Archives of the Pine-Coffin family of Portledge

The substantial records of a prominent Devon landed family. The Coffin family is said to have acquired the manor of Alwington soon after the Conquest, but the written record begins with a grant of free warren there to Richard Coffin in 1254. The family boasted a number of distinguished soldiers, including Lt-Col John Trenchard Pine-Coffin (1921-2006), the last member of the family to own its seat at Portledge. the sale of which was forced by taxation in 1998. Sir William Coffin (d. 1538) was Master of the Horse to Queen Jane, Sir Edward Pine-Coffin (1784-1862) was Commissary General in the Army, and John Edward and Tristram James Pine-Coffin (both d. 1919) fought with distinction in the Second Boer War and the Great War respectively. They also served as sheriffs, justices, clergymen, and aldermen in Devon, though no member of the family became seriously involved in national politics. They are therefore an unusual example of a substantial family, armigerous but not titled, which farmed in the same area and served their county for 900 years, leaving extensive records. Their library at Portledge, collected in the 17th century and sold in 1800, was famous throughout north Devon, and records of it in this collection and elsewhere tell us much about the reading habits of the Devon gentry.