Joanna Kember

Joanna Kember, also known as Joanna Coffin after her marriage, was the wife of Peter Coffin and the mother of Tristram Coffin, later called the “Nantucket Owner.” She is identified in the supplied lineage as Barbara’s 12th great-grandmother.

Joanna Kember was reportedly born in England in 1583 or 1584, the daughter of Robert Kember. She married Peter Coffin, son of Nicholas Coffin, in England sometime between 1605 and 1609. After her marriage, she was known as Joanna Coffin.

Peter Coffin died in 1628. Family-tree notes state that Peter’s widow came to Salisbury, Massachusetts, with her son Tristram and her daughters Mary and Eunice, and that she later went to Haverhill and Newbury. The supplied material identifies Joanna and Peter’s children as Eunice, Mary, John, and Tristram Coffin.

Joanna Coffin died in May 1661 at Boston, Massachusetts. The supplied life-date heading gives her death date as 30 May 1661, while the cited family-tree material gives only May 1661.

Through her son Tristram Coffin and his daughter Elizabeth Coffin, Joanna Kember is in the direct maternal line leading to Barbara’s family.

Historical context

Joanna’s family is associated in the supplied notes with early English settlement in Massachusetts, including Salisbury, Haverhill, Newbury, and Boston. Her son Tristram Coffin is identified in the relationship path as “Tristram Coffin ‘Nantucket Owner.’”

Sources & research

Genealogy of the Early Generations of the Coffin Family in New England. From the New-England Historical and Genealogical Register for 1870. Boston: David Clapp & Son, Printers, 1870.

Citereh.com, “Joanna Kember,” http://www.citereh.com/p13.htm#i494.

Sarah George Zakzrewski, “Sarah Zakrzewski Family Tree.”

Coffin Family, online, http://www.rootsweb.com/~hft/dad/coffin/.

Ross Coffin, My Father’s Shoes.