# Robert Coe (colonist)

Robert Coe (1596 – bef. 1690) was an early English settler, public official, and a founder of five towns in Connecticut and New York: Wethersfield, Stamford, Hempstead, Elmhurst, and Jamaica. Coe took passage from England to the Americas in 1634 during the Puritan migration to New England. He is considered the founder of the Coe family in America and was the primary progenitor in New England of Coes. He has many notable descendants, including the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the screenwriter of Gone with the Wind, Sidney Howard, and the namesake of the largest state park in Northern California, Henry W. Coe State Park.
In England, Coe began his career as a public official with an election to the overseer of cloth. In the New Netherland settlements, he held appointed positions as a magistrate and a deputy of the General Court. Under the governance of the New England Colonies, he was appointed as commissioner of Jamaica, and the judge and high sheriff of Yorkshire, New York.

## Family history

The Coe family, originally recorded as "le Queu" and then "Coo", were Normans considered gentry and acquired wealth through the cloth trade. The name was derived from Old Norse "ka" meaning jackdaw, which is also the meaning of Coe in Old English. The English heraldry of the Coe family uses the martlet, a small black bird like the jackdaw. The birds on his supplementary seals had legs, unlike the mythical martlet, more closely resembling the jackdaw. The first Coe was probably known as "the Jackdaw".
In the 14th century, John Coo, the earliest known historical direct ancestor of Coe, served with John Hawkwood in the White Company. He was awarded the title of knight by Edward III of England for the Battle of San Gallo in 1364. He established the Hawkwood Chantries in Hedingham Castle in honor of Hawkwood. He is referred to as "Cocco" by Italian historians. Many of Coo's descendants resided at Hedingham, were educated at the Inner Temple, practiced law, held offices in England, and were extensive landowners. One Coo was listed as a justice of the peace in Essex, others became lords. Many were yeomen, gentlemen, and esquires. 17th century lord of the manor John Coo owned many lands, including at Hedingham.

## Biography

Coe was born to Henry and Mary Coe (née Vincent) at Thorpe Morieux, Suffolk, England, and baptized there on October 26, 1596. He was described as a "fine example" of a Puritan and a "great force of character" by J. Gardner Bartlett, the American genealogist. His father, Henry, had been a yeoman, probably a clothmaker, and for several years was churchwarden. In Boxford, Suffolk in April 1625, Coe was elected as the overseer of cloth and in 1629 as the questman of the church. His first wife and mother of his four children died in Boxford in 1628. He remarried shortly after. His only daughter, a twin to his middle son, died before 1634.
Historical records refer to him as "The Founder of the Coe Family in America". He and his family left for America on April 10, 1634 in search of religious liberty from Ipswich aboard the Francis, commanded by John Cutting. Coe settled for a brief time in Watertown, a Boston suburb in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with several other Puritan families from Boxford who arrived with John Winthrop. He was made a Freeman, but soon left the area due to overcrowding with permission of the General Court.
Coe was a founder of two towns in the Connecticut Colony. In June 1635, Coe joined Andrew Warde and a few others in starting a new plantation at Wethersfield, Connecticut (originally Pyquag), in the fertile Connecticut River Valley, where he lived for five years. A division within the church caused Coe, Warde, and eighteen others to form the Rippowam Company, with the intent of acquiring Rippowam lands from the New Haven Colony. The land had been previously purchased from the Siwanoy peoples. In 1640, Coe and Warde were designated by the general court as representatives in colonial government matters; they secured the land and founded a new plantation called Toquams, later renamed Stamford. Stamford was included in the creation of the United Colonies of New England. On April 5, 1643, Coe was appointed as Stamford's magistrate, the equivalent of a mayor. The following year, another dispute caused Coe and the town reverend, Richard Denton, to leave the British colonies in favor of the New Netherland settlements.
They crossed the Long Island Sound to what is now Long Island and founded Hempstead, where Coe was appointed the magistrate and the church elder. During his eight years leading Hempstead, he became an extensive landowner. In 1652, Coe and Edward Jessup became the majority landowners of a settlement west of Long Island in what is now Elmhurst. The town was originally called Middleburgh, then Hastings, and finally Newtown. Coe was made the town's magistrate and served for four years as a deputy of the general court, the same "representative" government style as in the British colonies. As the deputy, Coe traveled in 1653 to Boston and New Amsterdam to ask for protection against a threatened Native attack.
After the settlement was well-established, Coe relocated again in 1655 to Rustdorp, a town on a large tract of land south of Newtown, which he purchased along with his youngest son Benjamin and several others. Rustdorp was later renamed Jamaica. Peter Stuyvesant appointed Coe magistrate of the town under the jurisdiction of New Netherland, an office Coe held until 1664. When the English population on Long Island revolted against Dutch rule and transferred their allegiance to Connecticut, Coe was designated as commissioner for Jamaica under British auspices. After New Amsterdam surrendered to the English fleet, New York governor Richard Nicolls appointed Coe as the judge of oyer and terminer of Yorkshire. His final position was as high sheriff of Yorkshire until 1671, after which he retired from public office at the age of 75.
Near the end of his life, Coe settled his estate among his three sons. He married a third wife when he was over 80 years of age. He bought a farm of fifty acres at Foster's Meadow in Hempstead on November 29, 1678, where he lived until his death (which occurred sometime before 1690, when his will was executed). His home on Long Island stood until 1930, when it was demolished to accommodate the construction of the Long Island Expressway.

