Tristram Coffin (1608-1681)

He was born at Brixton near Plymouth in Devon, England, and he spelt his name 'Coffyn'. He was a member of the minor gentry who owned property in Devon and Dorset and was a Parish Constable. He was not a Puritan, but in 1645 during the English Civil War he emigrated to Massachusetts with his family including his mother and two unmarried sisters. Settling first at Salisbury he was appointed a Justice of the Peace but moved soon afterwards to Haverhill where he is credited for being the first person to plough land there and the owner of a tavern, "Coffin's Ordinary". In 1658, he formed a company to purchase Nantucket. Moving there in 1659, he lived near Capsum in a house that he named "Northam". A few years later he and his sons also bought the Island of Tuckernuck where he built a corn mill. The fairness and kindness that he showed towards the Indians has often seen him compared to William Penn. In 1667, he was appointed Chief Magistrate of Nantucket and he held the office of Governor until 1680. He and his wife, Dionis, had ten children of whom seven (listed) lived to adulthood.