Historic New England: Coffin House

My third stop on my trip to the Newbury and Newburyport area was Coffin House, a Historic New England (HNE) property just down the street from Swett-Ilsley House. For over three hundred years, this building was home to the Coffins, a Quaker family whose numerous descendants include abolitionist and women’s rights activist Lucretia Coffin Mott. The guide described the family as being so numerous that a descendent will be on a tour almost every day, travelling from as close by as Nantucket to as far away as Samoa.

The Remarkable Coffin Family

The patriarch of this enormous family was Tristram Coffin, Jr., whose family fled from Devonshire, England (now called Devon) after the ascension of Oliver Cromwell after the English Civil War. After a stay in Newbury, Tristram Coffin, Sr. moved most of the family to Nantucket. Oldest son, Peter Coffin (named after his grandfather), moved to Exeter, NH, while fourteen-year-old Tristam, Jr. was abandoned. He may have become the indentured apprentice of local merchant tailor, Henry Somerby. Five years later, Somerby died and left a twenty-six year old widow, Judith Greenleaf Somerby, and their three surviving children. She did not stay widowed for long, as she and twenty-one year old Tristam, Jr. married less than two years later in 1654. The pair would have an additional ten children.

According to local lore, the young Coffins built the house soon after their marriage, which the guide described jokingly as a sprightly young couple. However, recent dendrochronology tests showed the house actually dated from 1678, twenty-four years later and a much different time in the lives of the Coffins. Their sons Daniel Somerby and John Coffin had recently died in Metacom’s War (also called King Philip’s War), while another son, Enoch, had died in 1675. At the same time, the oldest daughters had married and moved out, so the Coffins were downsizing from a fifteen person household to a mere seven person household.

This downsize did not last long, as youngest son Nathaniel Coffin and married Sarah Brocklebank Coffin and remained at his parent’s house, starting a family tradition. The couple had five children before the death of Tristram, Jr. in 1704 and Judith in 1705, and another three children were born later, prompting the Coffins to add a huge addition to the front of the house. Joseph Coffin carried on the tradition with his wife Margaret Morse Coffin and their eight children. In the fourth generation, Joshua Coffin and his wife Sarah Bartlett Coffin had twelve children. As an added bonus, Joshua and Sarah worked as tanners and had indentured apprentices, teaching these young men how to read, write, and make leather.

After this generation, in 1785 after the death of Joshua, two sons decided they would like to stay in the house. Their widowed mother helped them legally divide the house, and the brothers happily shared the duplex. The older son from the split, Joseph Coffin (named after his grandfather), lived in the back of the house. His family focused on education and political activism. His own son, Joshua Coffin (name after his grandfather), graduated from Dartmouth College in 1817 and became a schoolteacher. Joshua’s most famous student was his distant cousin, abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Coffin himself was member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Always eager to research, he wrote an over four hundred page book, A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury from 1635 to 1845, which was ideal for genealogical researchers and local historians, but a snooze for anyone else.

The younger son from the split, Edmund Coffin, lived in the front of the house and was prosperous. This allowed his daughter, Lucy Coffin (named for her mother), to update the house throughout the 19^th century. She never married but enjoyed having the children of her sister, Elizabeth Low Coffin Colman, over to visit to play her spinet, an early type of piano. Lucy outlived all her siblings and cousins to become the primary resident of the house. When she passed away in 1893 at age 82, her nieces and nephews were unsure of what to do with the house. For thirty-six years, the house was used sporadically as a rental property or temporary family housing until 1929. Right before the Great Depression hit, Margaret Elizabeth Coleman Merriam donated the property to HNE.

The Remarkable Coffin House

Because of the split and different income levels between the two families, the house preserves two separate times in history. When entering the house, visitors step inside the older kitchen and are transported to the mid-17^th century. At the center of the room is an a large table with a top that is reversible in theory but in practice would require the strength of four to six strong adults. Beside the table is a wooden chest with decorative carving. Moving on to the newer kitchen, guests enter the 18^th century, as a lighter table is covered with earthenware pots and plastic food for school groups. Built-in shelving provides space for a collection of pewter plates. The buttery, where dairy products were stored in a cool and clean environment, is filled with 19^th century stoneware and Shaker style boxes. From the window in the buttery, visitors can see a reproduction outhouse now used as a shed. William Sumner Appleton, Jr., who founded what became HNE, requested that all properties have an outhouse appropriate to the time period somewhere on the property.

The side of the house updated to late 19^th and early 20^th century decor features antique rugs, wallpaper with pastoral scenes, and a variety of paintings and silhouettes. White and blue delft tile around the fireplace and olive green paint on the carved wooden paneling is reminiscent of the Colonial Revival style. Over the fireplace in the sitting room hangs a portrait of Edmund Coffin, which painted some time between 1815 and 1825 and gifted to HNE by Margaret under the name of her husband, Arthur M. Merriam. Lucy’s spinet rests in the corner of the best parlor underneath the portrait of another Coffin.

Conclusion

The tour guide at this house was among my favorite at HNE properties, as his quick wit and comical mannerisms reminded me of actor Dick van Dyke. What could have become a dry history of listing names and building techniques became a fairly easy to follow story of a happy family, their full house, and careful ongoing maintenance by HNE. Admission to the Coffin House is standard HNE small house pricing: $10 for adults, $9 for seniors, $5 for students and children, $0 for HNE members (like me!). Tours last for about forty-five minutes and leave on the hour at 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays from June to mid October. On sunny days, the first ten minutes of the tour are held outside with ample seating available. Picnics are permitted on the grounds, while no food or drink is allowed inside. At the end of your tour, the guide provided an excellent diagram of the house and a family tree to keep all the additions and Coffins in order. Like most historic houses, the building is not wheelchair accessible, but some images of the inside are available. No virtual tour is offered on the website at this time. If you are able, I highly encourage a visit to this unique property.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 10/10

Accessibility: 7/10