File:Among old New England inns; being an account of little journeys to various quaint inns and hostelries of colonial New England (1907) (14596006457).jpg

Identifier: amongoldnewengla00cra (find matches)
Title: Among old New England inns; being an account of little journeys to various quaint inns and hostelries of colonial New England
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Crawford, Mary Caroline, 1874-1932
Subjects: Hotels
Publisher: Boston, L. C. Page & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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and. Tristram Cofifyn possessed a clever wifewhose superior intellect had the efifect, asnot infrequently happens, of getting her hus-band into trouble. The County records forSeptember 1653 say that Tristram Coffynswife, Dionis, was presented for selling beer,at his ordinary in Newbury, for 3 pencea qt. Having proved, upon the testimonyof Samuel Moores, that she put 6 bushels ofmalt into the hogshead she was discharged.The law which she was supposed to haveviolated had been passed in 1645, and or-dained that every person licensed to keepan ordinary shall always be provided withgood wholesome beer of 4 bushels of maltto the hogshead, which he shall not sellabove 2 pence the ale qt on penalty of 40shillings the first offence & for the secondhe shall lose his license. Goodwife Coffynhad merely worked out a problem in pro-portion (?) and demanded a higher returnfor what she represented as better beer. This progenitor of the Newbury Coffinswas also the founder of the Nantucket fam- 242
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Old Tavern Days in Newbury ily of the same name. He had not longbeen keeping the ferry and selling beer whenhe disposed of all his property on the Mer-rimac to remove to the island town. Hisson, Tristram Jr., fell heir, by marriage, toanother ordinary, the house now known asthe Coffin house. (Edmund Greenleafs li-cense had been transferred in 1650 to HenrySomerby, his son-in-law, and upon Somer-bys death in 1652, young Coffin took overthe widow and the house.) He was deaconof the first church in Newbury and lived inthis house for more than half a century pass-ing the property down, upon his death, tohis youngest son, Nathaniel. Nathanielabode here until he was eighty, dischargingmeanwhile many offices of trust in the col-ony. His son, Colonel Joseph Coffin, bornDecember 30, 1702, was the next occupantof the house, and for nearly thirty yearsacted as the towns clerk. He had eightchildren, two of whom, the Rev. Paul Cof-fin D. D. and Charles Coffin M. D. weregraduated at Harvard. Anothe

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