James Russell McCoy served as Magistrate of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Island 7 times, between 1870 and 1904. McCoy was among the first wave of settlers to return to Pitcairn from Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...

 in 1859. He was the son of Matthew McCoy

Matthew McCoy (Magistrate)

Matthew McCoy served as Magistrate of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Island twice, in 1843, and in 1853. McCoy was the son of Daniel McCoy and Sarah Quintal, making him the grandson of the Bounty Mutineers William McCoy and Matthew Quintal. He married Margaret Christian, making him the...

 and Margaret Christian. His son Matthew Edmond McCoy

Matthew Edmond McCoy

Matthew Edmond McCoy served as Magistrate of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Island in 1909. He was the son of James Russell McCoy and Eliza Coffin Palmer Young, and was the grandson of Matthew McCoy...

 also served as Magistrate, and was among the last islanders to hold the surname McCoy. Through his daughter Adelia, he is a grandfather of Warren Clive Christian

Warren Clive Christian

Warren Clive Christian Served as Magistrate of the British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn Island twice, in 1950-51 and 1958-60. Christian was the son of Richard Edgar Allen Christian and Adelia Carrie Jordan McCoy...

, and Ivan Christian

Ivan Christian

Ivan Roa Christian is a former politician from Pitcairn. He was the Chief Magistrate of Pitcairn Island from 1976 to 1984. As his surname suggests, he is descended from the original mutineers who settled the island, led by Fletcher Christian...

, and a great-grandfather of Steve Christian

Steve Christian

Steven Raymond Christian is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Mayor:...

 and Brenda Christian

Brenda Christian

Brenda Vera Amelia Lupton-Christian is a political figure from the Pacific territory of the Pitcairn Islands.-Mayor of the Pitcairn Islands :...

 

Literary reference

He appears as Magistrate "James Russell Nickoy" in Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...

's 1879 story "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn." There he is forced to resign his post through the political intrigue of an American interloper, Butterworth Stavely

Butterworth Stavely

Butterworth Stavely is an American adventurer who instigates a coup d'état and has himself crowned Butterworth I, Emperor of Pitcairn's Island in Mark Twain's 1879 story "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn."...

.

Jack London

Jack London

John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...

 reinvented McCoy as a mythic hero and agent of redemption in the short story "The Seed of McCoy

South Sea Tales (1911)

South Sea Tales is a collection of short stories written by Jack London. Most stories are set in island communities, like those of Hawaii, or are set aboard a ship.-List of Stories:*The House of Mapuhi*The Whale Tooth*Mauki*"Yah! Yah! Yah!"...

," based on a true incident of piloting a burning ship to safety in 1900.