Tristram married before coming to America and lived, successively at Haverhill, Newbury, Salisbury and finally on Nantucket Island, where he died.
On the fifteenth of November, 1642, Passaquo and Saggahew, with the
consent of Passaconaway who was leader of the Merrimacs, sold for L3 10s. `to
the inhabitants of Pentucket,' now Haverhill, a track of land fourteen miles
long and six miles wide, `with ye isleand and the river that ye isleand stands
in' etc. Among the witnesses to this deed was Tristram Coffyn, who had this
year, arrived in New England and had moved from Salisbury to
Haverhill.
Tristram is said to have been the first man to use a plow in
Haverhill. He was a royalist, and was one of the few, if not the only early
settler to come to New England as a consequence of the success of Oliver
Cromwell.
In about 1644, Tristram and his family moved to Newbury, where he
became a prominent inn keeper and ferryman. In Newbury in 1644 Tristram was
granted permission to keep an "ordinary" (saloon), sell wine and keep a ferry on
the Newbury side of the Merrimack between Newbury and Carr's island. George Carr
ran the ferry from Carr's island to Salisbury. This arrangement was confirmed in
the town records on December 26,1647: `Tristram Coffin (senior) is allowed to
keep an ordinary and retayle wine, paying according to order, and also granted
liberty to keep a ferry at Newbury side. In September 1653, `Tristram Coffyn's
wife Dionis Coffin was presented for selling beer', at his ordinary in Newbury,
'for three pence a quart.' (higher than the set price for beer). Having proved
`upon the testimony of Samuel Moores, that she put six bushels of malt into a
hogshead she was discharged.' Dionis was found to be "doctoring" the beer sold
at the ordinary. Contrary to current practice Dionis was making her beer
stronger and charging a correspondingly higher price. The law at the time called
for beer to be `good wholesome beer of four bushels of malt to the hogshead.'
Goodwife Coffin is said to have remarked: `I'll have better beer than my
neighbors and be paid for it. A fig for the law.'
In 1654 or 1655, Tristram
returned to Salisbury where he signed his name as "Tristram Coffyn Commissioner
of Salisbury."
In 1659, Tristram and some of his sons were among a company of
Salisbury men who purchased nineteen twentieths of the island of Nantucket from
Thomas Mayhew.
In 1660 Tristram Sr. with wife, mother and some of his
children moved to the island where this branch of the Coffin family continued.
Tristram Jr. remained in Newbury with his wife and family.
See Tristram Coffin Jr. for continuation of Coffins in Newbury
Submitted by: Bob Bamford - bob@essexbooks.com © 1997 Heritage Associates
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Last Updated February 26, 2005