Date: 9/30/98 7:59 PM RE: COE, John b. 1744 Worcester County, MD USA Dave, Thank you for inquirying about John Coe. He was indeed an interesting and worthy member of the Southern Coe family. John Coe, born 1744 in Worcester County, MD, was a son of Daniel and Rebecca (Avery) Coe. The confusion over his mother likely stems from his father's second marriage to Lydia Hudson. Captain of the Sinepuxent Battalion, Worcester County Militia, under Colonel Zadock Purnell, during the American Revolution, John's brother Asa Coe served as an ensign in the battalion. Obed and John Aydelott, who attended St. Martin's Episcopal Church at Bishopville, MD, with the Coes, also served in the battalion. As you pointed out, John's daughter Mary Coe married Obed Aydelott, Jan. 15, 1785, in Guilford County, NC. Mentioned in numerous records in Worcester County, John Coe inherited 110 acres of "Coe's Addition" at Bishopville at his father's death in 1779. On Nov. 16, 1784, he sold his share of the plantation to James Laws for 275 pounds to be paid in gold and silver. John Coe left St. Martin's Church after converting to Methodism. At the inception of Old Sound Methodist Episcopal Church at Johnson's Corner, Sussex County, DE, he was elected one of the founding trustees of the church. Founded in 1784 by horseback-riding Methodist evangelist Freeborn Garrettson, the church was honored by a visit from the founder of American Methodism, Bishop Francis Asbury, Oct. 23, 1787. John Coe moved from Worcester County to Guilford County, NC, near where his Uncle Timothy Coe had settled in the 1750s. In 1787 he purchased two tracts of land from Robert Neely for 150 pounds. Located near the southern boundary of Guilford County, on the headwaters of Polecat Creek, east of Deep River, his plantation was near where fellow Marylander Isaac Causey settled the following year. John Coe continually added to his plantation, and it eventually contained 671 acres. He became a pillar in the early Guilford County community. As he had been before leaving Maryland, he was one of the founding trustees of Pleasant Garden Methodist Episcopal Church, located ten miles south of Greensboro on Route 22. Also as had occurred before leaving Maryland, on Nov. 10, 1798, Bishop Asbury paid a visit to Pleasant Garden. That night in his journal he wrote: "We rode from the upper reaches of Rocky River, twenty miles, to Pleasant Garden. When I came to the meeting house, I had little strength of mind or body. We lodged at Daniel Sherwood's. My aged brethern and sisters from Maryland and Delaware rejoiced to see me. . . . " John Coe died in Guilford County in November 1807. In his will dated Oct. 23, 1807, he named his wife Sarah and his son John Coe Jr. as executors.Witnesses were Andrew McGee and James Galbreath. He married in 1767 in Worcester County, MD, Sarah Holton (or Hotton), born 1738, died Oct. 23, 1822, in Guilford County. Her property in 1817 consisted of 206 acres and was valued at $721. John and Sarah Coe left an enduring legacy. Their son Major Jesse Coe, "a venerable old gentleman of the old Virginia School, very polite and dignified in his manners," went on to serve under Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812. He settled enornmous cotton plantations in Alabama and Florida, including 4,485-acre Toney Plantation on the Apalachicola River in Gadsden County, and gave the invocation at the statehouse in Tallahassee at the induction of Florida statehood, June 23, 1845. Their son Major Joseph Coe, a friend of President James Knox Polk, served in both the Alabama and Tennessee State Legislatures. Their grandson General Levin H. Coe, Speaker of the Tennessee State Senate, was nominated for Vice President of the United States in 1848. Assassinated by Joseph Williams in Memphis, TN, June 8, 1850, at the age of 44, his son Levin H. Coe Jr served under legendary Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Civil War. Children of John and Sarah (Holton) Coe (i - viii b. in Worcester County, MD): i. Mary, b. 1768. ii. Nancy, b. 1770. iii. Hannah, b. 1772. iv. Sarah, b. Aug. 29, 1774. v. Avery, b. 1777. vi. Reverend John Jr., b. 1779. vii. Major Jesse, b. Feb. 4, 1782. viii. Major Joseph, b. Nov. 11, 1783. ix. Huldah, b. March 25, 1786, in Guilford County, NC. I hope this is helpful. Carl Robert Coe