Lucinda Coleman Bible

Lucinda Coleman was born in Sag Harbor, New York between 1763-1771 to Benjamin and Ruth Culver Coleman (the exact year is unknown). Lucinda’s father moved from Nantucket, Massachusetts to Sag Harbor in the second half of the 18th century. The 1776 census for Southampton documents the family in Sag Harbor during the American Revolutionary War, while many other families fled British occupation. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Sag Harbor was an active fishing and whaling community. Benjamin Coleman taught ship whaling and owned a large tract of the land which now makes up Sag Harbor’s Main Street. The Coleman’s were Quakers and lived in the former Union School. The Municipal Building, formerly the Mansion House built in 1845 by Lucinda’s son-in-law Ezekiel Mulford, now stands on this site.

Lucinda Coleman, also known as Lucy, was 12 years old during the American Revolutionary War. British soldiers occupied Long Island following their victory in the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776, with many stationed in the port town of Sag Harbor. Local histories and newspapers recount the story of a band of British soldiers invading the Coleman kitchen, raiding the oven, and stealing loaves of bread. According to these accounts, one of the soldiers, David Carseul, gave the young Lucinda Coleman a bible in gratitude for a loaf of bread.

Lucinda Coleman married Amos Prentice, a local doctor, in 1790. Together they had one daughter, Julia Prentice, born in 1807. Julia married Ezekiel Mulford, who, like Benjamin Coleman, was a ship whaler. Julia and Ezekiel had three children, Prentice, Eliza, and Anna Mulford. Anna, a historian with the Sag Harbor Historical Society, later authors the recollection of her grandmother’s encounter with British soldiers in local historical society journals and newspapers. Her retelling of the story of Lucinda Coleman and the bible provides the basis for the provenance of this collection and challenges other information sources about Lucinda Coleman’s life, specifically her gravestone. Lucinda Coleman’s gravestone reads that her birth was in 1776, but Anna Mulford’s local histories say that she was around 12 years old during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), suggesting that her birthdate is somewhere between 1763 and 1771.

Lucinda Coleman remained in Sag Harbor until she died in 1849. She is buried in the Oakland Cemetery under her married name of Lucinda Prentice.