Biographies
James Coachman
James Coachman was born in 1732 in South Carolina and died in 1789 in Georgetown, South Carolina. He married Hannah Poole in February of 1762. She was the daughter of William Poole and Hannah De Marboeuf. She died in 1769 in South Carolina.
James Coachman, like his father, was a plantation owner in the Georgetown District of South Carolina. By the latter part of the 18th century, great quantities indigo were being produced in India and the East Indies, glutting the market. As the price fell, Georgetown planters began turning to rice cultivation, which was in worldwide demand. The rice fields were carved out of tidal swamps along coastal rivers by slaves brought to South Carolina from the West Indies and West Africa. With primitive tools, the slaves cleared the low-lying land of huge cypress and gum trees, and built canals, dikes, and trunks (small floodgates) that allowed the flooding and draining of fields with the high and low tides. From the 18th century to the Civil War, slaves planted, tended, and harvested the crops that made plantation owners wealthy, including James Coachman.
James was also a land speculator which only added to his wealth. Along with his brother William, James bought and sold numerous tracts of land in the mid-eighteenth century in Georgetown County. Among these tracts of land was Mansfield Plantation which, today, is a popular tourist destination and bed and breakfast, and Beneventum Plantation. The home at Beneventum is on the National Historic Register but the land has been subdivided into private home sites.
Beneventum
Like
another of our ancestors, Shadrach Simons, James Coachman was a member of
Marion’s Brigade in the Revolution. Although James Coachman held the rank
of Captain, Marion’s men actually had no official status. They were purely
volunteers. When they came into the field, South Carolina and, particularly,
Georgetown were overrun by the British. Of their own will they took up arms
to fight the invaders and it was impossible to preserve any more discipline
and regularity among them than their patriotism and the dangers of the
moment imposed on them. Fighting without pay, clothing, or provisions
furnished by a government, compelled to care for their families as well as
to provide for their own wants, they were likely to go home at planting or
harvest time, or whenever family needs became acute, or simply when the
going got too dreary. Therefore, brigade strength fluctuated from as few as
twenty or thirty men to as many as several hundred, and Marion had to plan
his operations accordingly. Despite their irregularities and occasional
lapses, when Marion came to disband his men in December, 1782, he could say
with complete sincerity, “The general returns his warmest thanks to the
officers and men who with unwavered patience and fortitude have undergone
the greatest fatigues and hardships and with a spirit and bravery which must
ever reflect the highest honor on them. No citizens in the world have ever
done more than they have.”
James Coachman left the following will that is dated 22 April 1789:
I JAMES COACHMAN being in my sound mind and memory doth make this my last will and Testament in manner & form following. I give devise and bequeath to my son JOSEPH COACHMAN and to his heirs forever a certain part of five hundred acres of land that was granted to one GREGORY to begin at a lightwood stake upon the upper line of the said five hundred acres fixed by myself and to run south through the said tract and continue the same course through part of another five hundred acres of land granted to me binding east and south on the lands granted to GREGORY till it strikes the lower bounds in the Gapway. Also that other part of the five hundred acres granted to me which the line above mentioned will divide in part and does bind east and south on the divided land granted to GREGORY. Also another tract of land of five hundred acres granted to me binding east on the last mentioned land. Also another tract of land granted to one ELLERY in the Great Bay be the same more or less all which lands I give and devise to my son JOSEPH COACHMAN and his heirs forever with the following mentioned Negro slaves to wit: CUFFY, SKILLING, CLORAH, ROSE, SAM, MATHIAS, DOLL & PEGGY. I give devise and bequeath to my son JOHN COACHMAN and to his heirs forever two tracts of land joining each other upon Pee Dee River on which I now live on containing eight hundred and twenty-one acres. Also that divided part of GREGORY tract by the line mentioned above and known by the name of CONYERS old field and is the west part of the live that divides the land given above. Also the other part of that land granted