Friday, March 11, 2011

Question from Nannette - Coffin family and Anne Boleyn

Joanna Denny, in her book "Anne Bolyen - A New Life of England's Tragic Queen", mentions William Cosyn, which is correctly spelled Coffin. On page 190 she states, "..., William Cosyn, another relative, was to be her Master of Horse."

I am interested in the connection between the Coffin family and Anne Boleyn. Do you know if it was through the Howards or the Boleyns? I have tried looking myself but being new to this I am not making any progress.

Thank you for any help you can give.

Nannette

6 comments:

Sarah said...

http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/cruelly-handled-anne-boleyn-in-the-tower/5260/ mentions that the Coffins were related to Anne by marriage, but gives no further details.

Foose said...

It's a pretty tenuous connection, although any sort of family relationship could be usefully exploited in Tudor times. Mrs. Coffyn was born Margaret Dymoke; her uncle Lionel Dymoke's second wife was Anne Heydon, the daughter of Elizabeth (or Anne) Boleyn, who was the daughter of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn and aunt to Sir Thomas Boleyn.

The source I used for this analysis of the relationship is Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Medieval and Colonial Families (available on Google Books). I can't say if it's infallible, but it seems pretty authoritative.

I couldn't find any Boleyn relationship for Sir William Coffyn (Coffin); he was from Devon, and appears to have no detectable kinship ties with Queen Anne. It does seem to be his wife Margaret who provided the crucial link.

N H said...

Sarah and Foose: Thank you so much! I appreciate the info and also the sources. Thank you again.
Nannette

kb said...

Foose - Great reference! Thanks! Contains information on the De La Warre/West family.

Foose said...

Oh, I am happy you find it useful for your research. As I said, I'm not sure if the genealogical information is ironclad, but it seems very substantive and well-referenced.

kb said...

So far I've only found one error on the Knollys/Carey clan but it's a common one. It seems fairly helpful overall!