Dear Jefferson:
I received your letter of the 16 of September and have read it with entertaining interest. Indeed, it is always a source of gratification to me to hear that my friends are doing well.
You request some information respecting the history of our ancestors. I have no written biography of the Coffee family and therefore can only relate to you such facts as have come within my own recollection and such as have reached me by tradition.
I remember to have seen my paternal grandfather. His name was John Coffee, and he was raised in one of the lower counties of Virginia and died in Albamarle. My grandmother's maiden name was Jane Graves, and my father's name was James Coffee. He also was raised in the lower part of Virginia and from thence removed to Essex and from thence to Albamarle, where your father Ambrose Coffee was born in the year 1762. From this county my father (James) removed to Amherst and here his children grew up to manhood. My mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Cleveland. My maternal grandfather's name was Alexander Cleveland. He was a descendant of the English and was an own cousin of Oliver Cromwell, a gentleman who figured conspicously in the sixteenth century. He was raised in Virginia & born in the year 1663 and died in 1775, at the age of 112 years.
My father was born in 1729 and died in 1786. His children were nine sons and two daughters. My brothers' names were John, Archelaus, James, Reuben, Ambrose, Eli, Joel and Lewis Coffee. They are all dead save Eli and Lewis, the first of whom resides in Missouri and the other in Kentucky.
I became acquainted with your maternal grandfather Jesse Moore about the close of the revolutionary war. He then lived in Burke County, North Carolina, where you were born. He was born in Virginia, and many of his descendants now live in Kentucky.
I am still living at the same place you last saw me, but cannot expect, in the course of nature to remain much longer. I am now in my 80th year.
May God bless you.
Rice Coffee
Rubin, Ambrose, Joel, Eli, and Lewis all moved to Kentucky in early part of 19th century. Lewis and Rice were the two youngest.
Lewis also married in North Carolina - don't know who he married; their children were; -James Henderson; Shelby Cullom Coleman (is still living in Lincoln County, Ky.) and Franklin. Three daughters; - Elizabeth; Rachel; Polly. Rubin had two sons - one, Oliver and the other Cromwell. Ambrose had a large family; - Jesse; Jefferson; Washington; I don't know the other names.
Rice and Lewis were both too young for the Revolutionary War. Rubin, I understand, and two brothers were in the Revolutionary War; don know which two. It seems the Coffeys have come from the oild Country, long ago. The original Coffeys, we think, are Irish. The English part comes through the Clevelands direct from Oliver Cromwell.
(signed) R. A. Coffey
The "Said Rice" Paper, 1866 (VF, p. 10, 11)
The text was copied by RD (Robert Dyas) in 1915. Miss Mauie Brown is most likely Maud Brown, or Aula Maud Brown, born in 1889 (p212), a granddaughter of General John Reid Coffey.
Copies May 14th, 1915, at the residence of Mrs. R. E. Sanders, New Decatur, Alabama, from the Rice Coffey Family Tree, which had been sent to Mrs. Sanders by Miss Mauie Brown, of Bridgeport, Ala., for my inspection. RD.
Genealogy of Rice Coffey's family as related to his son John R. Coffey by the said John's sister, Mary C. Kendall, at Wartrace, Bedford County, Tennessee on April 30th, 1866:-
Rice Coffey's grandmother of his mother's side was a Miss McMinn. His mother was Elizabeth Cleveland, sister of Col. Benj. Cleveland who commanded a regiment at the battle of King's Mountain, in the Revolutionary War. His grandfather on his mother's side was John Cleveland whose mother was daughter of Oliver Cromwell.
Said Rice's grandmother, on his father's side was John Coffey. Said Rice's own father was James Coffey, whose brothers and sisters were, (1) John: (2) James: (3) Acilles: (4) Ambrose: (5) Reuben: (6) Eli: (7) Joel: (8) Lesis: (0) Elizabeth: (10) Patsy.
Elizabeth married Reuben Whitesides: Patsy married Marshall Durham.
Said Rice's children were (1) Jerusha; (2) Elvira: (3) Henry: (4) Mary: (5) Weightstill A.: (6) Alexander H.: (7) Martha or Patsy as she was called (8) Benjamin B.: (9) John Reid.-
Said Rice's mother was born in 1772 and died in 1827. Said Rice's wife's maiden name was Sally Bradford, who maiden name was Margaret Wilson. Said Sally's grandmother's maiden name was Nellie Reid, a daughter of John Reid. Said Rice's wife's father was Bennett Bradford, whose mother maiden name was Marr, a scotch lady.
Bennett Bradford's children were (1) Hannah: (2) Polly: (3) Sally: (4) John: (5) Benjamin: (6) Henry: (7) Nelly: (8) James: and (9) Hamilton.
Said Rice was born in Amherst County, Va. in April 1765 and died at Wartrace, Bedford Co., Tenn., July 24, 1853 and his wife the said Sally was born Jun 22, 1770 and died Sep 3, 1840.
Said Rice was a cousin to Gen. John Coffey who commanded a brigade with Gen. Jackson in the war 1812-15 and who was born June 2d, 1772 and died near Florence, Ala. July 7, 1833, and was a son of Joshua Coffee and Elizabeth Graces Coffee of Virginia.
Genealogy of Rice Coffey's family, April 30, 1866 ("Said Rice" Paper)
The reason of its naming "Said Rice" is due to the beginning of the paragraphs with "Said Rice..." Frank did not copy the head of the letter, which contains important information regarding the origin of the copy.
We have here a really bad copy containing many errors, however, the text has a lot of charm. The letter is to compare with the far better copy from P.C. Coffee, great-grandson of Rice, in the "Foxworth Papers: (p64*), which was composed after 1896 and must have been based on the original Rice letter.
Of great importance are the first and the last paragraphs. In the first one it states that the father of Elizabeth Cleveland (= James Coffey) is John Cleveland (and not Alexander), whose mother was a daughter of Cromwell. Colonel Benjamin Cleveland also believed that he was from Cromwellian origin. More, he could even be the first one to create the Cromwellian Romance (see Part V, chapter 3)!
The second paragraph should begin with: "Said Rice's grandfather...", instead of "grandmother...". The paragraph beginning with" "Said Rice's mother was born in 1777 ..." should read: "...born in 1727...".
Concerning Rice's birth year we have three dates" 1765, in "Said Rice" and in the "Rice Abner Account" (p32*); 1766 in "The Chattanooga Times" (p270); 1776 in P. C. Coffee (this could be a typing error for 1766).
The last paragraph deals with General John Coffey (Coffee), a cousin of Rice, probably through his mother's line; Elizabeth Graves and Jane Graves (= John Coffey), being sisters (statement still on a genealogical base to be proved). Notice the difference in spelling of the name Coffee(y): is this a typing error? or is the author of the leter convinced that Joshua Coffee has no family relation wit the other Coffeys at all?