Background
He was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and was a grandson of Peter Coffee, Senior (1716 – November 1771) and Susannah Mathews (1701–1796).
United States representative politician
He was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and was a grandson of Peter Coffee, Senior (1716 – November 1771) and Susannah Mathews (1701–1796).
In 1807, he settled in Telfair County, Georgia, where he developed his own plantation. As a general in the Georgia state militia, Coffee cut a road through the state of Georgia, which would be called "Coffee Road," to carry munitions to the Florida Territory to fight the Indians during the Creek War. lieutenant is now called the "Old Coffee Road".
He was elected as a Jacksonian Democrat to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth United States. Congresses and served from March 4, 1833, until his death on September 25, 1836.
He was reelected to the Twenty-fifth United States Congress on October 3, 1836, after his death, the news of his death not having been received. Coffee died on his plantation near Jacksonville, Georgia, on September 25, 1836, and was buried there.
In 1921 his remains were reinterred in McRae Cemetery, McRae, Georgia.
John Coffee served as a member of the Georgia Senate from 1819 to 1827.