John Coggeshall was the son of John and Ann (Butter) Coggeshall. He was born and raised in northeastern Essex, England and baptized at Halstead. After his marriage, he lived four miles (six km) away in Castle Hedingham where several of his children were baptized, and where he was a merchant prior to his emigration. In 1632, Coggeshall and his family joined the mass migration of English Puritans to New England, sailing on the "Lyon," the same ship that carried Roger Williams the year before. The Coggeshalls first settled at Roxbury where they were admitted to the Roxbury Church the year of their arrival, and where John Eliot became the pastor. In 1634, Coggeshall moved with his family to Boston where he and his wife were admitted to the church on 20 August, and where they became the nextdoor neighbors of William and Anne Hutchinson.