Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, 1st Baronet, (also Coffin-Greenly; 16 May 1759 – 23 July 1839) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Coffin was born in Boston and served in the navy on a number of ships during the War of Independence. He fought at Cape Henry with Arbuthnot and at St. Kitts with Hood, eventually being promoted to command a number of small ships on the American coast. Despite his rise through the ranks, he clashed occasionally with the naval hierarchy, with the first incident occurring while still a newly commissioned commander aboard . An incident over unqualified lieutenants led to his court-martial, though he was acquitted. A more serious incident occurred after the end of the war with America, when Coffin was particularly active off the Canadian coast. A charge was brought of issuing false musters, and though the practice was endemic in the navy, led to his dismissal from the ship. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Howe, then intervened to have him dismissed from the Royal Navy entirely, a decision that was later overturned by an inquiry, which set an important precedent. Restored to his rank, Coffin commanded several ships during the opening years of the wars with France, but the recurrence of an old injury forced him to move ashore. He spent the rest of the war commanding a number of dockyards, continuing to rise through the ranks, and being created a baronet for his good service. Retiring from active naval service towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars Coffin briefly changed his surname to Coffin-GreenlyHenry. A Memoir of General John Coffin. Reading, England?: S.n., 1860. Print. before reverting it, entered politics, and died with the rank of admiral in 1839.
Family and early life
Isaac Coffin was born in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, on 16 May 1759, into what would prove to be a strong American Loyalist family. He was the fourth and youngest son of the paymaster of the customs in the port, Nathaniel Coffin. His father descended from Tristram Coffin, who immigrated to Massachusetts from Devon in 1642. His mother was Elizabeth, the daughter of the merchant Henry Barnes, of Boston. He attended the Boston Latin School. He first appeared on the books of the 74-gun as an able seaman in October 1771, while Captain was at Boston under the command of Captain Thomas Symonds, and is recorded as having transferred to the brig under Lieutenant William Hunter at Rhode Island in May 1773. However it is more likely that he did not enter the service until October 1773, joining George Montagu, captain of . Montagu was the son of Rear-Admiral John Montagu, then commander in chief on the North American station. He later followed George Montagu aboard .
Coffin was commissioned lieutenant on 18 August 1776 while serving aboard the brig under Lieutenant Edmund Dod at Halifax, but was not able to take up the rank immediately. Instead he joined the 50-gun as a midshipman in September 1776, the Romney then being at Newfoundland. In June 1778 he moved aboard the 50-gun , still as a midshipman. He finally received a posting as a lieutenant in October 1778, aboard the cutter . He briefly served as a volunteer aboard Captain Thomas Pasley's ship , and from there moved in June 1779 to the armed ship Pincon, serving on the Labrador coast. The Pincon was wrecked in August 1779, and in November he was moved aboard the 50-gun under Captain Gideon Johnstone as her second lieutenant. The Adamant was then being completed at Liverpool, with Coffin helping to oversee work. He was involved in a number of accidents during the final phases of work, but was able to get her ready to sail to Plymouth under a jury-rig by June 1780. He went out with Adamant to North America the following month as a convoy escort, and in February 1781 transferred to the 90-gun , flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Graves. Coffin's time aboard London was brief, and in March he moved aboard the 74-gun , under Captain Swiney. Royal Oak was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot at the Battle of Cape Henry on 16 March, and Coffin acted as Arbuthnot's signal lieutenant.
Commands
Royal Oak then returned to New York, but ran aground while passing from the North to the East River, and was badly damaged. She had to sail to Halifax for repairs, after which Arbuthnot returned to England. Royal Oak set sail to return New York in July, joining the fleet, now under Admiral Graves, on her journey. Here Coffin received news of his promotion to master and commander on 3 July, and on arriving in New York, took command of the sloop HMS Avenger. He was initially based in the North River, but in December he exchanged ships with Alexander Cochrane and took command of the 14-gun sloop Pacahunter. While aboard Pacahunter he was present during a great fire in St. John's, and helped to fight it, a service that earned him the thanks of the House of Assembly.
His service aboard her was shortlived, for he and the entire ship's company volunteered to join Rear-Admiral Samuel Hood's flagship, the 90-gun . Coffin was present at Hood's attack on the French fleet under the Comte de Grasse at Basseterre, the Battle of St. Kitts, on 25 January 1782. Coffin then went on to Antigua to join his ship, travelling aboard Captain Hugh Cloberry Christian's , and in company with a frigate under Captain Henry Harvey. During the voyage the two ships ran into the French ship of the line Triomphant and the frigate Braave. The French fired upon the smaller British ships, but the latter were able to escape and arrived safely at St. John's. Coffin then went on to Jamaica where his friendship with Hood led to his promotion to post-captain on 13 June 1782 and an appointment to command the 74-gun .
