By Fred Coffey
(With collaboration by Bonnie
Culley and Jack Coffee.)
In a genealogy search I stumbled across one "James Coffee in Surry County NC" by accident, and it was soon clear he was not one of my ancestors. But after a brief examination, I found he was an interesting person, living in an interesting place at an interesting time, and that he had an interesting genealogy and interesting DNA. With the thought that it might be useful to another researcher, here is what I learned about James:
THE INTERESTING PERSON: FINDING JAMES:
My real interest was in
researching my mother's family. She was a "Walker", and eventually
the path led to Robert Walker, Esq., in Surry County, NC, where I found a
fascinating document "Surry
County, North Carolina Court Minutes, Volumes I and II, 1768-1789",
transcribed by Mrs. W. O. Absher. This document contained over 200 references
to various ancestors on my Walker side, and I spent many hours studying the
index and the minutes for family clues.
And in that index, there were
also 29 references to a "James Coffee". I had Coffey ancestors in
Wilkes County, the next county to the west of Surry - could this James somehow
be a relative?
THE INTERESTING PLACE: RICHMOND, SURRY COUNTY, NC:
Don't look in your road atlas
– you won't find a "Richmond" anywhere in North Carolina, let alone
in modern Surry County. Some history may help explain:
Once there was only a
"Rowan" county in the western part of NC. Then in 1771 Surry County
was formed from part of Rowan. The county officials for the new county started
out meeting in the homes of their members, and only fragments of the Court
Minutes have been found for this time period.
In 1777 Wilkes County was
formed, just to the west of Surry, and a slice of Surry was taken to form part
of this new county. Many of our Coffey ancestors are found in this neighboring
Wilkes County, NC.
In 1779 Surry finally got
around to building a new courthouse at a new town called Richmond, and Richmond
was pretty much right in the center of the county. Most of the Court Minutes
start at this time.
In 1789 Surry was split in
half, and Stokes County was formed. The above court minutes end, and the new
Surry and Stokes counties both found the old county seat at Richmond to be
inconveniently located. They each opted for a new location, and Richmond was
abandoned after serving for only 10 years.
Then in 1849 and 1850, Surry
and Stokes were each split again, adding Yadkin and Forsyth Counties.
So where is
"Richmond", on today's map? All that's left is an archeological site,
located in modern Forsyth County, near the Yadkin River, about two miles west
of Tobaccoville, NC. That would be about 15 miles northwest of Winston Salem,
NC. (Google Maps GPS: 36.232 N, 80.424 W)
THE INTERESTING TIME: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION:
These court minutes cover the
period of the Revolution. And there was a period in 1780 and 1781 when this
region of North Carolina was very much involved in the conflict. If you are
interested, do some historical research on the "Battle of Kings
Mountain", which took place in South Carolina on October 7, 1780, and
involved many men from the North Carolina Militia.
Also look into the
"Battle at Guilford Court House" which took place in the next county
to the east, on March 15, 1781, and which would have certainly involved people
from Surry County.
But of most interest is what
was happening in Surry County itself. You need to understand that, as was
common in many communities, the citizens of Richmond and Surry were highly
divided between those who supported the King ("Tories") and those who
supported the Revolution ("Whigs" or "Patriots").
With many of the local
Militia away at Kings Mountain, the local Surry Tories got involved in some
minor skirmishes at the county seat of Richmond, and the local sheriff was
killed in early October. This was quickly followed by "The Battle of
Shallow Ford" on October 14, 1780. Several hundred local Tories, and
several hundred local Patriots, had at each other at a ford on the Yadkin River
in Surry County. The Tories were caught by surprise and fled in disarray.
If you want more perspective
on this battle, there is a "Historical Fiction" first person account
at:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/spring97/shallowford.html
The Surry Court Minutes deal
mostly with mundane matters, and it is not obvious from those minutes which
side of the war had James Coffee's sympathies. I suspect, because he remained
in office and because of his likely "Irish" opinion of the British,
that he was on the side of the Patriots.
THE INTERESTING GENEALOGY: JAMES COFFEE:
At first I thought that this
was James, the son of John, who was the son of Edward Coffey. There are a large
number of us "Coffey Cousins" who trace our ancestry back to Edward,
and James thus would indeed be my distant cousin.
However, Bonnie Culley,
editor of the Coffey Cousins Newsletter, offered the following: "The James
Coffey of Surry Co., NC is the ancestor of Leonard Coffey who started CCC
(Coffey Cousins Clearinghouse). This James is now assumed to be the son of
Annister Coffey, daughter of Edward. If this is correct, he was an illegitimate
son. Kathryn Johnson found the record in some Virginia records. I think we
published it a very long time ago."
