still dwell their descendants in the
female line, who have assumed their appellation of Pine Coffin, one
of the house of Pine having married the heiress of the family
estates.

Tristram the elder, and his sons James and Stephen, were among the
nine who purchased the island of Nantucket from the Earl of
Stirling in 1659, and went there to dwell. Their descendants have
ever since been respectable and greatly multiplied, and not only on
that island but all over the country, having since been estimated
by thousands if not tens of thousands. Their usual average of
children has been half a score, and from their numerous progeny and
great longevity, we may judge what vigor was in the race. One of
them, William, son of Nathaniel, son of James, cruised over many
seas, as commander of a merchantman, and becoming interested in a
Boston maiden, Ann Holmes, settled about 1720 in the provincial
capital, where among other offices he filled with credit to himself
and his name was that for many years of warden of Trinity Church.
He died before the Revolution, leaving many children; most of his
sons at that period becoming refugee loyalists, they and their
descendants taking high rank in the British military and naval
service. John, son of Nathaniel, was a distinguished officer in the
Carolinas, and afterwards became Major-general. His brother, Sir
Isaac, early became distinguished on the ocean, was an Admiral,
Member of Parliament, and created a Baronet, which latter rank was
also bestowed on Thomas Astor, son of William, the eldest son of
the warden. Several others of the name and blood then and since
have filled with distinction posts of honor and respectability in
the civil service of the mother country at home, in Canada, and in
India.

But this is a digression. The only connection of the Nantucket
branch with Newbury is that old Tristram lived there for a brief
period, before repairing to his island home, and his son (the
younger of the name of Tristram, the family name of a grandmother)
and his posterity occupied the old mansion down through seven or
eight generations, and still dwell beneath its roof. At the time of
its erection the edifice must have been among the most elegant, as
its good state of preservation proves it to have been one of the
most substantial of its day, when the notion, prevailing in
England, that oak was the most suitable materia