Joseph Coote was born 27 May 1822 at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in England. His parents Joseph Coote and Ann Ward had married on 10 June 1821 at the same church in Bury. Joseph and Ann had five more children - Mary Ann born 8 April 1824, Joseph born 25 July 1826, Sarah born 8 January 1829, Eliza born 29 January 1831 and William born 2 August 1833. All children were christened at St Mary's.
Around the early 1840's something happened to the family which caused them to separate, perhaps it was the death of their parents. In 1841 Sarah and her young sister Eliza were in the Bury St Edmunds Workhouse along with Elizabeth Coote who is presumed to be related. The workhouse was located in College Street and had room for 200 inmates. In March of 1843 it had 170 inmates but the average number was normally about 100.
Mary Ann went to London and married Robert John Burton on 9 November 1841 at Saint John The Baptist, Shoreditch. In the early 1880s, Mary was living at 1 Coventry Court, London with her children - Robert John, Mary Ann, Emma, Albert, William and Eliza all born in Shoreditch. Mary Ann's husband Robert had passed away by this time.
Sarah and Eliza left the workhouse and followed their sister to London. Sarah married John Hatchett on 14 February 1849 at Saint John The Baptist, Shoreditch. Not long after, they left England aboard the Royal Sovereign which arrived in Adelaide sometime in 1849. John was a solicitor and the family lived at Parkside in South Australia.
Eliza married Richard Shepherd on 18 August 1852 at St James Church, Bethnal Green. They were living at 10 Coventry Street, Bethnal Green when they decided to emigrate. On 29 September 1852 they departed aboard the John Melhuish and arrived Victoria in January 1853.
Richard and Eliza first settled at Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) then went to Bendigo during the gold rush. They later moved to Castlemaine where Richard built a house for his family. It was here that three of their children were born - Annie Hatchett, Mary Hatchett, and Charles. Around 1861, the Shepherd family moved to Adelaide where Sarah was living with her husband John Hatchett.
The whereabouts of John and Joseph between 1840 and 1850 is somewhat of a mystery. The boys would have still been somewhere in England during this time. Perhaps they too went to London and then from there emigrated to Australia with their sister Sarah.
By 1852 both John and Joseph were living in Newcastle area in New South Wales. John was residing at Port Stephens while Joseph was at Stroud. John was a carpenter and possibly worked for the Australian Agricultural Company. Joseph was an Oyster Farmer where he leased oyster beds from the Government at Swan Island located near Port Stephens, 2km from Karuah.
John married Elizabeth Smith on 25 March 1852 at the Estate of the Australian Agricultural Company, Stroud. John's brother Joseph was a witness to the marriage, along with H T Skillman. Not much is known about Elizabeth, but it is thought that she was born in 1834 at Parramatta to William and Elizabeth Smith.
By 1853, John and Elizabeth had settled in Dungog where they were to live for many years. John was a very skilled carpenter and wheelwright, a trade that was handed down to his sons. John and Elizabeth had seven children - John, Robert, Thomas, Sarah, John Edward, Elizabeth and Frederick William all born at Dungog.
Their son Thomas was acknowledged as the greatest of all blacksmiths and steelsmiths in Dungog, which had as many as twelve blacksmiths in the town. He was an expert on steeling and setting a ploughshare which when finished would hold the ground without human effort. Thomas was also a skilled craftsman in woodwork. Over a period of three years, in his leisure time, he fashioned a cedar table with about 100 inlaid pieces of artistic design. The piece was eventually raffled in aid of the Dungog Hospital which benefited by 100 pounds. The winner was Lucy Tester, who was previously the licensee of the Farmers Home Hotel. In the early days Tom was a noted athlete and competed in the Gaslight Handicaps run from the back of the Bank Hotel to Benett Bridge.
John died on 19 October 1868 and is buried at the Dungog General Cemetery. Three years after her husband's death, Elizabeth remarried John Bevin, a sawyer living in Brown Street, Dungog. Elizabeth was known to run a cattle property in the Hunter Valley area. Elizabeth died on 22 December 1918 at the home of her daughter and son-in-law Elizabeth and Mauritz Mansted.
Joseph, John's brother, left Port Stephens and was living in Sydney when he married Hannah Corrigan on 19 February 1855 at St Mary's Cathedral. Joseph and Hannah had approximately eight children - John, Mary, Joseph, William with the other four being unknown. Hannah died in 1903 at a Hospice in Victoria Street, Sydney. Joseph died six years later in 1909 at Sydney.