Micajah Coffin
Micajah Coffin (August 18, 1734 – May 25, 1827) was an American mariner, trader in the whaling industry and politician who served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Early life Coffin was born to Benjamin and Jedida (née Hussey) Coffin on Nantucket, Province of Massachusetts, August 18, 1734. Of all his siblings, he was the one who became proficient in Latin and was able to have conversations in the Latin language with his father to the admiration and amazement of their friends. He worked as a carpenter in his early years. Family life On June 1, 1757, Micajah Coffin, at age 23, married Abigail Coleman, the daughter of Elihu Coleman, a distinguished Quaker preacher of his day in the Nantucket Quaker Meeting House. They had four children: Isaiah, Gilbert, Jedida, and Zenas Coffin. Their youngest son, Zenas Coffin, became one of the most successful of Nantucket's eighteenth century whaling merchants. His first cousin was Sir Admiral Isaac Coffin. Business career Coffin was one of the leading mariners and traders in the whaling industry. Coffin and two of his sons, Gilbert Coffin and Zenas Coffin, operated a Nantucket based whaling firm during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth