COGGESHALL — FROM JOLLY OL’ ENGLAND TO WILD WEST MONTANA

 

JOHN COGGESHALL (1599–1647) OUR 10TH GREAT-GRANDFATHER

BIRTH 2 DEC 1599 • Halstead, Essex, England

DEATH 27 NOV 1647 • Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, United States

JOHN COGGESHALL SR. (DECEMBER 2, 1599 – NOVEMBER 27, 1647) WAS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE COLONY OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS AND THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF ALL FOUR TOWNS IN THE COLONY. He 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. In the mid-1630s, he became a supporter of dissident minister John Wheelwright and of Anne Hutchinson. Hutchinson was tried as a heretic in 1637, and Coggeshall was one of three deputies who voted for her acquittal. She was banished from the colony in 1638, and the three deputies who voted for her acquittal were also compelled to leave. 

Before leaving Boston, Coggeshall and many other Hutchinson supporters signed the Portsmouth Compact in March 1638 agreeing to form a government based on the individual consent of the inhabitants. They then established the settlement of Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island (called Rhode Island at the time), one of the four towns comprising the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

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. The towns of Portsmouth and Newport reunited in 1640 under the leadership of William Coddington, and 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 Coggeshall was elected President of the entire Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. His 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.

LINEAGE:

John Coggeshall 1599-1647 -- 10th great-grandfather

Joshua Coggeshall 1623-1689 -- Son of John Coggeshall

Mary Coggeshall 1662-1699 -- Daughter of Joshua Coggeshall

Mary Bull 1693-1741 -- Daughter of Mary Coggeshall

Content Mumford 1725-1790 -- Daughter of Mary Bull

William Braman 1753-1804 -- Son of Content Mumford

Waterman F Brayman 1786-1865 -- Son of William Braman

Elvira W. Brayman 1822-1909 -- Daughter of Waterman F Brayman

Marcus M Pierce 1842-1882 -- Son of Elvira W. Brayman

Lillian Amanda Pierce 1867-1957 -- Daughter of Marcus M Pierce — great-grandmother

Yours truly at the Cody Old West Show, 1989

AN INTERESTING AND EXCITING FIND FOR AN OLD COWBOY

YOU MAY NOT KNOW THAT I BOUGHT, SOLD, AND TRADED OLD WEST ANTIQUES FOR ABOUT 30 YEARS. 

OVER THE YEARS I HAD BOTH FURSTNOW AND MILES CITY SADDLES IN MY COLLECTION, SO THIS GENEALOGY DISCOVERY IS PRETTY NEAT:

CHARLES ETHERIDGE COGGESHALL (1869–1913) OUR 5TH COUSIN 5X REMOVED
BIRTH 23 FEB 1869 • St. Croix, Wisconsin
DEATH AFT. 1913 • Miles City, Custer, Montana, USA

Watch fob (front) from author's collection

Watch fob (reverse) from author's collection

MONTANA SADDLE MAKERS: FURSTNOW, COGGSHALL AND MILES CITY SADDLERY

Al Furstnow, learned the saddlery business from his father. At age 19, he worked for Collins in Cheyenne in 1881. He worked in Miles City for Goettlich for about a year starting in 1883 and then for Collins in Omaha in 1884. He bounced around to Cheyenne and San Francisco and then came to work in Miles City for Robbins and Lenoir in 1894. In August, he opened Furstnow’s Saddle Shop with himself as the sole employee. In December, his shop got a boost in capital and another able business mind when Charlie Coggshall bought a half interest.

Charles E. Coggshall, who had been ranching with his father, disposed of his livestock and in December of 1896, they bought out the stock of Moran and W.J. Zimmerman, whom Moran had taken on as a partner in an attempt to stay in business. Furstnow and Coggshall added workers and became the only major saddlery between Billings and Dickinson, ND. In 1899, Furstnow and Coggshall split up, forming a rivalry that lasted well into the 20th Century.

Charles E. Coggshall was a strict taskmaster from the old school of hard work and incredible quality. He had the amazing ability to employ the best craftsmen anywhere. Although Charles himself was not a saddlemaker, his years of experience as an avid horseman enabled him to recognize the virtues of a good saddle. Improvements and changes were constantly being made over the years. Under his guidance, the Montana Saddle Tree was perfected. He was also responsible for improvements including the swell fork and flat-plate rigging. But what he and Furstnow are both credited with is making thousands and thousands of saddles.

