Major Joshua Coffin, died 1774 - Tombstone Tuesday

 This tombstone was photographed at the First Parish Burial Ground in Newbury, Massachusetts.

In Memory of

Major JOSHUA COFFIN

who was born January 9th 1732

& died march 30th 1774

He was a Gentleman of

Ingenuity Humanity & Piety

Lived Greatly usefull &

Died Generally Lamented

The sweet Remembrance of the Just

Shall Flourish when they sleep in the Dust

Joshua Coffin, son of Joseph Coffin and Margaret More, was born on 9 January 1732 in Newbury, Massachusetts, and died on 30 March 1774.  He married Sarah Bartlett, the daughter of Thomas Bartlett and Hannah Moody,  on 21 January 1755 in Newbury and they had twelve children, and eight survived to adulthood. Two sons, Edmund and Joseph Coffin, inherited their father's house, originally built by Tristram Coffin in 1678. In 1929 the Coffin family donated the Coffin house to Historic New England.   

Joshua's papers and manuscripts are stored at Historic New England under the title "Coffin Family Papers" MS010. Please see this web page for more information: https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/gusn/187800/  

For the truly curious:

See the book Coffin Gatherings: Five Generations of Descendants of Tristram Coffin of Newbury and Nantucket, By W. S. Appleton. Boston: Press of David Clapp & Son, 1896, p 19.

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Major Joshua Coffin, died 1774 - Tombstone Tuesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted 12 December 2023, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2023/12/major-joshua-coffin-died-1774-tombstone.html: accessed [access date]).