| Notes |
- Mary's birth date is the first detail in question about her. By all accounts she was born between the years of 1743 and 1748, with 1744 being the most often given date. The accounts typically revolve around her supposed age at the time of her capture by Indians and none are based on first hand records at the time. Mary's name is usually stated as Mary Jane Coppock. Quakers did not typically give their children middle names in this time period, but the name Mary Jane was actually considered one name together at the time. Sarah Ann was another popular combination at the time predating middle names. Tradition states Mary Jane Coppock was captured by the Indians as a child and was supposedly rescued and purchased back by her childhood friend, and future husband, Marmaduke Coate in 1763 or 1764. The following are a sampling of the accounts about Mary's capture in the records. Each of them has errors and conflicts when it comes to ages and dates, but the general tradition is the same. Note that multiple accounts state that her mother was killed in the raid, but this has been proven to be untrue.
According to a history of Newton Twp., Mary was captured at age 7 and kept in captivity for about five years. Before she escaped she had become familiar with their language and customs which was an aid to other settlers during Indian hostilities. Her length of stay and age of capture vary in almost every source on the subject with the amount of her capture being anywhere from 5 to 10 years, with the 10 year period being a bit more common. One source says that she and her sister were captured by the Cherokee Indians with John Roos being the half breed chief of the tribe. Her sister, "Paleface Koppock", or Martha, ended up marrying John Roos. Mary herself was supposedly called Paleface Nowanee/Nooanee. (C-1519f, 2221)
One of the more detailed accounts passed down in the family was located by Annie Natalelli-Waloszek in 1969 as a typewritten copy of a letter at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust St in Philadelphia. This sounds like it was oe of the letters in the 1917-20's file claiming descendancy from Marmaduke and Mary Coppock Coate to prove inheritance in the Coate Coppock land deal. "Yours received in due time but we saw in the Messenger that your father had gone. Was sorry, my father passed away over the 24th of February age 85, 2 mo, 14days. I have lived to see my Aunt (Handwritten: she lives here in Oregon) she is nearly three years older than father, she will be 89 the 9th of August. She is strong for her age, and has a good memory. She tells us things that father and mother used to tell us when we were little, about the Indians capturing James Coppock family and two sisters. There were two sisters they did not get. James he kept out of there reach and escaped to a white settlement. The sisters names were Mary and Martha. The Martha was the baby and only six weeks old and Mary was about six years old. She was sitting in the bed of a cradle rocking the baby, when the Indians came in and killed the mother and took the girls. They kept them and raised them, Now this was the Mary that married the Coate, his name was Marmaduke Coate. He bought this girl from the Indians when she was 22 years old, he traded them a fine horse and new bridle and saddle for her. Then they had to run for there lives. He was afraid they would kill him and take the girl again. It took five days to reach his home. He built fires at night to deceive them, then they would go 2 or 3 miles away and cover themselves with leaves and bushes to sleep until morning. But little Martha she married an Indian. The Mary and the Che (Cheyenne?) Coates came across her among a tribe of Indians and her sister knew her. They persuaded her to go home with them then, but she wouldn't stay. She went back to her Indian husband. Now this Mary was my great great Grandmother that married the Marmaduke Coate, they had eleven children. My grandfathers name was Moses Coate, Who also married a Coppock. The first Moses Coate had a brother by the name of John and This was my great great grandfather. He was born about 1715. My aunt tells me they all came from England and settled in S. Carolina. Then they all came to Ohio about 1806. The Marmaduke Coate and his wife Mary lived to be old, she lived to be 93 years old and he lived to be 96. Now the Ancestors on, as they came down on my Grandmothers side, First John, 2nd Joseph, Calvin, James, Elizabeth Coppock. Now Elizabeth was My Great Great Grandmother. And now on the Coate side, first Marmaduke who married Mary Coppock sister of James Coppock. The Moses my great grandfather and the Moses my Father. I have papers, leases, of everything back to sixteenth century. Rachel"
For years now, Coates have hunted for the exact raid in which Mary and Martha were taken. Dr. David Ramsey as relayed by Percy Pemberton Brown in Park's 1960 version of "The Ancestors and Descendants of Marmaduke Coate of South Carolina and Ohio" believed the following raid could apply to her. It was from Percy's notes taken from "The History of South Carolina." "This history was first published in 1809. It was the work of Dr. David Ramsay, a physician of Charleston, S.C. and a native of that city. ...In 1754 there was a massacre of Cuttery of Buffalo Creek, near where it enters Broad River, in the north-west corner of York County, S.C. The women of the party were away at the time, having gone to a squires with a young couple wishing to marry. The men were asleep or lounging about, and the children were playing when the savages struck. Sixteen were killed including all the men of the party, and 5 children were taken captive. Some were soon released, but one child recovered in October the following year, was supposed to have been of this party. The tense situation which the governor left to go to Charleston, exploded soon afterward, Indian hostages killed, and the soldiers of Ft. Prince George massacred. Civilians removed from the area... Governor Glen of South Carolina held a treaty with the Cherokees in October 1755, ostensibly to brighten the chain of friendship, but really to obtain a corner of their lands and a liberty to erect forts on the western frontier, as a barrier against the French on the southwest. Both were granted. This was the meeting at which a white child was turned over to the governor's party, who had been recovered by the Cherokees from French Indians."
