9.  WILLIAM5  COO,  GENT.  {William4  (5),  Thomas3,  William2,
John  1),  born  at  Boxford  about  1525,  followed  the  clothmaking  business
of  his  ancestors,  acquired  wealth,  and  entered  a  pedigree  of  the  family
in  the  Visitations  of  Suffolk  in  1561  and  1577.     He  and  his  son  employed


538  MISCELLANEOUS  COE  FAMILIES

his  nephew  John  6  Coo  of  Groton  to  manage  this  latter  affair  the  last
time,  which  resulted  in  a  long-standing  feud  between  the  Boxford  and
Groton  Coe  families  as  the  following  litigation  shows:  In  1599,  John  3
Coo  of  Groton,  gent.,  complained  that  twenty-three  years  past  at  the
especial  instance  and  request  of  William  5  Coo  and  his  son  Thomas  "
Coo  of  Boxford,  gents.,  the  plaintiff  "traveyled,  labored,  and  delte  with
one  Robert  Cooke  Esq.,  then  Herald  at  Armes,  for  touchinge,  procuringe,
obteyninge  and  settinge  forthe  of  the  Armes  of  the  said  Thomas  6  Coo,"
etc.;  and  £3  was  given  to  plaintiff  by  defendant  for  expenses,  for  which
plaintiff  gave  a  bond  of  =£10  to  defendant,  it  being  agreed  that  if  plaintiff
"did  procure  or  sue  forthe  the  sayd  lettres  of  Antiquytye  and  shew  the
same  under  the  seale  of  office  of  the  said  heralte,"  then  the  bond  should
be  cancelled.  Although  plaintiff  procured  the  "lettres  of  Antiquytye,"
defendant  refused  to  give  up  the  bond,  and  has  sued  plaintiff  for  same,
"  intendinge  by  the  strickte  course  of  the  comon  lawe  to  recover  the  same,
contrarye  to  equytye  and  good  conscyence,"  etc.  Thomas 6  Coe,
defendant,  states  that  the  plaintiff  was  outlawed  [bankrupted]  recently
in  a  suit  in  the  Common  Pleas  by  John  Spencer,  and  claims  he  is  not
obliged  to  answer,  the  outlawry  being  still  in  force.  (Chancery  Suits,
Series  II,  262-47.)

In  the  Subsidy  Rolls,  William  5  Coo  appears  at  Boxford  in  several
rolls  between  1547  and  1581.
