Coates (surname)


There are several sources for the English name Coates; one being a locational name from any of the numerous places in England. For example, Coates in Cambridgeshire or Cotes in Leicestershire. There is also a locational name which was usually given to the lord of the manor at that place or to someone who moved from there to another village. The derivation is from the Old English pre 7th century cot or cote, meaning cottage or shelter.
Alternatively, Coates is a noble family of English and Scottish origin. The surname Coates, which originally is of Norman background, was first found in Staffordshire where the family are "descended from Sir Richard de Cotes, who was probably son of Thomas de Coates, living in 1157, when the Black Book of the Exchequer was compiled. At that time, he held large estates on the Salop, Staffordshire borders."
The name was written in early records as De Cote; the letter "a" occurs in the spelling as early as 1331, when in the fourth year of the reign of Edward III, William De Coates was Lord of Coles De Ville in Leicestershire and in 1347 John De Coates held lands in Lincolnshire. There are landed proprietors bearing the name Coates in England, Wales and Ireland. In Scotland the family is wealthy and known the world over as manufacturers of thread, J. and P. Coates. The first mention of the name in America is in 1638, when Sir John Coates came to Maryland and soon afterwards obtained the grant of a tract of land five miles from the city of Washington, part of which is still owned by descendants. There are also branches of the Coates family in Australia. Notable people with this name include:

Families

’s book Burke's Landed Gentry discusses one branch of this family: Coates of Combe House. It begins with a mention of Edward Coates, Esquire of Combe House in county Radnor who was Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff in 1866. This Coates Family Arms is blazoned as follows in heraldry: Gules, a greyhound statant within an orle of roses argent, with the crest being: Upon a mount vert a greyhound couchant argent collared and lined or, resting the dexter paw on a rose gules. Burke’s other book, Burke's Peerage discusses two branches of this family: Coates of Haypark and Milnes-Coates of Helperby Hall. The first begins with a mention of Sir Frederick Gregory Lindsay Coates, the 2nd Baronet, of Haypark, of the city of Belfast, who was a Major in the Royal Tank Regiment in World War II.