Nathaniel Coffin, Sr.

Nathaniel Coffin was the Receiver-General of HM Customs of Boston at the time of the Boston Tea Party.

Nathaniel Coffin, second eldest son of William, was born in Boston in 1725, graduated at Harvard College in 1744, received in 1750 an honorary degree at Yale. Brought up a merchant, he was early appointed King's Cashier of the Customs and acquired considerable property. He resided on the corner of Essex and Rainsford Lane, now Harrison avenue. The tide washed up to the garden wall. Near by in front, on what is now called Washington street, was the "Liberty Tree," where Captain Mackintosh and his "chickens." met to plan outrages upon loyal citizens.

In August, 1767, a flagstaff was erected which went through and above it highest branches. A flag hoisted on this was the notice for the assembling of the "Sons of Liberty" for action. In 1775, his son Nathaniel, and his friends cut it down, much to the disgust of Mackintosh who was known as the "First Captain General of Liberty Tree." On the building occupying its site is a stone bas-relief of the tree with an inscription on it. Nathaniel Coffin held one of the most lucrative positions under the crown, his acquaintances and friends were naturally among the government officials and the better elass of the community. He had much to lose if he severed from his fealty to the mother country and, banishment and confiscation would be the penalty, if the disunionists succeeded.

Nathaniel Coffin was the last Receiver General and Cashier of his Majesty's Customs at the Port of Boston, he was an addressor of Hutchinson in 1774 and of Gage in 1775. With his family of three per-sons -he- accompanied the Royal Army to Halifax in 1776 and in July of that year embarked for England in the ship Aston Hall. In May, 1780, while returning, he died the day before the vessel arrived at New York. His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Barnes of Boston.

The loyalists of Massachusetts and the other side of the American Revolution By James Henry Stark http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=_lR2AAAAMAAJ&printsec=fron...