Mehetabel Chandler Coit

BIRTH 24 Jul 1673 Woodstock, Windham County, Connecticut, USA
DEATH 3 Nov 1758 (aged 85) New London, New London County, Connecticut, USA
BURIAL Ancient Cemetery, New London, New London County, Connecticut, USA
MEMORIAL ID 11402918 Photos by Lisa Baguette

Preface

Mother of four sons and two daughters. Her journals dating to around 1714 have been published and she has been called "one of the earliest American female authors."

Biography

A native of the “fair and handsome country town” of Roxbury, near Boston, Massachusetts, Mehetabel Chandler Coit (1673–1758) was born into a family who were committed to the Puritan church yet who sometimes posed challenges to authority. (Her father, for example, was brought before the court for illegal liquor sales and for hosting disorderly parties, while two of her siblings were disciplined for inappropriate sexual behavior.) In 1688 Mehetabel and her family left Roxbury to help settle Woodstock, Connecticut, a frontier outpost offering land and opportunities but that also suffered from recurrent threats of Indian attack. The settlers’ “Garrison fears,” as Mehetabel’s sister Sarah described them, may have prompted Mehetabel, at the age of twenty-one, to follow her brother and his family to the seaport town of New London, Connecticut. There she met John Coit, a successful shipbuilder, whom she married in 1695. The couple had six children together and led a relatively comfortable existence until John’s death in 1744. Mehetabel remained a widow for the final fourteen years of her life. [2]

For over sixty years Mehetabel kept a diary, one of the few such extant personal records maintained by a colonial woman. After Mehetabel’s death her diary was passed down through her family, and today it remains in private hands. In 1895 her descendants published a collection of her entries as Mehetabel Chandler Coit: Her Book, 1714; however, this volume does not include the wealth of additional material—such as poems, recipes, and medical remedies—included in the original manuscript. These features add greatly to the diary’s historical significance and to the telling of Mehetabel’s story. Some examples appear below.[3]

Parents
John Chandler 1634–1703
Elizabeth Douglass Chandler 1641–1705

Spouse
John Coit 1670–1744 m. June 25, 1695.

Siblings
John Chandler 1659–1659
John Chandler 1665–1743
Joseph Chandler 1667–1668
Hannah Chandler Draper 1669–1692
Sarah Chandler Gardiner 1676–1711
Joseph Chandler 1683–1749

Children
John Coit 5/25/1696 – unknown m. July 2, 1719 Grace Christophers
Joseph Coit 11/15/1698–1787
Samuel Coit was born 2/18/1700-5/9/1703 in his 4th year.
Thomas Coit 6/1/1702–3/101725
Elizabeth Coit Gardiner 3/22/1704–1725 m. Samuel Gardiner
Martha Coit 4/1/1706; m. 1st David Hubbard; 2nd Thomas Greene

References

[1] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11402918/mehetabel-coit

Sources

[2] http://onecolonialwomansworld.com/

[3] "Mehetabel Chandler Coit: Her Book, 1714" on Google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=RRICAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP16&lpg=PP16&dq=m...