## Legacy

* Henry W. Coe State Wilderness Park, in the Diablo Range, named for Henry Willard Coe, Jr.
* Mount Coe and Coe Glacier in the Cascade Range are named for Henry Coe who platted the town of Hood River, Oregon
* Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, named for Daniel Coe
* Ernest F. Coe visitor's center at Everglades National Park
* Joan of Arc statue at Coe Circle in Portland, Oregon commissioned by Henry Waldo Coe
* Coe Hall at Wiley University was named for Herman Gurnee Coe and his daughter, Isabel
* Gone with the Wind writer Sidney Coe Howard, for which he won an Oscar
* a George Washington guard who delivered the sermon at his memorial
Freeport, New York was originally named "Coe's Neck", after Coe, and remains the name of a local park. Cos Cob, Connecticut is named after Coe, derived from "Coe's Cob" meaning "Coe's wall".
Coe has many notable descendants and towns and important landmarks bearing the names of his descendants. Coe Township, Michigan is named after George Coe, Lieutenant Governor of Michigan and Coe Township, Rock Island County, Illinois is named for Albert S. Coe who served in the Illinois General Assembly and developed the area's agricultural industry. Coe, Indiana is named for one of the founders of Indianapolis and a frontier physician, Isaac Coe.
The namesake of Henry W. Coe State Park, the largest state park in Northern California and the second largest state park in the state and popular campground Coe Ranch, Henry Willard Coe, Jr.. The visitor center near Homestead, Florida of Everglades National Park is named for descendant Ernest F. Coe, who founded the park. Mount Coe and Coe Glacier are named for Henry Coe, a naturalist and journalist who ascended Mount Adams in the 19th-century. He platted the town of Hood River, Oregon, which was settled by Nathaniel Coe, a pioneer politician and his father. They cultivated the Hood River Valley with fruit trees.
Coe College, is named for Daniel Coe, another descendant, and Coe Elementary School in Seattle is named after descendant Frantz Hunt Coe, though the original building burned down in 2001. Coe Circle, a park in Portland, Oregon, is named after descendant Henry Waldo Coe, where he commissioned the installation of a gilt bronze statue of Joan of Arc. Dudley Coe Hall at Bowdoin College, formerly the infirmary, is named for the son of Thomas Upham Coe, an alum and prominent doctor and lumber baron of Bangor, Maine. Portraits of Thomas Upham Coe are in the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and the Harvard Art Museums. Coe Hall at Wiley University was named for Herman Gurnee Coe, the commissioner of Cedar County, Iowa, and his daughter, Isabel, who taught there.
Coe's second great grandson, Jonas Coe, fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. He served in the Commander-in-Chief's Guard in the Battle of Long Island and gave the military sermon upon Washington's death after having become a reverend.

### Notable descendants

* George W. Bush, 43rd United States president who served two terms
* Winston Churchill, who was twice Prime minister of the United Kingdom
* Tony Goldwyn, American actor known for Scandal
* Richard F. Post, a recipient of the James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics
* Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singer and guitarist David Crosby

