His works are: 1. 'A Treatise in Defence of the Cœlibacy of Priests,' St. Omer, 1619, 8vo, under the initials C. E., in reply to Joseph Hall [q. v.], who published a rejoinder, entitled 'The Honor of the Married Clergie maintained against the Challenge of C. E., Masse Priest,' 1620. 2. A translation of Cardinal Bellarmin's 'Art of Dying Well,' 1621, also under the initials C. E. B. 'A True Relation of the Last Sicknes and Death of Cardinall Bellarmine,' 2 parts [London], 1622, 8vo. Also in Latin 'De morte Cardinalis Bellarmini,' St. Omer, 1623, 8vo. 4. 'Marci Antonii de Dominis Archiepiscopi Spalatrensis Palinodia, qua reditus sui ex Anglia rationes explicat,' St. Omer, 1623, 8vo; translated by Dr. John Fletcher under the title of 'My Motives for renouncing the Protestant Religion, by Antony de Dominis, D.D., dean of Windsor,' London, 1827, 8vo. 5. 'De Martyrio PP. Roberts, Wilson, et Napper,' manuscript at Stonyhurst College, in 'Anglia,' vol. iii. n. 103.
He edited the posthumous reply of Father Parsons to Dr. William Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, entitled 'A Discussion of Mr. Barlowes Answer to the Book entitled the Judgment of a Catholic Englishman concerning the Oath of Allegiance,' St. Omer, 1612, 4to. Coffin wrote the elaborate preface, which occupies 120 pages.
[Oliver's Jesuit Collections, 71; Foley's Records, i. 69 n. vi. 178, 522, 677, vii. 145; Douay Diaries, 18, 207, 213; Strype's Annals, iii. 318, folio; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 416; Morris's Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, i. 166; Archaeologia, xiii. 84; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, 184; De Backer's Bibl. des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus (1869), i. 1316; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. i. 523; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus. under E. C.]
COFFIN, Sir EDWARD PINE (1784–1862), commissary-general, youngest son of the Rev. John Pine [see Coffin, John Pine, major-general], and was born at Eastdown, Devonshire, on 20 Oct. 1784. He entered the commissariat as clerk on 25 July 1805, was made acting assistant in the following year, assistant commissary-general in 1809, deputy commissary-general in 1814, and commissary-general on 1 July 1840. He served at the Cape from 1805 to October 1808, in Spain in 1808-9, including the Corunna retreat, and in the Peninsula from April 1809 to August 1810, from October 1810 to June 1811, and from July 1812 to September 1814; also in the Netherlands and France in 1815-16, on special service at Brussels in 1819, and in Canada from June 1819 to December 1822. During the next ten years he was on half-pay in China, and afterwards on service in Canada from September 1833 to August 1835. From that time until April 1841 he was in Mexico charged with the duty of raising dollars for the commissariat chests, after which he served from April 1843 to July 1845 in China, and from January 1846 to March 1848 in Ireland and Scotland, and had charge of the relief operations at Limerick and in the west of Ireland during the famine up to August 1846, at the termination of which he was knighted by patent in recognition of his services. He was employed and paid from 1 April 1848 as one of the commissioners of inquiry into the working of the royal mint, whose report will be found in 'Parliamentary Papers: Accounts and Papers,' 1849, vol. xxviii. Coffin, who was unmarried, died at his residence, Gay Street, Bath, 31 July 1862.
[Commissariat Records in possession of War Office; Gent. Mag. 3rd series, xiii. 372; Parl. Papers: Accounts and Papers, 1847, vol. li. (Ireland, Distress, Commissariat series), 1849, vol. xxviii. (Mint Commissioners).]
COFFIN, Sir ISAAC (1759–1839), admiral, the son of an officer of the customs at Boston, Massachusetts, was born there on 16 May 1759. He entered the navy in 1773 under the patronage of Rear-admiral Montagu, then commander-in-chief on the North American station, and was advanced to be lieutenant in January 1778. He was then appointed to the command of the Placentia cutter, and afterwards of the Pinson armed ship, which last was wrecked on the coast of Labrador. In 1781 he was one of the lieutenants of the Royal Oak with Vice-admiral Arbuthnot, and acted as signal-lieutenant in the action off Cape Henry [see Arbuthnot, Marriot], On 3 July 1781 he was made commander, and towards the winter, when Sir Samuel Hood was returning to the West Indies, obtained permission to serve as a volunteer on board the Barfleur, Sir Samuel's flagship. He was thus present in the brilliant action at St. Kitt's, and by Hood's interest was promoted to be captain of the Shrewsbury of 74 guns on 13 June 1782. He had scarcely taken up his commission before he was involved in a difficulty, which an older officer might well have feared. Three boys, of respectively five, four, and two years' service at sea, were appointed by Sir George Rodney as lieutenants of the Shrewsbury. Coffin, in the first instance, refused to receive them, as not qualified according to the instructions, and as incapable of doing the duty. Afterwards, understanding that it was Rodney's positive order, he did receive them; but was nevertheless ordered to be tried by court-martial
