A long post, but worth it I hope…

After finding the new info about Cossall John in the dissertation at Nottingham Uni Library, Sarah and I fixed the earliest possible date to visit Notts Record Office in Nottingham to check out the two sources the dissertation author cited. So we went there exactly a week later on 7 August 2019. Here’s what we found:-

C/QSM/1/22 Quarter Sessions Minute Book 1710-1715.

This provided the evidence that Cossall John registered his home as a meeting place for Quaker worship. On the page for the Sessions of 14 Jul 1712 held at Shire Hall als Queen’s Hall, co. Notts (no page nos.), there is a single line that reads:

Ordered that John WILCOCKSON’s house at Cossall be Lycensed for Quakers to meete in for Religious Worship.

Crucially, that record tells us John was resident in Cossall by April 1712.

Meetings for Worship

Anyone unfamiliar with early history of Quakers may be interested to learn that it was commonplace for Friends to register their own homes for meetings of worship. They did this to avoid prosecution for holding illegal ‘conventicles’. Briefly in 1672, the Declaration of Indulgence by Charles II allowed this registration of non-conformist meeting places, but that was soon rescinded and only the 1689 Toleration Act made it permanently legal for dissenters to hold and licence their own meetings (not so Catholics unfortunately, who continued for centuries to be untolerated). As the Quaker movement mushroomed in the mid-late 17^th century, they built and registered formal Meeting Houses as well, but licensing Friends’ own homes continued, especially in rural areas at a distance from Meeting Houses.

It’s important to recognise that only meetings for worship were licensed at John’s home, not the Preparatory or Monthly ