COATES
There is a wonderful book at the Friends Archive by Joseph Green which is all about the COATES family and their descendents to families including the DIXONs etc. I The book looked like a carbon copy, implying there were perhaps only two or three in the world, so I transcribed it so that it is searchable by name, and now have a creative commons licence on that from the Friends Library/Archive, where it should now be online and available.
As there are nine daughters and no son for Michael COATES and Margaret WELFOOT, I have shown three more generations after them so it is clear how they descend into the PEASE family. Thus there are eight generations so far on this page. Below this I enclose some details of what happened to the seven surviving daughters of Michael and Margaret Coates.
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Christopher COATES (ca 11540- 1570) married Elizabeth ( - aft 1570) and they had three children: Henry, Christopher and Isabel
Henry COATES (ca1565- 1658) of High Row had three children: Christopher, George, Thomas
George COATES (1613- 1681) ca 1638 married Elizabeth BAXTER[?] (ca 1619- aft 1685) and they had eight children: Christopher 1, Thomas, George, Anne, Christopher 2, John, William and Jane
George COATES (1643- 1723) in 1674 at Cockfield Co Durham, married Elizabeth SHAW (1644- ) and they had six children: Michael, Henry, George, Sarah, Ralph, Joseph.
Michael COATES (1675- 1752) on 7 April 1702 at Raby married Margaret WELFOOT (1680- 1747) and they had nine children: Hannah1, Sarah1, Sarah 2, Hannah 2, Margaret, Elizabeth, Rachel, Anne, Mary.
Elizabeth COATES (1715- 1783) on 2 Oct 1735 at Raby married Edward PEASE (1711- 1785) and they had nine children: Joseph, Margaret, Michael, Thomas, Ann, Edward, Elizabeth, John, George.
Joseph PEASE (1737- 1808) on 13 Oct 1763 at Darlington married Mary RICHARDSON (1736- 1821) and they had five children: Mary, Joseph1, Edward*, Elizabeth, Joseph 2
Joseph PEASE (1772- 1846) on 23 July 1801 in Westminster married Elizabeth BEAUMONT (1779- 1824) and they had two children: John Beaumont and Elizabeth
*Note that this is the Edward who was known as “Father of the Railways”
This information
below, on the seven
surviving daughters
of Michael and
Margaret Coates, is
adapted from an
article I have
submitted to
QHFS Connections.
Michael Coates of Case Lee [1675-1752] married Margaret Welfoot of St Helens Auckland [1680-1747] in 1702, and over the next 23 years they had nine daughters. Two died in infancy and the rest grew into adulthood, married and had children. The marriage of Michael and Margaret was only ‘discovered’ by Joseph Green, who quotes from their declaration at the Raby monthly meeting, as earlier work by Henry Eckroyd Smith had contended Michael had married Margaret Hunter. Yes, I have found some Hunters, the nearest [so far] being a Mary Hunter married to George F Dixon in 1724, but it is possible that Eckroyd Smith might have been referring to a sister of Mary’s father Thomas. Smith [p206] suggests that the descendants of Michael and we now know Margaret Welfoot, probably run into thousands and I cannot but agree with him.
Michael had inherited the Case Lee farm and homestead from his yeoman and blacksmith father George [1643- 1723]. George owned several properties, being Case Lee in Hamsterley [which Michael inherited], Lynesack in Cockfield [left to son Henry] and Smelt House in Witten-en-Wear [left to son George]; we can assume that the other two sons Ralph and Joseph had pre-deceased George as they are not mentioned.
George had joined the Friends on his marriage in 1674 and has been described as righteous and God-fearing, and he lived with his daughter Sarah Grainger for some years before he died, presumably after the death of his wife Elizabeth [nee Shaw] in 1717.
Son Michael has been described as a ‘God-fearing honest yeoman, respected by his neighbours and is in good esteem with the Society of Friends. He attended many meetings at Raby, Durham and Bishop Auckland. Margaret was a ‘good woman…. and… trained her children in the fear of the Lord’.
Michael died at Piercebridge but is buried at Raby FBG where his father is also interred; he left a will, bequeathing his lands, tithes etc at South Bedburn, Barnard Castle and part of his house in York to:
* Hannah Ward- sister-in-law, widow of his brother Joseph, who remarried to Robert Ward; * Edward Pease- son in law; * Hugh Watson son in law; * Margaret Stansfield daughter; * Hannah Watson daughter; * Elizabeth Pease daughter; *Rachel Dixon daughter; *Ann Raw daughter; William Rayne, grandson; Margaret Dixon granddaughter.
What happened to the seven surviving Coates daughters? Well, some came to a bit of a sticky situation. The eldest, Sarah, married William Raine in 1726, but although he was a decent gentleman and surely worthy of her, he was not a Friend; despite attending meetings, Sarah was not obedient by wanting to marry out, so the meeting declared their ‘disunity’ with her and sadly Michael was obliged to sign the letter to his own daughter. In fact, Sarah died only two years after her son William was born, and in his will we can see that Michael left money to William. We can surmise that whilst Michael signed the disunity letter, nevertheless he kept in contact with Sarah and his grandson.
The second surviving daughter Hannah, and the fifth Rachel both married Dixon brothers [Hannah in 1729, Rachel in 1739] , and the Dixons were from Raby; Raby is and was not a huge place and the number of Friends’ families would be limited; of course the offspring from these two unions would not be allowed to marry.
In 1736 the third surviving daughter Margaret married Joshua Stansfield of Staindrop, which also belonged to the Raby meeting, although the Stansfields are a larger family, they hail from a bit further afield, Midgely in West Yorkshire.
The fourth surviving daughter Elizabeth married Edward Pease in 1735- which was my starting point in this research.
In 1745 the sixth surviving daughter Anne married James Raw of Marrick, near Richmond [21 miles from Raby] at FMH Raby. So again, this is Michael and Margaret looking a bit further afield to find a husband for one of their daughters.
The seventh surviving daughter Mary got into a bit of a mess like her eldest sister Sarah. Mary wanted to marry John Trotter, but his mother Frances Welfoot was the sister of her mother Margaret- so they were first cousins [‘high relations’ and therefore vials of wrath would ensue!]. Mary and John got married anyway in 1742, in a church, thus breaking a second rule, that of being married by a priest. So again disunity, although this time the statement was signed by Robert Wardell, Joshua Dixon and George Wrighton, not by Michael. In fact, the Trotter family are quite ancient, recorded in the Durham and York visitations of 1615 and 1612, and generated several distinguished descendants.
Not everything in the 1700s was sweetness and light, and we know that local churches of all persuasions held considerable power in their rural and village parishes. One particular Coates got into a mess: Green [1906] cites that six of the seven children of John and Hannah Coates [nee Mayor] of Lenton Mill in Hamsterley, were disowned for what appear to be a variety of reasons including keeping company with young men not ‘professing with us’ and failing to attend meetings, marrying out, etc. John was the son of George Coates and Dorothy Cartmell, both of whom were of good character in the Friends and he was a nephew of Michael. So where it all went wrong with John isn’t clear, although John was only a child of 9 when his mother died of distemper, but in 1742 John’s ‘evill conversation and practices’ resulted in Friends testifying against him and disowning him unless he showed ‘unfeigned repentence and witnessed amendment of life’. The only one of John and Hannah’s children not disowned, John [1752-1843], did well, married at Darlington, departed life ‘in humble trust’ and was a is buried in Darlington FBG.
