More of the Semiquincentennial Exhibition

Patriots of Hudson in the Revolutionary War, the exhibition commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country, continues at the Hudson Area Library. To pique your interest and persuade you to visit the library to view the entire exhibit, Gossips shares two panels that tell of Alexander Coffin, one of the founders of Hudson, who was born in Nantucket in 1740. (Click on the images to enlarge. The main text of each panel is transcribed below the image.)

Alexander Coffin

"Hot as a Pepperpot," Captain, Privateer,

Hudson Proprietor and Mayor

Prior to the war, Captain Coffin sailed from Nantucket to London in 1774, met Benjamin Franklin, and was "early initiated in the views, feelings and anticipations of those true friends of American Colonies, he at once came out a firm supporter of the American cause, an unwavering patriot." --The Rural Repository, January 19, 1839

The Continental Congress authorized private ships to seize British vessels. During the Revolutionary War, Coffin was commissioned by the Continental Army to command the privateer ship Hero. Coffin was twice captured by the British during the war.

He also carried dispatches from Franklin to the newly formed American government regarding French support for the War of Independence. These dispatches have a special importance because France's early support of the American cause was crucial.

After the war, Coffin was a Hudson Proprietor, early mayor, postmaster for over two decades and president of the Columbia Turnpike Corporation.

In 1838, at the age of 98, he chaired a meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society at the Baptist Church in Hudson. In the years leading up to the Civil War, abolitionist meetings were held in Hudson. . . .

"Coffin was one of nature's noblemen, frank, generous, warm-hearted and brave as Caesar . . . hot as a pepperpot, fierce as a northeaster . . . but neither rude, aggressive or implacable. He was the noblest Roman of them all." --Random Recollections of Albany: 1800 to 1808, Gorham A. Worth

 

Couriers for the Revolution

In October 1775, Seth Jenkins, Alexander Coffin, and fellow Nantuckers arrived in London and purchased the brig Richmond to return home. Some unnamed "friends of America" gave them letters to Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and others explaining British designs against the colonies. The Richmond also had £20,000 on board and was under false registry as sailing to the West Indies and then bound for Halifax, when it was in fact bound for Nantucket.

The brig was captured by an American privateer, John Craig, sent to Philadelphia, and her owners were sent to the Bahamas. When Jenkins, Coffin and the others eventually found their way home, they sued for the brig's return in the Philadelphia admiralty court and also appealed to Congress for redress. They won their case but failed to recover their property.

In a letter quoted in Alexander Starbuck's History of Nantucket: County Island and Town including Genealogies of the First Settlers, Coffin writes about a harrowing return from London. Coffin recollects:

". . . the letters we were Chargd with to members of the Hon Congress & were of such importance & Nature as Required us to act with the Utmost Care & Caution, had they been discovered we Hazarded our necks & the necks of the best and sincerest of Friends of America."

Panels from the exhibition previously published on Gossips can be found here and here.