#### Tree of notable descendants

* Henry Coe (1555 — 1630), m. Mary Vincent
** Robert Coe, Sr. (1596 – 1690), m. Mary
*** John Coe, Sr. (1625 — 1693)
**** John Coe, Jr. (1657 — 1735)
**** Samuel Coe, Sr. (1672 — 1742), m. Margaret Van Zandt
***** Samuel Coe, Jr. (1718 — 1759), m. Phebe Seaman
****** William Coe (1748 — 1829), m. Martha Connelly
******* John Coe I (1784 — 1818), m. Polly Cooper
******** John Coe II (1814 — 1892), m. Katharine Hopper
********* John W. Coe III (1840 — 1889), m. Elizabeth Jackson
***** John Coe (1719 — 1782), m. Hannah Halstead
****** Jonas Coe (1759 — 1822), m. Elizabeth Miller
******* Eliza Coe (1803 — ), m. John Brown
******** John Crosby Brown (1838–1909), m. Mary Elizabeth Adams
********* William Adams Brown (1865–1943), Helen Gilman Noyes
********** Winthrop G. Brown (1907 – 1987)
***** Daniel Coe (1730 — 1777), m. Sarah Palmer
****** John D. Coe (1755 — 1777), m. Sarah Coe
******* Hannah Coe (1784 — 1837), m. Halstead Gurnee
******** Walter S. Gurnee (1813 — 1903), m. Mary Coe
********* Augustus C. Gurnee (1855 — 1926)
******* Dolly Coe (1800 — 1887), m. Peter Post
******** Edwin Post (1821 — 1893), m. Mary Doolittle
********* Freeman Post (1875 — 1889), m. Miriam Colcord
********** Richard F. Post (1918 — 2015), m. Marylee Armstrong
*********** Markie Post (1950 – 2021), m. Michael Ross
****** Matthew Coe (1757 — 1838), m. Martha Gurnee
******* Stephen Coe (1787 — 1838), m. Leah Henion
******** Matthew Coe (1815 — 1872), m. Susan Farwell
********* Frantz Hunt Coe (1856–1904), m. Carrie Everett
********** Herbert E. Coe (1881 — 1968), m. Lucy Campbell
********** Harry Coe (1885 – 1977)
******* Matthew D. Coe (1797 — 1881), m. Ruth Deyo
******** Herman Gurnee Coe (1826 — 1917), m. Katherine McClung
*** Robert Coe, Jr. (1626 — 1659), m. Hannah Mitchell
**** John Coe, Sr. (1658 — 1741), m. Mary Hawley
***** Robert Coe (1684 — 1762), m. Barbara Parmalee
****** Jonathan Coe (1710 — 1795), m. Elizabeth Elmer
******* Robert Coe (1740 — 1830), m. Chloe Thrall
******** Roswell Coe (1780 — 1825), m. Polly Porter
********* Willis Coe (1819 — 1912), m. Hannah Fenton
********** George Washington Coe (1843 — 1920), m. Lois Ann Ives
*********** George Henry Coe (1882 — 1967), m. Blanch Mays
************ Jack Coe, Sr. (1918 — 1956), m. Juanita Scott
************* Jack Coe, Jr. (1944)
****** Mary Coe (1717 — 1789), (m. 2nd) James Crampton
******* Molly Crampton (1748 — 1797), m. James Kilbourn
******** Hiram Kilbourn (1786 — 1847), m. Eliza Seaman
********* Sarah Kilbourn (1839 — 1903), m. Elezear Bishop
********** Billy Bishop (1894 – 1956), m. Margaret Burden
****** Thomas Coe (1727 — 1810), m. Mary Goodell
******* Zachariah Coe (1757 — 1841), m. Miriam Calkins
******** Cyrus Coe (1786 — 1853), m. Elsie Fenton
********* Nathaniel Coe (1836 — 1917), m. Emma Stinton
********** Clarence E. Coe (1873 — 1943), m. Laura Bauder
*********** William Fenton Coe (1916 — 2006), m. Audree Hall
****** Levi Coe (1760 — 1832), (m. 2nd) Deborah McCall
******* Walter Coe (1798 — 1868), m. Mariana Kilbourne
******** Edward Coe (1834 — 1909), m. Louisa Bonney
********* Ernest F. Coe (1867 – 1951)
******* Levi Coe (1810 — 1832), m. Lavinia McNeil
***** Joseph Coe, Sr. (1686 — 1754), m. Abigail Robinson
****** Joseph Coe, Jr. (1713 — 1784), m. Abigail Curtiss
******* James Coe, Sr. (1740 — 1794), m. Rachel Benton
******** James Coe, Jr. (1769 — 1845), m. Nancy Pratt
********* Almon Coe (1796 — 1853), m. Climena Spelman
********** Samuel Buel Coe (1835 — 1910), m. Mary Cronkhite
*********** Henry Waldo Coe (1857 — 1927), m. Viola Boley
******* Curtis Coe (1750 — 1829), m. Anne Thompson
******** Eben Coe (1785 — 1862), (m. 1st) Mehitable Smith, (m. 2nd) Mary Upham
********* Henry Willard Coe (1814 — 1896), m. Hannah Huntington Smith
********** Henry Willard Coe, Jr. (1860 — 1943), m. Rhoda Stutcliffe
*********** Sada Sutcliffe Coe (1910 — 1979), m. Charles Robinson
********* Thomas Upham Coe (1837 — 1920), m. Sadie Loantha
******* Ebenezer Coe (1755 — 1839), m. Cleopatra Conklin
******** Isaac Coe (1782 — 1855), m. Rebecca Cook
******* Joel Coe (1758 — 1846), m. Huldah Horton
******** Nathaniel Coe (1788 — 1868), m. Mary White
********* Henry C. Coe (1844 — 1928), m. Kittie Carlton
********* Lawrence Coe (1831 — 1897), m. Mary Graves
********** Helen Coe (1860 — 1946), m. John Howard, Sr.
*********** Sidney Howard (1891 — 1939), m. Clare Eames
************ Jennifer Howard (1925 — 1993), m. Samuel Goldwyn
************* Tony Goldwyn (1958), m. Jane Musky
******** Curtis Coe (1797 — 1871), m. Hannah Clark
********* Joel Horton Coe (1827 — 1846), m. Wealthy Clark
********** Arthur Coe (1854 — 1924), m. Minnie Lees
*********** Robert E. Coe, Sr. (1880 — 1970), m. Mary Shoemaker
************ Curtis C. Coe (1911 — 1996), m. Pearl Haney
************* Margaret Coe (1941), m. Mark Clarke
************** Tim Clarke
************** Karin Clarke
************ Robert E. Coe, Jr. (1915 — 2003), m. Ethel
********* Curtis N. Coe (1830 — 1908), m. Martha Hammond
****** David Coe (1715 — 1807), m. Hannah Camp
******* Jesse Coe, Sr. (1743 — 1824), m. Abigail Miller
******** Jesse Coe, Jr. (1769 — 1843), m. Olive Roberts
******** Ezra Coe (1796 — 1869), m. Elizabeth Somberger
********* George Coe (1831 — 1906), m. Harriet Van Voorhis
********** George Albert Coe (1862 – 1951), m. Sadie Knowland
******* Eli Coe, Sr. (1758 — 1835), m. Rachel Miller
******** Eli Coe, Jr. (1784 — 1847), m. Lois Coe
********* Isaac Coe (1816 — 1899), m. Sarah Bacon
********** T. Eloise Coe (1852 — 1899), m. Frank P. Ireland
*********** Sarah Coe Ireland (1882 — 1977), m. William Hayward
************ Leland Hayward (1902 — 1971), m. Margaret Sullavan
************* Brooke Hayward (1937), m. Michael M. Thomas
****** Josiah Coe (1723 — 1798), m. Hannah
******* Phineas Coe (1753 — 1832), m. Rhoda Banning
******** Anson Coe (1784 — 1856), m. Anna Haynes
********* Hayden Coe (1811 — 1862), (m. 2nd) Josephine Lumpkin
********** Hayden Lumpkin Coe (1860 — 1904), m. Sara Hughes
*********** Frederick Hayden Hughs Coe, Sr. (1884 — 1914), m. Annette Harrell
************ Fred Coe, Jr. (1914 — 1979), m. Alice Griggs
***** John Coe, Jr. (1693 — 1751), m. Hannah Parsons
****** Simeon Coe, Sr. (1721 — 1782), m. Anna Morris
******* Simeon Coe, Jr. (1755 — 1838), m. Eunice Strong
******** Simeon Maltby Coe (1784 – 1848), m. Mary Miles
********* George Coe (1811 — 1869), (m. 1st) Almira Mason, (m. 2nd) Rhoda Mason
********* Albert S. Coe (1817 — 1869), (m. 2nd) Lucy Cornelia Hollister
********** Emma Louisa Coe (1865 — 1935), m. Wallace Hugh Whigham
********* Jonathan Coe (1819 — 1885), (m. 2nd) Sarah Murray
********** Clarence Clinton Coe (1864 — 1936), m. Claudia Smith
********* Decius O. Coe (1820 — 1870), m. Eveline Stevens
***** Ephraim Coe, Sr. (1698 — 1765), m. Hannah Comfort
****** Ephraim Coe, Jr. (1724 — 1778), m. Anne Canfield
******* Daniel Coe (1755 — 1820), m. Martha
******** Daniel Coe (1794 — 1872), (m. 2nd) Mercy Wattles
********* May Coe (1846 —1931), m. James A. Jewell
********** James R. Jewell (1878 — 1962), m. Edna Keith
******* Seth Coe (1771 — 1816), m. Eunice