| Born: | 1784 Foulness |
| Died: | 01 May 1828 Sun Alley, Woolwich |
| Father: | Jonathan Coe |
| Mother: | Mary Shaw |
| Spouse: | Sarah Hamblin |
| Married: | 05 Jun 1813 St Johns Eltham Kent |
| Children: | James Coe, Sarah Coe, John Coe, Charles Dashwood Coe, Eliza Coe, Mary Coe |
| Occupation: | Journeyman Wheelwright |
| Christened: | 09 Jul 1784 St Mary & All Saints Foulness |
| Buried: | 25 May 1828 St Marys Magdalene Woolwich |
| Updated: | 07 Mar 2009 |
James Coe was born in 1784 on Foulness Island, one of a dozen children of Jonathan and Mary (Shaw) Coe; only six survived. South east Essex, including Foulness, was a notoriously unhealthy place in the 18th century owing to the prevalence of marsh ague, or malaria, to which many infants and incomers succumbed. After the death of her husband by drowning, Mary transferred the young family to her home parish of Great Wakering, where James may have learnt the wheelwright's trade from an uncle (Nathaniel Shaw was a wheelwright in North Shoebury in the 17th century).
At all events, James had made his way to the Woolwich area by 1813, when he married Sarah Hamblin at Eltham parish church; perhaps he was enticed by the prospect of ready employment as a journeyman wheelwright in a more urban area. The Royal Arsenal was actively recruiting at that time with Napoleon looking set to invade the British shores.
His first two children, James and Sarah, were born in Woolwich, but John arrived while the family were living across the river in South Weald, Essex, where James was working as a wheelwright. Sarah must have died as an infant as another Sarah was born in 1820, this time back in Woolwich. A year later Charles was born in Essex where James was doing labouring work. Back in Kent again, Eliza was born at Dartford in 1823, but by 1826 the family were back in Sun Alley, Woolwich for the birth of Mary. That same year James was listed as one of the eligible electors in the Poll Book for Maldon, a notoriously corrupt borough which offered financial inducements to its freemen wherever they were resident and however tenuous their claims; in 1826 James was one of 3113 "freemen" to vote in the election. But perhaps this may be a clue to the Maldon origin of our Coes? In May 1828 James died, just a year after his elder brother Jonathan, and was buried at St Mary Magdalene Church in Woolwich.
ID: 20 Generated by GedTree on 07 Mar 2009