Michael Coutanche was born in Jersey in about 1720. After working in Boston as a mariner, Coutanche moved to Bath in North Carolina in 1739. There he worked as a merchant and as a local justice of the peace. He represented Bath in the North Carolina Colonial Assembly nearly continuously from 1745 to 1760. An owner of enslaved people, Coutanche served on the local freeholders court when it heard the case of Stephen, an enslaved man charged with theft. Coutanche died in Bath in about 1762.