in Devonshire. Tristram was entering manhood's
prime--thirty-three years of age. He had a family of five children.
Quite likely the political troubles between the King and Parliament, the
rising war cloud, was the impelling motive that induced the family to
leave country, home, friends, and all dear old things, and become
emigrants to the New World. Quite likely Tristram, when a youth, in
1620, may have seen the Mayflower spread her white sails to the breeze
and fade away in the western horizon, for the departure of that company
of pilgrims must have been the theme of conversation in and around
Plymouth. Without doubt it set the young man to thinking of the
unexplored continent beyond the stormy Atlantic. In 1632 his neighbors
and friends began to leave, and in 1642 he, too, bade farewell to dear
old England, to become a citizen of Massachusetts Bay.

He landed at Newbury, settled first in Salisbury, and ferried people
across the Merrimack between Salisbury and Newbury. His wife, Dionis,
brewed beer for thirsty travellers. The Sheriff had her up before the
courts for charging more per mug than the price fixed by law, but she
went scot free on proving that she put in an extra amount of malt. We
may think of the grave and reverend Justices ordering the beer into
court and settling the question by personal examination of the foaming
mugs,--smacking their lips satisfactorily, quite likely testing it a
second time.

Tristram Coffin became a citizen of Newbury and built a house, which is
still standing. In 1660 he removed with a portion of his family to
Nantucket, dying there in 1681, leaving two sons, from whom have
descended all the Coffins of the country--a numerous and widespread
family.

One of Tristram's decendants, Peter, moved from Newbury to Boscawen, New
Hampshire, in 1766, building a large two-storied house. He became a
prominent citizen of the town--a Captain of the militia company, was
quick and prompt in all his actions. The news of the affair at Lexington
and Concord April 19,1775, reached Boscawen on the afternoon of the next
day. On the twenty-first Peter Coffin was in Exeter answering the roll
call in the Provincial assembly--to take measures for the public safety.

His wife, Rebecca Hazelton Coffin, was as energetic and patriotic
as he. In August, 1777, everybody, old and young, turned out to defeat
Burgoyne. One soldier could not go, because he had no shirt. It was this
energetic woman, with a babe but