With this clue, I dug a bit
further and did indeed find a reference that Annister "Was indicted by
Grand Jury in Essex County, Virginia, on November 17, 1736 for 'having a base
born child.' She named this child, James Coffey." (As a side note, Bonnie
also told me that Annister's mother took legal responsibility for raising the
child.)
This is very convincing,
because the Surry Minutes offer evidence that the James Coffee found in Surry
was indeed born in about 1735! See later discussion. And at the very end of
this report you will find a link to more discussion about his mother, Annister
Coffey.
Therefore, James is still my
distant cousin, but by a slightly different path!
James was a Constable in the
county, and many of his entries in the court minutes relate to his official
duties (and those often tie to my ancestor Robert Walker Esq., who was serving
as a Justice on the County Court). Other entries refer to transactions and
duties similar to those of many of the county citizens. Here are the specific
references:
(13 Aug 1778): "James COFFEE delivered up
the body of Daniel WELLS." (I would presume Daniel was quite alive, and
that Constable James was just escorting him to court?)
(10 Aug 1779): "James
COFFEE (and several other listed persons) appointed Constables."
(9 Nov 1779): "Deed from
Nathaniel McCARROL to George CARTER, oath James COFFEE."
(16 Aug 1780): "Children
of Samuel FRANCIS likely to suffer for want of proper care; Ordered James
COFFEE, Constable, deliver them to John HORN to care for until next
Court."
(15 Aug 1781): "Power of
Attorney from Mary NOWLIN to James COFFEE; oath Thomas EVANS."
(14 May 1782): "Deed
from Edward EVANS to William WHITE; oath James COFFEE."
(17 Feb 1782): "George
WATKINS vs Richard MORRIS; Jury: (James COFFEE and 11 other jurors listed)."
(13 Nov 1782): "Ordered
John SMITH appointed Constable in BLACKBURNS District in place James COFFEE,
resigned."
(14 May 1783): "Deed
from James COFFEE to Job MARTIN, oath said COFFEE."
(26 May 1784): (About Robert Walker Esq: The Robert Walker mentioned above died on
this date. The inventory of Robert’s estate named 78 people who owed him money,
and one of those was James Coffey.
James owed Robert 14 shillings, 3 pence. My guess it was for an open account at
Robert’s tavern? Perhaps James spent a night there, or had a meal, or a few
drinks?)
(19 Feb 1785): "William
CONNER vs James COFFEE." (The same jury of 12 men heard this case, and 13
other cases, on the same day – minutes do not show who won.)
(10 May 1785): "Ordered
James COFFEE to be exempt from paying Poll Tax for future." (NOTE: This
entry was almost certainly an exemption due to age. The exact age at which a
person became exempt was left up to local authority in NC until 1801, at which
time it was set by the state as "50". I found one reference that
stated Surry County's upper age was "50" in 1788, so it was probably
also "50" in 1785. This would mean that James was born in about 1735,
which ties very nicely to the 1736 court case indicting his presumed mother
for 'having a base born child'.)
(Same Day, 10 May 1785):
"Ordered Drury WILLIAMS appointed Constable in Capt. BOSTICK District in
room James COFFE (sic) resigned." (Did James decide "50" was too
old for a Constable? But he'll be back – see 13 May 1788!)
(13 May 1785): "Deed from
Thos. HUGHES and wife, to Thos. McCARRELL, oath James COFFEE."
(17 Aug 1786): "Ordered
James COFFEE (and 15 other men) view best way from McANALLYS Ford on Dan River
to Jacob PETREES Ford on Townfork."
(17 Nov 1786): "Ordered
James COFFEE, overseer, open and keep in repair new road lately laid off from
BLACKBURNS old field on Richmond road to Jacob PETREES Ford on Townfork"
(16 Feb 1787): "State vs
John HARRIS; James COFFEE witness for State, 45 miles, 15 days." (NOTE: I
am pretty sure the purpose of this sort of entry is to allow the County to
compensate James for his time and travel distance?)
(15 May 1787): "Matthew
WARNOCK vs. John CUMMINS; James COFFEE, witness for Pltf., 240 miles, 27
days."
(13 Nov 1787) *: "Thomas
COOK vs. James COFFEE and John MARTIN" (Jury members also named.)
