• History of Cemetery
• Location/Plans
• Notable people
• Grimsley gravestones
• News
• Burials A–Z
• Current Work
• Photographs
• Restoring a grave
• Contact/Search

Thomas Tennant COAR (1786–1859)
His wife Mrs Sarah Mary COAR, née Davis (1786–1872)
Their youngest daughter Julia Elizabeth COAR (1828–1863)
St Giles section: Row 10, Grave B42

Thomas Tennant Coar was born in Tottenham on 13 June 1786, the son of Thomas and Priscilla Coar, and his birth was recorded by the registrar to the London & Middlesex quarterly meeting of the Quakers.

He was matriculated at the University of Oxford as a “pharmacopola” (apothecary) on 15 April 1822.

Sarah Maria Davis was born in Bicester on 3 May 1786 and baptised there on 30 August. She was the youngest daughter of the apothecary Thomas Davis and his wife Hannah, who had three other children baptised there: Elizabeth (1776), Thomas (1778), and Mary (1780).

On 10 July 1824 at Kensington Church, at the age of about 36, Thomas Tennant Coar married Sarah Maria Davis. The following announcement appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 17 July: “On Saturday last was married, at Kensington Church, by the Rev. John Page, Vicar of Gillingham, Thomas Tennant Coar, Esq. of this city, to Sarah Maria, youngest daughter of the late Thomas Davis, Esq. of Bicester.” They had the following children, all probably born at New Inn Hall Street:

• Maria Caroline Harriette Coar (born in Oxford 1826 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 18 November)
• Julia Elizabeth Coar (born in Oxford on 3 August 1828 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 18 March 1829)
• Charles John Coar (born in Oxford on 5 September 1830 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 22 December).

Coar was already described as a surgeon rather than an apothecary at his children’s baptisms in the 1820s, and is listed as a surgeon in New Inn Hall Street in Pigot’s Directory for 1830.

The 1841 census shows Coar and his wife living in New Inn Hall Street (probably what is now St Michael's Street) with their children Maria (14), Julia (12), and Charles (10), and two servants.

On 30 November 1849 Coar’s son Charles was matriculated at the University of Oxford from Balliol College at the age of 19.

At the time of the 1851 census Coar (62) was described as an “Apothecary and midwife”. He and his wife were living at 16 New Inn Hall Street (now 22 St Michael's Street) with their daughters Maria (24) and Julia (22) and two servants. Their son Charles was an undergraduate at Balliol College.

By 1852 the family had moved to 15 Park Place, which was at the south end of the Banbury Road, running north from opposite St Giles's Church (map). No. 15 was two doors to the north of St Giles’s School at 34 Banbury Road). Thomas Coar died there at the age of 73:

† Thomas Tennant Coar died at Park Place at the age of 73 on 12 December 1859 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 17 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

His death was announced thus in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 17 December 1859: “DIED Dec. 12, at his residence St Giles’s, Thomas Tennant Coar, Esq., Surgeon.” His effects came to nearly £800, and his wife was his executrix. Another £100 was declared later by his daughter Maria.

His son Charles John Coar was ordained deacon in 1856, and was married in 1856:

• On 7 August 1856 at St Stephen's Church, Hammersmith, Charles John Coar (28) married Ellen Price (25), the daughter of the deceased farmer John Price.

Charles was ordained priest the following year.

At the time of the 1861 census Mrs Coar (74), who was now blind, was living 15 Park Place with her daughters Maria (34) and Julia (32), and a cook. Her daughter Julia died there two years later:

† Miss Julia Elizabeth Coar died at Park Place at the age of about 35 on 9 July 1863 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 15 July (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

Her death notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal read simply: “July 9, in St. Giles's, Julia Elizabeth, youngest daughter of the late Thomas Tennant Coar, Esq., surgeon.” Her effects came to under £1,000, and her executor was her sister Miss Maria Caroline Harriett Coar.

Mrs Coar remained at Park Place with her surviving daughter Maria, and they can be seen there with one servant in the 1871 census. She died the following year:

† Mrs Sarah Mary Coar née Davis died at Park Place at the age of 86 on 21 February 1872 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 28 February (burial recorded in the parish register of St Giles’s Church).

Her effects came to under £450, and her executor was her daughter, Miss Maria Caroline Harriette Coar of Park Place.

---

The two surviving children of Thomas and Sarah Coar

• Maria Caroline Harriet Coar (born 1826) was married in the Newport Pagnell district near the beginning of 1874 when she was 45 years old. Her husband was Edward Law Hussey (born in Rochester in 1816/17) who had been matriculated at the University of Oxford as a “chirurgus” (surgeon) in 1849 and was a Coroner of Oxford who was famous for not believing in germs. At the time of the 1881 census Maria and Edward Hussey were living at 8 St Aldate’s Street in 1881 with two servants. By 1891 they had moved to 24 Winchester Road. Maria Hussey died there at the age of 68 and the register of Ss Philip & James’s Church shows that she was buried on 28 March 1895, but she has no obvious grave in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery.
  
• Charles John Coar (born 1830) and his wife Ellen had eight children: Charles Frederick Coar (1857), William Tennant Coar (1858), George Herbert Coar (1859/60), Ethel Caroline Longman Coar (1860), Ernest R. B. Coar (1862/3), Violet Charlotte Ellen Coar (1863/4), Zoe Mary Gwendoline Coar (1864/5), and Ida Maria Helen Coar (1868). Charles Coar served as Curate of Aymesbury in Hertfordshire from 1856 to 1857, and then of of Boxmoor from 1857 to 1861. He then served as a Chaplain in the army, and was in Ireland in 1863 and 1864, and at Plymouth Citadel when his daughter Zoe was born in 1865: in that year he went to serve in China. At the time of the 1871 census he was a a schoolmaster clergyman and chaplain of H.M. Forces on half pay, living at The Cedars, Wincheap Green, Canterbury with his wife and eight children. He was Senior Chaplain in the Zulu War of 1879, and was mentioned in despatches. At the time of the 1881 census he and his wife and four of their daughters were living at Hill House, Hythe Hill, Colchester St Leonard. He served on special duty in Egypt in 1883, and retired from the army in 1888. He was Vicar of Hilton near St Ives in Huntingdonshire from 1888 to 1896, and at the time of the 1891 census he and his wife were living at The Green, Hilton with their daughters Violet (27) and Zoe (26). From 1896 he was Rector of St Ives in Cornwall, and at the time of the 1901 and 1911 censuses he and his wife and daughter Violet were living at the Rectory there. Charles Coar died at St Ives at the age of 86 on 17 February 1917. His effects came to £2,209 17s. 6d., and his wife was his executor.