The Edward P. Coffin who filed this patent might have been born in Nantucket, Massachusetts on December 27, 1809, and might have married Lydia B. Gardner in the same city on September 11, 1831.
The Willard Sears who obtained the rights to Edward P. Coffin's invention might have been born in Yarmouth [Massachusetts] on April 2, 1794, might have moved to New Bedford in 1818 and established himself in the tannery business, and might have died there on June 1, 1878.
From the description of Patent petition for gold washing machine, 1849. (California State Library). WorldCat record id: 237203329