*(Historical Footnote:
There was an historic figure in that courthouse on that day, 13 Nov
1787. An entry in the minutes just a few lines earlier reads: "William
CUPPLES and Andrew JACKSON, Esqrs. Produced license from Hon. Samuel
ASHE and John WILLIAMS, Esqrs. Authorizing them as Attorneys." Other
references have confirmed that this new lawyer presenting his credentials was
indeed Andrew Jackson, then age 20, who would 40 years hence be elected the 7th
president of the United States. Andrew had just completed his legal education
less than two months earlier and was really struggling to make a living as an
attorney. The Surry jury heard 4 cases on that day, and perhaps Andrew had a
role in the case involving James Coffee?)
(By the way, Andrew Jackson
stayed at what had been Robert Walker’s tavern. When Robert died in 1784, his
wife Mary quickly claimed the tavern license. Then Mary remarried, to Jesse
Lester on 20 May 1787, and Jesse thus came into possession of the license. Then
the story per HistoryNet.com, is that “During
one of his travels to court in the town of Richmond, Jackson stayed at the inn
of Jesse Lister, and apparently left without paying his bill. According to
tradition, Lister later wrote in his account book that the charge was ‘Paid at
the Battle of New Orleans.’ (Jackson as president would deny the validity of
this story when presented with the board-bill by Lister’s daughter.)”
So James Coffee and President-to-be
Andrew Jackson may also have been patrons at the same tavern on the same day?
(14 Feb 1788):
"Elizabeth HEATH vs Oliver CHARLES, James COFFEE, witness for Pltf."
(13 May 1788): "Ordered
James COFEE (sic), Constable in McANALLYS District in room of John McANALLY,
resigned, William HEATH and Dan DAVIS securities."
(15 May 1788): "Samuel
SPIRGIN vs Matthew WARNOCK and James COFFEE; (jury named); verdict for
Defts."
(17 May 1788):
"Elizabeth HEATH vs Oliver CHARLES; not tried; James COFFEE, witness for
Pltf."
(12 Aug 1788): "Terry
BRADLEYS Executors vs James COFFEE (jury named)"
(14 Aug 1788): "Matthew
WARNOCK vs Richard GOODE; Caveat Land Docket. (Jury named); In favor GOODE, the
Caveatee; James COFFEE, witness for Deft."
(2nd Tuesday
November 1788): "Joseph WINSTON vs Joseph CARMICHAEL; James COFFEE,
witness for Deft."
(2nd Saturday
November 1788): "Elizabeth HEATH vs Oliver CHARLES; James COFFEE, witness
for Pltf."
(13 May 1789): "Bill of
Sale from Richard HEATH to Johnson HEATH; oath James COFFEE."
(15 May 1789): "Court
appointed Justices and Constables list taxables 1789; (many names); McANALLYS
District; James COFFEE"
(14 Aug 1789):
"Committee appointed to receive County Claims… makes following report:
…James COFFEY (sic), Constable attending Courts 1784 and 1785, warning
McANALLYS District 2 days 1788 and 2 days 1789…" (separate entry)
"James COFFEE, attending on Committee" (NOTE: Believe this
"Committee" was reporting that James had a claim for reimbursement
for past County service, and that James may have also served on the same Committee?
And I suspect the accounting was necessary as part of the pending split of
Surry County into Stokes/Surry.)
MEMO ITEMS:
I have seen a photocopy of a North Carolina
land grant to James Coffey dated 18 May 1789. In one place it referred to
"our County of Stokes (late Surry)". For what it's worth, this tells
us that James was likely living on the Stokes side after the counties split. Also,
of possible interest, this land grant, plus the court minutes of 14 Aug 1789,
are the only ones where his name is spelled "Coffey" rather than
"Coffee" – however since I don't know if he was literate, I can't say
if this was a conscious change on his part.
Further, per the Surry Court
minutes, on 17 Aug 1786 he was ordered to survey and maintain roads around
"Townfork". Found a Townfork history, with names of settlers, and
some land records for "Townfork Settlement". Our James Coffey is
there. (Townfork became Germanton, then this would have been about 15 miles
east of old Richmond, and on today's map is roughly on the center of the border
between Stokes and Forsyth Counties, on the Stokes side.)
Found notes by Judy S
Cardwell, posing the following question about James:
"James COFFEY Sr. was born ca 1736. James COFFEY Sr. first shows up in Townfork Settlement as a buyer at the
estate sale of William CARMICHAEL.
