When Martin William Coffey was born on 15 September 1762, in Essex, Virginia, British Colonial America, his father, Chesley Joel Coffey, was 30 and his mother, Jane Cleveland, was 37. He married Elizabeth Bronson in 1781, in North Carolina, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 2 daughters. He lived in Russell, Kentucky, United States in 1850. He died on 27 November 1867, in Russell, Greenup, Kentucky, United States, at the age of 105.