John Rogers Coe papers, 1819 -- 1823

Summary Information

Abstract

John Rogers Coe was a Presbyterian missionary and pastor in Whitehall, New York, and the son of the Reverend Jonas Coe (1759-1822) of Troy, New York. This collection contains sermons and Biblical scholarship.

At a Glance

Arrangement

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in one series, which is organized numerically, chronologically, and by format.

• John Rogers Coe papers, 1819 -- 1823

Description

Scope and Contents

This collection contains sermons and other writings of John Rogers Coe, including over 50 handwritten sermons that Coe delivered over the course of his short career. In addition to regular sermons, at least two were composed for a special occasion: one for a child's funeral, another for a Christmas service. The sermons include extensive revisions, such as new readings written in between lines, in the margins, or on strips of paper that have been sewn into place. Nine of the pamphlets contain small sheets of paper that outline the text of the sermon itself. Other writings include a small notebook of copied Biblical texts with added commentary ("Text Book") and a 74 page essay titled Critica Sacra, structured as a series of questions and answers on the subject of textual criticism of the Bible, which it defines as "all that learning which is employed in attempting to ascertain the genuine text of the O[ld]. and N[ew]. Testaments."

• John Rogers Coe papers, 1819 -- 1823

  This series contains sermons and other writings of John Rogers Coe, including over 50 handwritten sermons that Coe delivered over the course of his short career. In addition to regular sermons, at least two were composed for a special occasion: one for a child's funeral, another for a Christmas service. The sermons include extensive revisions, such as new readings written in between lines, in the margins, or on strips of paper that have been sewn into place. Nine of the pamphlets contain small sheets of paper that outline the text of the sermon itself. Other writings include a small notebook of copied Biblical texts with added commentary ("Text Book") and a 74 page essay titled Critica Sacra, structured as a series of questions and answers on the subject of textual criticism of the Bible, which it defines as "all that learning which is employed in attempting to ascertain the genuine text of the O[ld]. and N[ew]. Testaments."

Burke Library record group:

Union Theological Seminary Archives: UTS 1, papers of faculty and students

Using the Collection

Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

The following boxes are located offsite: Box 1. Please note that requests for use of boxes held in offsite storage must be made three business days in advance.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material in this collection may be protected by copyright and other rights. Information concerning copyright, fair use, and reproduction requests can be consulted at Columbia's Copyright Advisory Office.

Preferred Citation

Item description, UTS1: John Rogers Coe Papers, 1819-1823, box #, folder #, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Related Materials

UTS1: Jonas Coe papers, 1786-1822, The Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University in the City of New York.

Coe-Brown Family Papers, The New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Professor William Adams Brown, D.D., Coe's great nephew, on March 7, 1935.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary

Processing Information

Material was cataloged by Lynn A. Grove on 1988-07-07. Items that were tied into bundles were separated and filed according to number or date. All materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. The finding aid was created by Alex W. Black and Brigette C. Kamsler in 2015 with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, and edited by Leah Edelman in 2020.

Revision Description

2020-07-27 PDF converted to EAD and description updated by Leah Edelman.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

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Genre/Form

Subject

History / Biographical Note

Biographical / Historical

John Rogers Coe was a Presbyterian missionary and pastor. John Rogers Coe was born on January 17, 1800 to Jonas Coe (1759-1782) and Elizabeth Hunting Miller (1788-1805) at Troy, New York. Jonas served as pastor of Troy's First Presbyterian Church for three decades. John was his parents' second child to survive infancy, coming after Edward Morris (1796-1828) and before Eliza Maria (1803-1890). After receiving his A.B. at Union College in 1816, John Rogers Coe went on to earn his S.T.B. at the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1820. He was licensed as a preacher by the Presbytery of Troy that same year. Following his service as a missionary, Coe was appointed pastor in Whitehall, New York in July 1822. He died, unmarried, on September 30, 1823. In his 1858 text, Annals of the American Pulpit, the clergyman and biographer William B. Sprague wrote that Coe "inherited many of his father's excellent qualities, and many fond hopes were blasted by his early death."