In a highly successful effort to help fill the world’s need for saddles, the firms started by Al Furstnow and Charlie Coggshall blended assembly line techniques from back East with custom care exercised by the one-man shops of the West. The two large local saddleries employed dozens of men who came to specialize in various aspects of making this most necessary of cowboy tools. Some saddlemakers made four to six saddles per week and some stayed in the business long enough to make 2,000 to 3,000 saddles.

In 1909, things started happening in the local saddle business. Coggshall employee Clem Kathmann, along with Frank Jelinek and Bert Coleman, bought out Coggshall and formed the Miles City Saddlery Co. In 1910, Al Moreno, a highly talented stamper from California joined Furstnow in his new building. Furstnow was turning out about 800 saddles per year at that point. Both saddleries steadily built their businesses up to a peak in the late teens.

In 1916, the Miles City Saddlery made 1,937 saddles. At the outbreak of World War I, two dozen men were employed in the shop. Between 1910 and the Depression years of the ‘30s there were as many as 40 saddlemakers working in Miles City.

LINEAGE:

Charles Etheridge Coggeshall 1869-1913 -- 5th cousin 5x removed

Eri Coggeshall 1830-1901 -- Father of Charles Etheridge Coggeshall

Frederick Coggeshall 1795-1863 -- Father of Eri Coggeshall

Dunlap Coggeshall 1747-1808 -- Father of Frederick Coggeshall

Benjamin Coggeshall 1712-1781 -- Father of Dunlap Coggeshall

John Coggeshall 1659-1727 -- Father of Benjamin Coggeshall

Joshua Coggeshall 1623-1689 -- Father of John Coggeshall

Mary Coggeshall 1662-1699 -- Daughter of Joshua Coggeshall

Mary Bull 1693-1741 -- Daughter of Mary Coggeshall

Content Mumford 1725-1790 -- Daughter of Mary Bull

William Braman 1753-1804 -- Son of Content Mumford

Waterman F Brayman 1786-1865 -- Son of William Braman

Elvira W. Brayman (Braman) 1822-1909 -- Daughter of Waterman F Brayman

Marcus M Pierce 1842-1882 -- Son of Elvira W. Brayman (Braman)

Lillian Amanda Pierce 1867-1957 -- Daughter of Marcus M Pierce — great-grandmother

A WEE BIT OF SCOTTISH RELIGIOUS HISTORY

SCOTTISH COVENANTERS WERE MEMBERS OF A 17TH-CENTURY SCOTTISH RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL MOVEMENT, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name derived from Covenant, a biblical term for a bond or agreement with God.

The origins of the movement lay in disputes with King James VI & I, and his son Charles I of England over church structure and doctrine. In 1638, thousands of Scots signed the National Covenant, pledging to resist changes imposed by Charles on the kirk (church); following victory in the 1639 and 1640 Bishops' Wars, the Covenanters took control of Scotland.

The 1643 Solemn League and Covenant brought them into the First English Civil War on the side of Parliament, but they supported Charles in the 1648 Second English Civil War. After his execution in 1649, the Covenanter government agreed to restore his son Charles II to the English throne; defeat in the 1651 Third English Civil War led to Scotland's incorporation into the Commonwealth of England.

AFTER THE 1660 RESTORATION, THE COVENANTERS LOST CONTROL OF THE KIRK AND BECAME A PERSECUTED MINORITY, LEADING TO SEVERAL ARMED REBELLIONS AND A PERIOD FROM 1679 TO 1688 KNOWN AS "THE KILLING TIME". 

Following the 1688 Glorious Revolution in Scotland, the Church of Scotland was re-established as a wholly Presbyterian structure and most Covenanters readmitted. This marked the end of their existence as a significant movement, although dissident minorities persisted in Scotland, Ireland, and North America.

JAMES URQUHART -- OUR 9TH GREAT-GRANDFATHER -- WAS A WELL KNOWN COVENANTER

The first minister of the new parish of Kinloss was called in 1657, but (in these unsettled times) was not ordained until 1659. 

His name was James Urquhart and his stipend was fixed at £20 a year and “4 chalders of beer”. James Urquhart was a well known Covenanter, who stoutly resisted the reintroduction of Episcopacy, and in 1663 he was deposed for “refusing to submit to the new Government in Church and State.” 

