"Ancestrees"

Stephen Marmaduke COATE ^{1 2 3 4 5}

  General Notes:

Stephen Marmaduke and 3 siblings are believed by his descendants to be the son of Marmaduke and Mary Coppock Coate of Newberry, SC and Miami Co., Ohio However, I feel certain that they are not - for the following reasons: One, Stephen's birth date would have been 3 months before Marmaduke is listed with his father, not with a wife, in his certificate of removal to New Garden MM, North Carolina. When Marmaduke moved to the Fredericksburg MM and Bush River he and his wife are both listed in 1769. When Marmaduke begins the purchasing process to obtain land in Berkeley Co. in 1767, he purchases 200 acres. This means that there were 3 persons likely in his household, he, his wife and one child. This would account for himself, his wife Mary, and his first daughter Esther born in 1766. In his bible records and in Quaker records only 9 children are listed beginning with Esther Coate. There is enough evidence to state that the Stephen Marmaduke, Susanne, and Emily often connected to him are not his children.

Stephen is thought to have been born in PA or NJ. In an exhaustive search, the only Stephen's found in this country in this time period were: a Stephen Coats who was a PA Revolutionary Soldier and a Stephen Coates who was between age 70 and 79 living in New York City, 7th Ward in the 1830 New York Census records. They both by age could be one and the same person and this elusive Stephen Marmaduke Coate. (C-1423.)

If I had to guess, I'd be trying to find Stephen's ancestry in the Massachusetts Coats branch that starts with Charles Coate in Massachusetts in the 1600's. Stephen is a name carried down in that Coate family and it is extremely uncommon in other Coate branches.

Stephen supposedly had two children by Polly McNutt and several by his second wife, Mary Ann Matthews. (E.O.Collins) However, Guy Coates has found extensive evidence that his supposed son James is highly likely not to be the son of Stephen Marmaduke. (See James Coate - son of Big John Coate in this database)

Stephen married Polly McNUTT about 1773.

Stephen next married Martha Ann MATTHEWS on 1/9/1776.