Isaac Coles

Isaac Coles (March 2, 1747June 3, 1813) was an American planter, militia officer and politician from Virginia. Early life and education Coles was born in Richmond in the Colony of Virginia in 1747 to the former Mary Winston. His father, John Coles, had emigrated from Enniscothy, Ireland, then became a merchant in first Hanover County. He moved somewhat south to Henrico County where he helped to settle Richmond at the falls of the James River, became colonel of the local militia, as well as speculated in land further south and west and helped found now-historic St. John's Church. His maternal grandfather, Isaac Winston, for whom this boy and several relatives would be named, was from Hanover County. However, John Coles died months after this son's birth. His eldest son John Coles inherited land in Albemarle County, and Issac and his middle brother Walter when they came of legal age inherited lands along the Staunton River in what was then Brunswick County but later became Halifax County. Meanwhile, Isaac was educated as befit his class, including at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. Their sister Mary married Henry Tucker and had children, though his sister Sarah who married General George Muter had no children. Personal life Isaac Coles married twice. In 1771 he married Elizabeth Lightfoot, the daughter of one-term burgess William Lightfoot of Charles City County. Before her death a decade later, she bore three children, but only one survived to adulthood --Isaac Coles Jr.(1777-1814) -- who (briefly) inherited his father's lands in Halifax County and also served in the Virginia House of Delegates. In January 1790, during his Congressional service in New York City, the widowed Isaac Coles met Catherine Thompson, who according to different accounts was the sister of a former member of the Queen's Guards or a beauty descended from the Beekman family of New York City. Her sister Anne Thompson (1767-1848) married the elderly bachelor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, who had been one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and held many offices including Governor of Massachusetts, Congressman and vice president of the United States. In any event, Catherine Thompson Coles had several children and survived her husband by decades.Their eldest son Walter Coles became a congressman, as well as planter.