William Coulbourne, evidently of an old Somersetshire, England family was in Northampton County, Virginia, certainly as early as March 25, 1652, when he signed (with 116 other persons) the "Engagement tendered to ye Inhabitants of Northampton County," by which they promised "to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England as it is now Established without King or House of Lords."

There is no evidence which proves that William Coulbourne ever became a Quaker but that he manifested marked sympathy with the Quaker movement is well attested.In Northampton Court, April 12, 1661, it was recorded that

"This day Wm Colborne & his wife came to ye court & made acknowledgemt of their error for entertaineing of Quakers making their Recantacon according to Order of ye Right honble Gounor Sr Wm Berkeley denying ye Quakers & their faction and have thereunto sett their hands."

The most significant entry appears in the record by the side of this order of court: "This refused to bee subscribed by Wm. Colborne." It does not appear what Coulbourne's action in this matter was; but Mr. Coulbourne's defiance of the court's mandate is very clear. One of his descendants is authority for the statement that William Coulbourne (together with William White, Thomas Leatherbury and Ambrose Dixon) was arrested and ordered sent to James City for a hearing before the Governor and Council of Virginia charged with giving succor to Quakers in disobediance to the Act of Assembly. About eleven years later, when Coulbourne had become a distinguished resident of Somerset County, we have record that the celebrated George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, while on his visit to that county called on William Coulbourne and held a service at his house.

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