1690) was an early English settler, public official, and a founder of five towns in Connecticut and New York: Wethersfield, Stamford, Hempstead, Elmhurst, and Jamaica.

The Coe family, originally recorded as "le Queu" and then "Coo",[1] were Normans considered gentry and acquired wealth through the cloth trade.

[6][4][7][8] Many of Coo's descendants resided at Hedingham, were educated at the Inner Temple, practiced law, held offices in England, and were extensive landowners.

[4][12][13][14] He and his family left for America on April 10, 1634[15][16] in search of religious liberty from Ipswich aboard the Francis, commanded by John Cutting.

[17][4] Coe settled for a brief time in Watertown, a Boston suburb in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with several other Puritan families from Boxford who arrived with John Winthrop.

[24] In 1640, Coe and Warde were designated by the general court as representatives in colonial government matters; they secured the land and founded a new plantation called Toquams, later renamed Stamford.

[17] The following year, another dispute caused Coe and the town reverend, Richard Denton, to leave the British colonies in favor of the New Netherland settlements.

Coe was made the town's magistrate and served for four years as a deputy of the general court,[4][17] the same "representative" government style as in the British colonies.

[4][17][26] After the settlement was well-established, Coe relocated again in 1655 to Rustdorp, a town on a large tract of land south of Newtown, which he purchased along with his youngest son Benjamin and several others.

[4][1] When the English population on Long Island revolted against Dutch rule and transferred their allegiance to Connecticut, Coe was designated as commissioner for Jamaica under British auspices.

After New Amsterdam surrendered to the English fleet, New York governor Richard Nicolls appointed Coe as the judge of oyer and terminer of Yorkshire.

He bought a farm of fifty acres at Foster's Meadow in Hempstead on November 29, 1678, where he lived until his death (which occurred sometime before 1690, when his will was executed).

[42] He platted the town of Hood River, Oregon, which was settled by Nathaniel Coe, a pioneer politician and his father.

He served in the Commander-in-Chief's Guard in the Battle of Long Island and gave the military sermon upon Washington's death after having become a reverend.