Alexander Coffin

Official Mayoral Potrait, City Countil Room, City Hall, Hudson, NY

Prior to the war Captain Coffin sailed from Nantucket to London in 1774, met Benjamin Franklin and was “early initiated in the views, feelings and anticipations of those true friends of American Colonies, he at once came out a firm supporter of the American cause, an unwavering patriot”- The Rural Repository, January 19, 1839.

The Continental Congress authorized private ships to seize British vessels. During the Revolutionary War, Coffin was commissioned by the Continental Army to command the privateer ship Hero. Coffin was twice captured by the British during the war.

We believe Alexander lived at what is currently 103 Warren Street, which may have been the first home in Hudson of Proprietor Thomas Jenkins.

He also carried dispatches from Franklin to the newly formed American government regarding French support for the War of Independence. These dispatches have a special importance because France’s early support of the American cause was crucial.

After the war, Coffin was a Hudson Proprietor, early mayor, postmaster for over two decades and president of the Columbia Turnpike Corporation.

“Coffin was one of nature’s noblemen, frank, generous, warm-hearted and brave as Caesar …hot as a pepperpot, fierce as a northeaster…but neither rude, aggressive or implacable. He was the noblest Roman of them all.”

Random Recollections of Albany: 1800 to 1808, Gorham A. Worth

In 1838, at the age of 98 he chaired a meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society at the Baptist Church in Hudson. In the years leading up to the Civil War abolitionist meetings were held in Hudson as this Hudson Daily Star notice illustrates (left).