It has been supposed that religious persecution was the cause of these frequent changes and of his final departure from the mainland, but I have been unable to trace the statement to any reliable source. Could he have foreseen what a multitude of descendents are now looking up to him with pride, as their common ancestor, and the long, bright century of prosperity and renown that awaited the little island of his adoption, he would have felt comforted and encouraged during the severe struggles with which his career was evidently marked. He was one of a company of ten, who first purchased Nantucket from the Indians, which fact appears in a conveyance from the Sachems Wanackmamack and Nickanoose, dated May 10, 1660. The original manuscript of this instrument is still extant, bearing the signature of Peter Folger as one of the witnesses to its execution. Prior to this purchase from the natives, the English title to the greater portion of the Island had been obtained from Thomas Mayhew, who held the same under a conveyance from Lord Stirling. The deed from Mayhew is dated July 2, 1659, and runs to the grantees in the following order, viz: Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swaine, Thomas Barnard, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleaf, John' Swaine and William Pile. Tristram Coffin and his sons at one time owned about one fourth of Nantucket, and the whole of the little island adjacent to it on the west, called Tuckernuck, containing 1000 acres, which he purchased of the old Sachem Potconet, at the time of his visit in 1659. He appears to have been a leading spirit among the first settlers, and was frequently selected by the inhabitants to transact important public business. His letters to the Colonial Government of New York, (Nantucket was at that time a dependency of New York) are preserved in the Archives of the Department of State at Albany. The following Oath of Office and Administrator's Bond, were copied by the writer from the original instruments, which are on file in the Record Office at Nantucket, and he believes are now published for the first time: "Where as I Tristram Coffin Senior have Received a Commission dated the 16 of September 1677 Investinge me with power to be Chefe Magestrate one the Ile. of Nantucket and dependences for this ye four years ensuinge under further order I Tristram Coffin a bond said doe engage my selfe under the penalty of perjury to doe Justice in all causes that come before me according to Law and endeavor to my best understanding and heare unto I have Subscribed Zligflam Chief Magistrat. "Mr Tristram Coffin Senior acknow PETER COFFIN Assistant ledged this a bond Subscription to be his that Tristram used the letter y instead of Act and deed Before me i, in writing the family name. It is said, whether truthfully, I do not know, that his ancestors spelled it in the same manner. The letter of Administration appended to the bond, fixes the date of his death (Oct. 3, 1681,) beyond question. November ye 5th, 1677 "We James Coffin John Coffin Steve Coffin doe bind ourselves jointly and severaly in the some of an hundred pounds sterlinge to perform the trust and administer on our fathers estatte and to bare the Court harmless according to law "At a Court of Sessions held the 29th of November 1681 there granted administration unto me James Coffin, John Coffin and Stephen Coffin on the estate of mr Tristram Coffin deceased the 3d of October 1681 they having given security according to law." The body of the Oath was evidently written by Peter Coffin (son of Tristram); the signature, a fac simile of which is given, is an autograph. It will be observed a native of Boston, who went to England In the year 1826, Sir Isaac Coffin, in early life and became a Baronet, and Nantucket, and founded the an Admiral in the British Navy, visited "Coffin School," (the original fund being 2,500 pounds sterling,) which is still flourishing. The Act of Incorporation provides for the establishment of "a school by the name of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin's Lancasterian School, for the purpose of promoting decency, good order and morality, and for giving a good English education to youth who are descendants of the late Tristram 'Coffin, who emigrated from England," etc. The Act further provides "that the Trustees shall all be the descendants of the above mentioned Tristram Coffin in the male or female line." THE COFFIN MEDAL. The Medal of which the above is an accurate outline representation, was struck by order of Sir Isaac, about the time of his visit to the Island, in memory of his distinguished ancestor. Upon Tristram Coffyn's arrival with his family, at Nantucket, he took up his abode on the eastern slope of what are now called Trot's Hills, near Cupaum pond, towards the western end of the Island, and in course of time, a little hamlet grew up in the vicinity. It is now almost entirely |