I personally do not believe this 1754 raid is the one in which Mary Jane Coppock was taken for the following reasons. 1) Marmaduke was likely to be too young in 1754, especially if he was born in 1738 as is the current train of thought. 2) Marmaduke lived in New Jersey in 1755, far from the Carolinas at the time. 3) Marmaduke is also listed without wife when he moves with his father, Henry and brother's James and John from Hunterdon Co., NJ to the New Garden MM, in NC in 1757. 4) All verified children of Marmaduke and Mary Jane Coppock were not born until 1764 as per their bible and Quaker Records, meaning that if he rescued her in 1755, he didn't marry her for years later which again doesn't fit with tradition. 5) She would have only been a captive for a year, and that doesn't match any of the historical accounts on her capture. It is a fascinating story, but not likely to be the exact circumstances of our Mary Jane's Coppock's capture. Patti Sue McCrary has found another Indian raid which has a much better chance of being the raid in which Mary was captured. It also occurred in 1754, but in what was Granville Co., NC at the time. The Tuscaroras Tribe (in the Roanoke River in Bertie and Edgecombe consisting of 100 warriors and 2 women and children) and the Saponi Indians' (14 warriors strong of on the Western side of Granville Co.) rose up in that year, so that a militia was called together of all able bodied males in Granville Co. to protect their new settlements. One thousand, three hundred and seventeen men responded. The Indian uprising which the "History of Edgecombe County" states culminated in 17 persons being killed and ten to twelve captives being taken, was the culmination of Indian revolt in the area. This is the county where her father, Moses Coppock is on the muster rolls in 1754 and where he paid taxes in 1755.
An account of this uprising is supposedly covered in original Council Journals and House Journals for Granville Co., NC or Edgecombe Co., NC which was adjacent to Granville Co. at the time. A 1931 Duke University Masters thesis by Nannie M. Tilley that mentions this raid, sites these Council Journals. It is available in the Richard A. Thorton library in Oxford, North Carolina. (C-2221, 2239) The fit on this account is excellent for the following reasons. 1) Mary would have been a captive for about a 10 year period as many traditions claim. (i.e. Quaker Records of the Miami Co., OH by Davis & Corinee Diller's Coate book.) 2) Her sister could have been amongst the 10 or so captives. 3) Marmaduke and Mary by a traditional account were said to have traveled fast and hard by foot for 5 nights, sleeping under leaves during the day. This would estimate the distance from the tribe to Marmaduke's home from between 50 and 150 miles. Most of the Tuscaroras Indians lived in Granville along the Neuse River near knap of Reeds Creek and in the northern part of the county between Grassy and Island Creeks. From 1753-1758 the Saponi (14 men and 14 women strong) lived slightly north of Henderson. The Saponi, by the way, had assimilated into the Tuscarora, Meherrin, and Machapunga tribes and moved north by 1802. At the time of Mary's capture, these tribes were approximately within 100 miles of where Marmaduke lived in NC in 1763/4. (C-2221, 2225: Swanton, John: The Indian Tribes of North America) 5) Marmaduke would have been of an appropriate age to rescue and marry Mary in 1763/4, about 25. 6) It is where Mary's possible father, Moses Coppock, was on the muster rolls in 1754 as every bodied male was in the militia at that time who lived in that territory. To actually prove the fit is accurate, we might be able to find significant evidence in newspapers of the time or in the colonial records for NC in Granville and Edgcombe Counties.
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Abt 1743 - 1833 (90 years)
[5, 17] 