He has children Micajah COFFEY b. ca
1768 and James COFFEY Jr. b. ca
1776. Who did James Coffey Sr.
marry? Who did his sons Micajah and James COFFEY Jr. marry? Where did Micajah COFFEY remove to after leaving this area?
The Surry Court Minutes also
tell us approximately when James bought that land in Townfork Settlement from
William Carmichael: The minutes for 9 November 1779 grant William's wife Sarah
the "Letters of Administration" for his estate, and the minutes for
16 February 1780 report that the Administrator has filed the Estate Sale
Account.
1784-87 STATE CENSUS OF NORTH
CAROLINA
James Coffey is found with
one white male age 21-60 (James would be 49-52), two white males under age 21
(Micajah and James Jr.), four white females, and no blacks. He is in the
"List of Inhabitants of Blackburn's District. Taken by Chas.
McAnally." The list of inhabitants includes many of those found on the
above "Townfork Settlement" records.
1790 STOKES COUNTY NC CENSUS:
The only "Coffey"
in the index for Stokes County is James Coffey. He is listed with 3 males age
16 and above, no males under 16, and 4 free white females, no slaves. (The
males are partially consistent with Judy Cardwell's notes, claiming there was a
James Sr. born about 1736, with sons Micajah born about 1768 and a James Jr.
born about 1776. However, "James Jr. born about 1776" is NOT
consistent with "no males under 16" in the census, since if born in
1776 James Jr. would be age 14. So I think James Jr. must have been born no
later than 1774.)
1795 STOKES COUNTY LAND
TRANSACTION WITNESS:
"1795 07 Sep (Stokes NC
DB 2/217) John BAILEY and David SMITH his attorney... [sell to] Daniel
SMITH...each of Stokes Co... 40 pounds... land on waters of Camp Creek...100
acres. Signed David X (his mark) SMITH for John BAILEY; wit. Jas. COFFEY &
Sarah COFFEY; proved by James COFFEY Senr." (Now we know James' wife was
Sarah – but it's not obvious if she's the wife of James Sr., or James Jr.?)
1800 STOKES COUNTY NC CENSUS:
There are only two Coffey’s
listed in Stokes County. "James Coffee" has two males under age 10,
one male 10-15, one male 45+, one female 10-15, one female 45+, no slaves.
"Micajah Coffey" family consists only of one male age 26-44, and one
female age 26-44.
(Memo: The "one male
45+" is only consistent with James Sr. (age ~65), since James Jr. would seem to be only about
age 26? However, "two males under age 10" are then a real stretch to
be James Sr.'s sons, because that James (and his wife) would be over age 55
when they were born. The "DNA Tested men" claim descent from Lewis M.
Coffey, born 1 Nov 1798 in Stokes County, so Lewis should be in this census. I
wonder if James Senior and his wife were caring for grandchildren, and if Lewis
M. was one of the two males "under age 10"? If so, what happened to
James Jr.? Also, this census should rule out Micajah as father of Lewis, since
Micajah has no children in 1800 census.)
1820 CENSUS, FRANKLIN COUNTY,
IN:
A Micajah Coffee is found,
age 45+, with a wife same age. No
children. It's not obvious if this is the right Micajah, however.
ANNISTER, MOTHER OF JAMES:
There has been considerable
discussion about James' mother, Annister, her connection to Edward Coffey's
will, and who she later married. A link at the end of this paper will lead to
more info on Annister.
James, by the way, was age 10
when his grandmother, Ann (Powell) (Coffey) Dulin died in early 1744/45. He was
remembered in her will, being given "one spotted heifer". His mother,
"Annisters Coffe", was executrix of the estate. Annister therefore
must have married Stephen Chenault between 1745 and 1749.
THE INTERESTING DNA:
I've left this discussion for
last, because I needed to draw on the preceding discussion:
As many of you are aware, we
have a "Coffee/Coffey Surname Project" under way, that tests the
y-DNA of men with the Coffey or Coffee surname. Since the y-DNA is handed down
through the male line with only occasional changes, it can be used to show if
the participants have a common (male) ancestor.
You can learn more about out
project if you visit the following:
You can explore this site at
your leisure. However, in the notes below, I will refer to several sub-pages
within this project. So first click on “Site
Key”, so you can see all the menu choices.
Now, as you will discover at
the above site, we have tested three Coffey men for whom circumstantial
evidence supports descent from this James, and their DNA matches each other.
And the DNA test does indeed show that they are NOT descended from the male
line of Edward Coffey. This is as would be expected if Annister (a female) was
their connection to the Coffey ancestral line. But their paper trail evidence
is not solid. You can see the genealogy of the tested men if you click on “Genealogy Detail” and look at the top
of page 3.
We’ve been through three
theories in our effort to determine the father of James:
JAMES' FATHER – THEORY 1:
Annister is reported to have
later married Stephen Chenault II (see link at end of this paper). Could this
Stephen Chenault also be our James Coffey's father? Well, the Rev. John
Chenault, a descendent of Stephen, got a y-DNA test. It did NOT match that of
the two tested Coffey men, so it appeared unlikely that James' father was a
Chenault.
JAMES FATHER – THEORY 2:
Our tested Coffey men each
had a 12-marker match to one "Scott Cleveland". And Scott had posted
his family tree on FTDNA, so I had a look. Scott says he is descended from one
Micajah Cleveland, a son of Alexander Cleveland and his wife Mary (Presley)
Cleveland. And the Coffey family tree indicates that this same Alexander
Cleveland had a son and two daughters who married into the Edward Coffey
family. These Coffey and Cleveland families were VERY close in Virginia in the
1700's!
Alexander Cleveland had six
sons, but the one named "Micajah" Cleveland was the most interesting.
Remember the earlier discussion about Townfork Settlement and Stokes County? It
noted that our James Coffey named one of his sons "Micajah" – not a
name you pull out of the air! Combine this with the matching DNA and the close
families, and I was ready to bet that James was naming his son after his
father, Micajah Cleveland! All we needed to do to prove this was to upgrade the
12-marker test to 37-markers!
Then came the big letdown. We
did the test upgrade to 37-markers. And it was NOT a suitable match to the
Cleveland family. So much for Theory
2!
JAMES FATHER – THEORY 3:
A NEW (at least new to me) piece of information surfaced. John
Chenault (see Chenault Connections discussion above) pointed out that S. P.
Derieux had published a paper that included a copy of a page from Virginia
"Order Book 11: 91, Court 20 Feb 1738/9" which read "It is
ordered that the Churchwardens of St. Anns Parish do bind James Coffy a bastard
child to James Samuel as the Law directs."
Ah, a new name! This James
Samuel is made the guardian of James! Could he be the father, or maybe
grandfather, of James? A little genealogical searching quickly turned up a
"likely suspect" in the form of one James Samuel, born 14 Jun 1690,
died 16 May 1759, married Sarah Boulware on 5 Apr 1714. He was reported as
born, lived, married, and died in St. Ann's Parish, Essex County, VA.
And we looked at the long
list of 12-marker DNA matches for descendants of James, and sure enough there
was one "Samuel" man among them. You can't depend on a 12-marker
test, but it's a start. We got in touch with that tested person, who called in
a couple of "Samuel Family" genealogists, who confirmed that they
were descended from a brother
of the above "James Samuel who married Sarah Boulware".
This Samuel descendant was
James Samuel (that's the name of the living descendant of the brother, not the original
James!), and he agreed to a test upgrade to 67-markers. And the flurry of notes
turned up another living person, Sam Samuel, who was actually a descendant of
the original James Samuel and who also agreed to a test.
So, we have James Samuel
(67-markers) and Sam Samuel (37-markers). And we have two tested Coffey men
Robert Coffey (67-markers), and Joseph Coffey (67-markers), both of whom are
descended from the original James Coffey.
And we got a good match! We have shown, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the
father of James, son of Annister Coffey, was a male in the family of James
Samuel (1690-1759). Go back to our DNA web page and click on “Data Detail”. You’ll see the data for
the five tested men on Page 3, under Edward Connection: Samuel DNA.
This is in many ways like the
famous "Thomas Jefferson/Sally Heming" case, where DNA proves that
some male from the Jefferson family fathered at least one of slave Sally
Heming's children. It could have been any male "Jefferson", but the
overwhelming "circumstantial evidence" suspect is President Thomas
Jefferson himself.
Likewise, the father of James
Coffey could be any "Samuel" male, such as a son or brother of the
named James Samuel. But James Samuel himself must definitely be the most likely
suspect?
MORE ABOUT HIS MOTHER ANNISTER:
We have a web page with expanded information on the Coffey
families. If you click on the following, and scroll down, you will find a
section on “Edward Connections”. that gives links to newsletters that discuss
Annister, and to a “Chenault Connection” paper:
THE COFFEY/COFFEE SURNAME: GENEALOGY
INFORMATION ROADMAP