Undaunted, James Urquhart continued his ministry, holding conventicles in the fields, and for some years courageously defied attempts on the part of the Earl of Moray to silence him. 

Eventually, however, he was seized, condemned by the Privy Council to be banished, and was CONFINED IN 1685 IN BLACKNESS CASTLE where so many noted Covenanters were imprisoned for their faith. 

In 1690, on the restoration of Presbyterianism, he was restored to his charge.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES

John Urquhart of Newhall (1658-1731), our 8th great-grandfather, and a Scottish immigrant to the Colonies, was the son of James Urquhart Minister, Covenanter in Moray and Ross.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN... 

THE RIGHT REVEREND ANDREW BOYD BISHOP OF ARGYLL (1566–1636), OUR 12TH GREAT-GRANDFATHER

Andrew Boyd, Bishop of Argyll (c. 1566 – 22 December 1636) was a Scottish bishop. He was the natural son of Thomas Boyd, 6th Lord Boyd (see Scots Peerage vol V, p. 167. M.A. Glasgow 1584).

Boyd was the parson of Eaglesham, and was preferred to the see (diocese) of Argyll, as their Bishop, in the year 1613. He was recorded as "a good man, and did much good in his diocese, where he always resided.

He married Elizabeth Conyngham, daughter of Adam, of Auchenharvie [Fasti vol VIII, p. 332]. They had six sons and one daughter.

Boyd died on 22 December 1636. He is interred in the graveyard of the High Kirk, Dunoon, Scotland.

JOHN GUTHRIE (11TH LAIRD OF GUTHRIE) BISHOP OF MORAY (1573–1649) OUR 11TH GREAT-GRANDFATHER

John Guthrie (died 28 August 1649) was a Scottish prelate active in the first half of the 17th century. The son of the goldsmith Patrick Guthrie and Margaret née Rait, in 1597 he completed an MA at the University of St Andrews, becoming a Reader at the church of Arbroath in the same year. Two years later, on 27 August 1599, he became minister of Kinnell parish church in Angus (Presbytery of Arbroath). In the following years he was translated to various churches. In 1603, he became minister of Arbirlot parish, Angus. In 1617, he became minister in the city of Perth, before, on 15 June 1621, becoming minister of the parish of St Giles in Edinburgh.

Guthrie used his appointments as a platform for involvement in the national church. As minister of Arbirlot, he was one of the commissioners of the Presbytery of Arbroath at the Glasgow assembly of 1610. Later in that year, he got elected as clerk of the synod of St Andrews. He was a member and commissioner of the Perth assembly in 1618. In this period he established himself as an ardent supporter of the crown and its episcopalian policies. It was this that brought him the prestigious and important charge of St Giles in 1621. It was no surprise that, only two years later, he rose to episcopal rank, obtaining crown nomination to the vacant diocese of Moray on 21 July 1623. He was provided to the see on 16 August of the same year, and received consecration in October.

As Bishop of Moray, Guthrie remained a staunch royalist, an active anti-Catholic and keen promoter of ecclesiastical discipline. He took a large role in the Scottish coronation of King Charles I in 1633. Bishop Guthrie supported the King's plans to bring the Scottish church in line with the Church of England, authorising all ministers in Moray to obtain and use the new Scottish Book of Common Prayer. Bishop Guthrie was, however, out of touch with general religious sentiment in Scotland, and the Glasgow assembly of Scottish churchmen deposed him from his bishopric on 11 December 1638. Guthrie refused to accept this deposition and refused to recognise the legality of the National Covenant. He preached against it into the Spring of 1639 and on 11 July 1639 he was excommunicated by the Scottish church. He attempted to hold out in Spynie Palace. On 16 July 1640, Major-General Robert Monro of Foulis captured the palace. Guthrie was sent to Edinburgh and imprisoned in the city's Tolbooth.

He was later released, and retired to his estate, purchased in 1636, at Guthrie, Angus. John died at Guthrie on 28 August 1649 and was buried at the Guthrie Collegiate Aisle, the local parish church. He had married one Nichola Wood, by whom he had three sons (John, Patrick, and Andrew) and three daughters (Bethia, Nicolas, and Lucretia). His oldest son John (d. 1643) followed his father into the ministry, while his youngest son Andrew fought as a royalist during the English Civil War, being captured at the Battle of Philiphaugh (1645) and executed soon after.

Source above: Wikipedia