1. John Coggeshall was a successful silk merchant in Essex, England, but he emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632 and quickly assumed a number of roles in the colonial government.
20 Facts About John Coggeshall
1. 2.
Hutchinson was tried as a heretic in 1637, and John Coggeshall was one of three deputies who voted for her acquittal.
3.
John Coggeshall was banished from the colony in 1638, and the three deputies who voted for her acquittal were compelled to leave.
4.
John Coggeshall was very active in civil affairs, but a rift in the leadership of the colony caused him and several other leaders to leave in 1639, moving to the south end of the island and establishing the town of Newport.
5.
The towns of Portsmouth and Newport reunited in 1640 under the leadership of William Coddington, and John Coggeshall was his assistant until 1647 when the two towns on Rhode Island united to form a common government with the towns of Providence and Warwick, and John Coggeshall was elected President of the entire Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
6.
John Coggeshall's tenure was very short due to his death later the same year, but during his administration many laws were established which became the basis for the colony and the future State of Rhode Island.
7.
John Coggeshall was the son of John and Ann Coggeshall.
8.
John Coggeshall was born and raised in northeastern Essex, England, and baptised at Halstead.
9.
The Coggeshalls first settled at Roxbury where they were admitted to the Roxbury Church the year of their arrival, and where John Eliot became the pastor.
10.
John Coggeshall was a mercer in the silk trade, and he held many offices in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
11.
John Coggeshall was a deputy to the General Court for Boston from 1634 to 1637 and a Boston selectman during the same period.
12.
Sometime after moving to Boston, John Coggeshall became an enthusiastic supporter of Anne Hutchinson, who was at the centre of the growing Antinomian Controversy.
13.
At her civil trial, John Coggeshall spoke out in her defense and was one of only three deputies to vote for her acquittal, the other two being William Aspinwall and William Coddington.
14.
John Coggeshall was a leader in Newport and was granted 400 acres of land on the south side of the town, along Bellevue Avenue.
15.
John Coggeshall had a good working relationship with Roger Williams which helped the towns of Portsmouth, Newport, Providence, and Warwick to unite and form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in the Spring of 1647, under the patent that Williams had obtained from the crown in 1644.
16.
John Coggeshall had an assistant from each town, a general recorder, and a treasurer.
17.
John Coggeshall is noted for being the first president of the united Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
18.
John Coggeshall is noted for helping to establish the three towns of Boston, Portsmouth, and Newport, and the two colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island.
19.
John Coggeshall's wife was named Mary, but her maiden name remains uncertain.
20.
John Coggeshall and his wife had eight children, five of whom were born in England and the others in Boston, but only half of whom are known to have survived to maturity.