John Coggeshall, b. 1601, one of the author’s 8th great grandfathers, arrived on the ship Lyon, in 1632. The Lyon also carried Roger Williams (c. December 21, 1603—March 1683), an English born New England Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded Providence Plantations which became the Colony of Rhode Island, and later Rhode Island state. Coggeshall worked closely with Peter Easton (also the author’s 8th great grandfather), who arrived in 1634, in the development of the government and laws of what would become the state of Rhode Island. Two generations of their offspring married as in seen in their descendant lineages.
NOTES
[1] The divorce of John and Elizabeth Coggeshall is considered one of the first in the colony. John asked privately and Elizabeth concurred that the divorce be granted because it was not consummated. The court did not agree but they grant a divorce a vinculo, which amounted to an annulment making their children illegitimate and allowed John and Elizabeth to remarry. Although a Nathaniel Britain claimed the youngest child was his, Elizabeth asserted that the father was John. John did not mention this child in his will and later court records indicate that descendants some 70 years later were still suing for their right to the Coggeshall estate. See Robert Charles Anderson and Melinda Luiz Sanborne, The Coggeshall-Baulstone Divorce, NEHGR, v 149 (Oct. 1995), 361-373.