DISTINGUISHED NANTUCKETEKS. 113 



wit, who labored so long and earnestly in the interest 

 of education, and against the practice of imprisonment 

 for debt, was born in Boston, Sept. 20, 1789, and died 

 there at an advanced age. It was doubtless through 

 his persistent efforts with pen and voice that public 

 schools were established at Xan tucket. Certain it is 

 that through his influence with Admiral Sir Isaac 

 Coffin the Coffin School was founded. In a commu- 

 nication to the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror in its 

 issue of Aug. 27, 1881, Hon. W. E. Easton says: — 



U I distinctly remember of hearing before Admiral 

 Coffin left the island in 1826 that he had adopted a plan 

 for perpetuating his memory (which was the sole object 

 of his coming to the island), suggested to him by Hon. 

 Samuel H. Jenks, which differed materially from sev- 

 eral projects which he had in his own mind. But not 

 to rely on fickle recollection, I prefer to let Mr. Jenks 

 speak for himself. He, in a letter to me, under date 

 Feb. 5, 1859, said: ' I took the gouty old hero to 'Scon- 

 set, as I had before done with the negro prince [Saun- 

 ders]. On the way he disclosed to me the object of his 

 visit. It was, he said, — having no immediate heirs, 

 — to do something to cause his name to be remem- 

 bered. Should he build a church, he asked, or raise 

 a great monument, or purchase a ship for the town's 

 benefit? etc. Full of the enthusiasm and zeal with 

 which I had so long been excited on the subject of 

 schools, a thought at once struck me. " If you raise a 

 monument, Sir Isaac," I said, " it will not be looked at 

 by more than a hundred people once a year. If you 

 build a church, as you are an Episcopalian, it will nei- 

 ther be supported, nor attended ; for there is scarcely 



8 



