1.
John Coats b. in
Some of the family history was passed down by Rebecca (Coats) McGahan -
daughter of Henry Coats and his 2nd
wife Sydney
((Rebecca
who was 22 years younger than Henry’s oldest child was still
alive in 1923)). She noted that when John
Coats (number 1 above) came to Miami County, OH with his family, his
wife Amy was dead
and he was accompanied by his sister Rebecca (Coats) Scott
(Henry’s
children called her Granny Scott and she was living with Henry and
Sydney in Ohio in
1850 according to the census). Henry was also noted in several records
in Darke County, OH where he was acting for
Rebecca Scott with regard to her dower rights (Rebecca was the 2nd
wife of David Scott). According to Mary Helen Pemberton, a Coats
researcher in Milton the Pearson family knew that Rebecca Scott was a
sister of Mary (Coats) Pearson and was buried next to her. Quaker
records in SC show
that Mary was the daughter of John and Rachel Coate. The William Coats
noted in the guardianship record above would be the
brother of John Coats (number 1 above.) In Beers' "History of Miami
County, Newberry Township" it notes that Michael Ingle
settled on the Stillwater in 1807 and that “the next were
William and John Coats, with one or more sons-in-law of the former who
settled on the northwest
quarter of Section 30, cornering with Ingle's purchases on the
southwest from the same history;
At the breaking out of the war (Spring 1812) it is said there were nine
families living in this township, viz;
Michael Ingle … William Coats and his son and son-in-law,
Daniel
Wright, and a brother John Coats
William and his wife Mary sold that same land in 1822 when he moved to
Indiana.
In a book entitled “Pioneer Ancestors of Members of Society
of
Indiana Pioneers”
there is an entry on a William Coats born in SC c1768 who settled in
Marion
County, Indiana in 1822 after previously living in Ohio. This William
is almost
certainly the William that had land next to Big John Coats on the
Beaverdam in Newberry
County SC. William bought a parcel of land from John Wright Jr. and
Jemimima his wife in 1784.
Both Big John and Rachel witnessed that purchase and made their marks.
Big John
later (in 1802) proved that purchase in a J.P. court. That land lies
next to the land William bought from his brother Wright Coats in
1802 which was contiguous to that of Big John William and his wife Mary
sold part of his land in 1804 and the rest in 1807 which coincides with
his
move to Miami County OH. All of this argues that William was a son of
Big John and Rachel and a brother of John Coats- father of Henry Coats
of Indiana.