Sir William Coffin (by 1492-8 December 1538) was a courtier at the court of King Henry VIII of England. He was a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King Henry VIII and Master of the Horse to Queen Jane Seymour. He was elected MP for Derbyshire in 1529. Origins He was born circa 1495 at the ancestral manor of Portledge, in the parish of Alwington in North Devon. He was the younger son of Richard Coffin (1456–1523) of Alwington and Heanton Punchardon in North Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1510, by his first wife Alice Gambon, daughter of John Gambon of Moorstone in Devon. Career Sir William lived during the reign of Henry VIII, and was often seen at his court. He joined Henry VIII's household about 1515 as courtier and Gentleman of the Privy chamber, a post of great confidence and trust. There were 40 of these, and their duty was to wait on the king in public and private; they were all knights or esquires of distinction, and the attendance of two was required at each meal, to help and serve the king; they had also to sleep within call of the king at night. In 1519, Sir William Coffin joined King Henry in the tournament of Guesnes, Field of the Cloth of Gold, as one of His Majesty's eighteen favourites. After Anne Boleyn's beheading, Sir William continued to serve in the king's Privy Chamber and as an attendant to His Majesty. He served the King's third wife, Jane Seymour, just as he had served Queen Anne. In 1529 he was elected MP for Derbyshire, having acquired a connection with that county through his marriage to Margaret Dymocke. In 1531 he was appointed High Sheriff of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. He was Master of the Horse at the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533, when the king knighted him. The historian Eric Ives described Coffin as "a professional household administrator, actively concerned with the staffing of his department, and later to serve Jane Seymour in the same capacity." Marriage William Coffin married Margaret Dymoke, the daughter of Sir Robert Dymoke of Scrivelsby, Lincolnshire, the Hereditary King's Champion, by his wife Anne Sparrow. She was the sister of Sir Edward Dymoke and had been since 1517 the widow of Sir Richard Vernon (died 1517) of Haddon Hall, Bakewell, Derbyshire. When Margaret Dymoke was left a wealthy widow by the death