Mary P. Lindsay Sanford Coats

As with other centenarians, different claims were made about Mary’s date of birth. Newspapers at the time of her death ran with the idea that she was 102 when she died. The census enumerators for the years 1850-1880 were told that her birth year was 1805, 1806, 1800, and 1804, respectively. 

However, the most reliable sources in this case are the death certificate and burial records, both in agreement that it was 1799. That is supported mathematically by the fact that her parents married on July 3, 1798 and she was the firstborn.

Some noteworthy relatives are part of Mary’s family tree. She and at least five siblings were born to Hugh Lindsay and Elizabeth Potts. Her mother was the daughter of Colonel Jesse Potts, who crossed the Delaware with Washington to defeat the enemy at Trenton. His father operated iron mines in the Schuylkill River Valley and established the town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

When she was a girl, Mary’s family lived in the house adjoining that of Steven Girard, who became America’s richest person when he died in 1831. When she knew him he owned a fleet of trading vessels and her father worked on one of them. (Girard Bank saved the federal government from bankruptcy during the War of 1812, and many places in Philly are named in his honor, notably Girard College, a school for orphans.)

Mary married a man of mystery whose life is barely documented. The best guess is that Richard Sanford was born two years before her. Their wedding date is presumed to be around 1819 or 1820 since their first child, Samuel (1821-1905), arrived on January 1, 1821. They were living in New York City at the time and that’s also where Mary Ann (1827-1909) was born. They moved to Philadelphia by 1832 where she had their last two children, Richard (1932-1906) and Jane (1933-?). 

One of the newspaper accounts of Mary’s long life says that, at some point after her husband’s death, she remarried, but there are no records to confirm when he died. There is a Richard Sanford who died in Camden, New Jersey in 1862, but no relatives are mentioned and no records confirm it was the same man. The best guess is that he died between 1833-1838.

The next documented event in Mary’s timeline is when she had a baby named William Henry Harrison Coats on March 13, 1841. She then had a “Quaker wedding” on June 22, 1842 with the father, Thomas L. Coats IV. (In this type of ceremony the man and woman declare their intentions in front of witnesses without someone presiding in an official role.) A daughter, Marcy Ann, was born sometime in 1842 or 1843 but may have died as a teenager. 

The wedding occurred while Mary was raising her three younger children by Richard Sanford, ages 14, 10, and 8. She and Thomas apparently had second thoughts about how they married so they chose to have a church ceremony in 1851. That was held at Eleventh Street Methodist Episcopal Church. 

She was 52 at the time and he was about to turn 70. His first marriage began in 1806, becoming the father of nine children before he was widowed in 1838. Mary was his faithful spouse until he died in 1867. 

What Mary’s husbands did for a living is also a mystery. Thomas served in the War of 1812, although it was for less than four months before it was over at the end of 1814. From that he received a pension, and Mary was given a widow’s pension in 1868 that ran for the rest of her life.

As stated above, some facts about Mary’s children are missing, but not for her oldest. Hundreds of newspaper stories followed the career of Sam Sanford as he became one of America’s most popular minstrel show performers and managers. He was also buried at Mount Moriah, and his Notable life story is found here.

Mary lived all her 100 years in Philadelphia, under the administrations of 24 U.S. presidents. She took care of herself and lived an active life after Thomas died. Her daughter, Mary Ann Funston, became a widow in 1878 so Mary moved in with her and her children for the rest of her days.

Mary Ann’s husband was a veteran of the Mexican War, as was daughter Jane’s husband, Samuel Branson. Mary was as proud of those men as she was of her own son, Richard. He was a corporal during the Civil War and lost his left leg after he was shot.

This comment was printed in the local newspaper when her centennial birthday was celebrated, along with this glowing observation by the reporter who covered the event. She was as mentally sharp as ever, and able to sew until a year earlier when she also began using a wheelchair.

She had one last goal in front of her: to see Sam perform his final minstrel show, scheduled for November 17, 1899, just six months away. Unfortunately, she only survived 19 days past her birthday, with the cause of  death listed as senility. Of the four generations of Mary’s family that came to celebrate her last birthday, the only one that was also buried at Mount Moriah was her son, Sam.