1663 Henry Coate was named in the will of his father, Henry Coate, of Hambridge, parish of Currey Revell, Somerset, England. [1] [2]
1672 Henry Coate, John Bullock, and others petitioned the King to permit their pastor to conduct Congregational meetings in the house of Mr. Elias Barnes, Yeavill, Somersetshire. Dated May 18. [3]
Research Notes:
A biosketch of a descendant of Henry and Elizabeth Coates of Sproxton (not this Henry Coate) reports [4]:
The great-grandson of Lawrence Coates, who appears in Colonial records as "Thomas Coates of Sproxton," in Leicestershire, emigrated to Pennsylvania, 1683, at the age of twenty-four, and took up lands there. He was the son of Henry and Elizabeth Coates, of Sproxton; and in a memorandum book still in the possession of his descendants, he states in his own handwriting that he was born 26 September, 1659. Henry Coates is recorded as having been buried in Sproxton Churchyard February 2, 1671-2; and letters of administration upon his estate were granted the following day and are still on file at Leicester. He owned land in Leicestershire, the extent of which is not ascertained, but which was probably inherited from his father. The name of Elizabeth Coates is found in local records at Sproxton as late as 1679; but she was not living in that year, probably, as in Thomas Coates's note-book, before cited, is this entry: "Memorandum. My mother died ye 26 day of ye 5 moneth (called July) on ye 6 day of ye weeke 1678."
Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Coates, married George Palmer, of Nonesuch, in the county of Surrey, who in 1681 purchased from William Penn five thousand acres of land to be laid out in the Province of Pennsylvania; and some two years later sailed with his wife for Philadelphia in the ship, "Isabell Ann Katherren," Thomas Hutson, Master, but died at sea, his will being dated on the "Katherren," September 4, 1683, and proved at Philadelphia on the ship's arrival at that port. By it he bequeathed to his wife, Elizabeth, one thousand acres of his land, and made her his executor. Meantime, probably in Palmer's interest, his young brother-in-law, Thomas Coates, had gone to America; his memorandum book states that he "left home the 17th of the 12th Month, 1682" (February 17, 1682-3). In the interests of his widowed sister, no doubt; he returned to England soon after her arrival, for his entry states: "I left Philadelphia the 19th day of 10 month '83" (December, 1683), "and Darby the 20th Of the same month. Choptanke the 3 day of the 11 month, the same day Wee got on board the Lively in Herrin Bay, and on the 9 day of 11 month wee came to Purtuxon. And on the 21 wee came to James River in Virginia, and on the seventh day Of the 12mo. wee wayed anchor and launched forth into the sea for Ould England. And On the 22 day of the first month wee see the land of England, and on ye 25 we came ashore at Dover, in Kent.
How long he stayed in England before returning to Pennsylvania and permanently settling there, is not known; but 7 mo. 7, 1686, the deed records show, he purchased land from Thomas Smith in Darby township, then of Chester county, Pennsylvania- His name appears at intervals on the records of Darby Monthly Meeting' and in I687 he was a juryman of "the Court held att Chester for Ye county of Chester, Ye 3d day of ye 1st weeke of the 7th month.
[1] Edward Alexander Fry, ed., Calendar of Wills and Administrations in the Court of the Archdeacon of Taunton (Parts I and II, wills only), 1537-1799 (London: British Record Society 45, 1912), 152, part II, figure 34, 1663, index listing, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].
[2] Ernest S. Parks, M. H. Pemberton, and Gary W. Coats, The Ancestors and Descendants of Marmaduke Coate of South Carolina and Ohio (Gahanna, Ohio: Linda Coate Dudick, 1994), 141, item 7, [FHLBook], [FHL Library].
[3] George Lyon Turner, Original records of early nonconformity under Persecution and Indulgence, Vol. 1 (1911), 364, [HathiTrust].
[4] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 650, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].