Roberts
******** Orris Coe (1815 — 1895), m. Paulina Bushnell
********* Edwin Coe (1840 – 1909), m. Emma Spaulding
********** Robert K. Coe (1880 — 1952), m. Vera Christensen
***** Abigail Coe (1702 — 1747), m. John Guthrie
****** Sarah Guthrie (1744 — 1792), m. Reuben Murray
******* Aurora Murray (1785 — 1867), m. Isaac Jerome
******** Leonard Jerome (1817 — 1891), m. Clarissa Hall
********* Jeanette Jerome (1854 — 1921), m. Lord Randolph Churchill
********** Winston Churchill (1874 — 1965), m. Clementine Hozier
*********** Diana Churchill (1909 — 1963), (m. 2nd) Duncan Sandys
************ Edwina Sandys (1938), m. Piers Dixon
************* Hugo Dixon (1963)
*********** Randolph Churchill (1911 — 1968), (m. 1st) Pamela Digby, (m. 2nd) June Osborne
************ Winston Churchill (1940 — 2010)
************ Arabella Churchill (1949 — 2007)
*********** Sarah Churchill (1914 — 1982)
*********** Mary Churchill (1922 — 2014), m. Christopher Soames
************ Nicholas Soames (1948), (m. 1st) Catherine Weatherall, (m. 2nd) Serena Smith
************ Emma Soames (1949)
************ Rupert Soames (1959), m. Camilla Dunne
********** Jack Churchill (1880 — 1974), m. Gwendoline Bertie
*** Benjamin Coe I (1628 — 1694), m. Abigail Carman
**** Joseph Coe I (1665 — 1742), m. Judith Wheeler
***** Joseph Coe II (1704 — 1760), m. Esther
****** Joseph Coe III (1738 — 1825), m. Abigail Moone
******* Joseph Coe IV (1768 — 1842), m. Mary Gibbons
******** Joseph Gibbons Coe (1796 — 1855), m. Sarah Winans
********* Sylvester Coe (1821 — 1891), m. Ann Rowland
********** Clarence S. Coe (1865 — 1939), m. Lula Joy
********** William T. Coe (1870 — 1950), m. Anabel Collins
***** Benjamin Coe (1709 — 1800), m. Rachel Prudden
****** Moses Coe (1750 — 1813), m. Sarah Howell
******* Jeanette Coe (1782 — 1865), m. John Gibson
******** William Harvey Gibson (1821 – 1894), m. Martha Creeger
******** James Gibson (1823 – 1898), m. Margaret Poole
********* Albert Gibson (1851 — 1909), m. Lillian Griffith
********** Emily Gibson (1884 – 1966), m. Warder Braerton
******* Daniel Coe (1801 — 1851), m. Mary Gladden
******** Sarah Coe (1831 — 1901), m. John Robinson
********* James E. Robinson (1868 — 1932), m. Lula Flickinger
********** Pauline Robinson (1896 — 1949), m. Marvin Pierce
*********** Barbara Pierce (1925 — 2018), m. George H. W. Bush
************ George W. Bush (1946), m. Laura Welch
************* Barbara Bush (1981), m. Craig Coyne
************* Jenna Bush (1981), m. Henry Hager
************ Pauline Robinson Bush (1949 — 1953)
************ Jeb Bush (1953), m. Columba Gallo
************* George P. Bush (1976), m. Amanda Williams
************ Neil Bush (1955), m. Sharon Smith
************* Lauren Bush (1984), m. David Lauren
************ Marvin Pierce Bush (1956), m. Margaret Molster
************ Dorothy Bush (1959), (m. 2nd) Robert P. Koch
**** Benjamin Coe II (1660 — 1707), m. Mary Everett
***** Benjamin Coe III (1702 — 1788), m. Abigail
****** Benjamin Coe IV (1738 — 1818), m. Bethia Grummon
******* Abigail Coe (1776 — 1853), m. William Whitehead
******** William Adee Whitehead (1810), m. Margaret Parker
********* Cortlandt Whitehead (1842 — 1922), m. Charlotte Burgoyne King
********** John Whitehead (1869 — 1934), m. Martha Sharpe
*********** Aliph Van Cortlandt (1905 — 1973), m. Floyd Crosby
************ David Crosby, m. Jan Dance
******* Aaron Coe (1779 — 1857), m. Catherine Elmer
******** Julia Coe (1807 — 1848), m. Nathan W. Condit
******** Philemon Elmer Coe (1815 — 1873)
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