Author: Stephen John Miller
The earliest records of Benjamin Coe, Jr. are baptism records of the Presbyterian Church in Morristown, NJ. He was baptized on 6 Nov 1748. His father was Benjamin Coe, Sr. and mother was Rachel Prudden. He married Margaret Biegle on 26 Mar 1775. His mother died in Dec 1776 and his father then moved to Westmoreland County, PA in 1777 along with Benjamin and all but one his brother. Benjamin was the 4th great-grandson of Robert Coe, a Puritan, who immigrated to MA from Ipswich England in 1634.

Revolutionary War period records show Benjamin Coe, Jr. as a Lieutenant who served in Westmoreland and Washington Counties PA Militia and Rangers. In a pension application he states he served as a 2nd Lt in Capt Leach’s Company, 8th Regiment of PA. Other pay records show he served in Capt Samuel Cunningham’s Company and Ensign Moses Coe’s (brother) Company. He also received a supply tax return in 1786 records for Westmoreland County.

Following the Revolutionary War he continued to serve in the Frontier Rangers. For service in General Arthur St Clair’s Army in the late 1780’s He and two fellow spies, David Howe and Charles Hammel, were allowed by General St Clair to choose 400 acres each from Col James Cunningham’s District of the Depreciation Tract of land north of Pittsburgh, PA and west of the Allegheny River. Benjamin chose land on Bull Creek near the present town of Tarentum. The name, Benjamin Coe appears in the 1790 census living on this land.

Benjamin Coe, Jr. died in 1833 near Tarentum PA where he is buried in Prospect Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, Margaret, and the following children: Sons: Daniel, Benjamin, Moses and James, and daughters; Jane (Skillen), Rachel (Miller), Margaret (Critchlow), Abigail (Robinson), and
Phebe (Green).