to me wherever that line may divide it on the lower bounds in the Gapway. All which lands I give and devise to my son JOHN COACHMAN and his heirs forever with the following mentioned Negro slaves to wit: ANDREW, LONDON, JUDY, his wife, PHILLIS, CAIN, ABLE and JANUARY. I leave the use of DINAH, CHARLOTTE, JACK, PHILLIS and MELIAH as shall be mentioned hereafter for the uses and purposes thereof to my daughter HANNAH POSTELL. I leave the use of BESS, SCIPIO, FANNY, MOLLY, CLOE, JENNY as shall be mentioned hereafter for the uses and purposes thereof to my daughter ANN WATIES COACHMAN. The remainder of my Negroes not mentioned with all kind of stocks of cattle, sheep, hogs & horses, mares & colts, I leave to be equally divided in four parts, one fourth part I give & bequeath to my son JOSEPH COACHMAN, one fourth part I give and bequeath to my son JOHN COACHMAN, one fourth part the use of which I leave with the others named before to my daughter HANNAH POSTELL during her natural life and at her death if there be no living issue of her body that may arrive to the age of eighteen years to whom I mean it shall descend in failure of which then my will is it shall be the property forever of ANN WATIES COACHMAN or the issue of her body, one fourth part the use of which I leave with the others named before to my daughter ANN WATIES COACHMAN during her natural life and at her death if there be no living issue of her body that may arrive to the age of eighteen years to whom I mean it shall descend, in failure of which then my will is it shall be the property forever of HANNAH POSTELL or the issue of her body. I also leave my household furniture to my daughter ANN WATIES COACHMAN that may be in my dwelling at the time of my decease. What is in my Counting House in the Garden, I give to my sons JOSEPH and JOHN COACHMAN with boats and canoes. I also leave a tract of land upon Pee Dee River containing five hundred acres joining south on lands given to JOHN COACHMAN in this my will to be sold by my executors to pay any debts and if not sold for that purpose. I then give and devise the land to my daughters and the heirs of their body forever. The said land is known by PALMER'S OLD FIELD and it is my will that there shall be no division of any part of my estate before all my just debts be paid, and it is also my will that if there be any law suits, controversy & disputes amongst my children about this my last Will and Testament to alter or change the equity or appointment of it herein explained, then the one who so offending shall pay to the others the full sum of five hundred pounds, but upon a true obedience and performing of it in peace, love and unity amongst themselves, then they stand invested with all the benefits arising from Will and to all deeds under my hand to them for the uses and purposes meant or intended therein. I leave an aged Negro man by the name of WILLY to reside with either of my sons he thinks proper to be well ____ fed and clothed and I do disannul, revoke and make void all other wills and acknowledge this to be my last Will and Testament and I do nominate and appoint my two sons JOSEPH COACHMAN, JOHN COACHMAN and JEHU POSTELL executors to this my Last Will and Testament in witness I have here set my hand and seal this twenty-second day of April one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine and the word (set) in the twenty ninth line in the second page I have interlined it that it may appear more plain and clear.
Signed: JAMES COACHMAN
Signed Sealed and Delivered in the presence of us: DOROTHY SINGLETON JOHN SINGLETON JAMES BELIN
Children of James Coachman and Hannah Poole were:
1. Joseph Coachman was born in 1761 in Georgetown, South Carolina and died 06 Jan 1814 also in Georgetown District, South Carolina.
2. John Coachman was born Apr 1769 in Georgetown District, South Carolina. He died 03 Oct 1835 and is buried in the Coachman Cemetery in Georgetown. He married five times. The order of his marriages is not exactly known but his wives were: (1) Mary Green; (2) Sarah Tyler; (3) Charlotte Ann Allston; (4) Lydia Towner and (5) Hannah Green (sister of Mary Green). His children were Elijah, Francis, Benjamin Allston, Lydia Glen, and James Joseph.
3. Hannah Coachman died 07 Oct 1821. She married first John G. Postell by whom she had two children, James and William. After the death of her first husband on 25 December 1797, she married (2) William Capers on 15 May 1803. He was born 13 Oct 1758. William Capers and Hannah Coachman had three children, LeGrand, Benjamin and Richard.
4. Ann Waties Coachman.
5. William Coachman died before 1789.
Beckenbach
Simons
Duffy
Peake
Bradley
Shelby
Vogg
Coachman
John Coachman 