Clash with Rodney
It was while commanding Shrewsbury at Jamaica that Coffin had the first of a number of run-ins with naval authority that was to mark his career. The commander of the fleet, Admiral George Brydges Rodney, ordered Coffin to take three lieutenants with insufficient sea time. Coffin refused, apparently unaware that the order had come from Rodney himself, arguing that as the boys had respectively only five, three and two years service, they were unqualified to serve as lieutenants. On learning that it was Rodney's express wish that the boys be taken on as lieutenants, Coffin grudgingly acceded, but Rodney came to hear of Coffin's initial refusal, and had him court-martialed on charges of disobedience and contempt. The trial was held at Port Royal on 29 July, with Coffin being acquitted of both charges, the court determining that 'the appointment of these officers by commission was irregular and contrary to the established rules of the service.' Despite the verdict, the court did not have the power to suspend appointments made by the commander in chief, and Coffin was forced to write to the Admiralty on 20 September 1782, requesting the lieutenants' commissions be suspended. The Admiralty issued the recall of the commissions on 14 December, by which time Coffin had moved from Shrewsbury to take command of the 20-gun . Coffin sailed Hydra back to England and paid her off in March 1783.
Thisbe and the Magdalen Islands
Coffin was left temporarily unemployed after the end of the American War of Independence, and spent some of his time in France, where he studied the French language. He returned to service in May 1786 with an appointment to command the 28-gun . He was ordered to transport Lord Dorchester and his family to Quebec, and departed the Scilly Isles for the voyage across the Atlantic on 9 September. He arrived at the Gulf of Saint Lawrence on 10 October, and anchored at Quebec on 23 October. Coffin sailed for Halifax two days after arriving, reaching the port on 9 November, and spending the winter there. In 1787 he moved to operate in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and took a particular interest in the Magdalen Islands. He warned the governor's council that New Englanders were exploiting the fisheries in the gulf and were trading illegally with the inhabitants of the islands. Coffin, an American loyalist who had been deprived of his patrimony by the outcome of the War of Independence, was granted the islands in 1798 for his good service. His attempts to attract settlers or evict the squatters who had arrived from Saint Pierre and Miquelon were however unsuccessful. In an effort to exercise authority on his property Coffin had 1 Penny tokens made at Birmingham, England in 1815. The British government felt this was overstepping his authority and revoked his grant of the island. His long association with his estates in Canada, and his business there led to one of his obituaries noting that by the time of his death 'he had crossed the Atlantic, on service or pleasure, no less than thirty times.'
Dismissal from the service
While at Halifax with Thisbe, Coffin entered four boys, including two of Lord Dorchester's sons, onto the ship's books as captain's servants. The boys did not serve on the ship, and were probably still at school. Though technically prohibited, the practice of entering boys onto ships' books as a means of giving them false sea time, was widespread throughout the service, and many naval officers began their careers in this manner. Coffin was accused of knowingly signing false musters, and brought to trial by court-martial. The charge was maliciously motivated, but the court was compelled to examine the evidence. Coffin was tried aboard and the offence was proven. The offence technically required the defendant to be dismissed from the service, but considering the mitigating circumstances, the malicious nature of the charge and the fact that the practice was common in the navy, the court merely sentenced him to be dismissed from his ship.
Coffin returned to Britain, whereupon the sentence came to the attention of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Howe, who insisted that the full punishment required by the 31st Article of War be carried out. Coffin was duly dismissed from the navy, though he lodged an appeal against the decision. In the meantime Coffin emigrated to Flanders and travelled as a mercenary throughout Denmark, Sweden and Russia, in search of a commission. Meanwhile Coffin's case was considered by the judges of the admiralty, on the question of whether the Admiralty had the right to set aside the judgement of a court-martial. After considering the case, they recorded that though the judgement reached in the original court-martial had not been legal, ' ... the punishment directed to be inflicted ... upon persons convicted of the offence specified in the 31st Article of War ... cannot be inflicted, or judgement thereupon be pronounced, or supplied by any other authority than that of the Court Martial which tried the offender.' In other words, Howe's decision to overrule the sentence imposed by the original court-martial was ruled invalid, and Coffin was reinstated in the service, with the payment of arrears in his wages. The judgement defined the limits of Admiralty interference with courts-martial, and became a frequently cited precedent.
Return to service, and French Revolutionary Wars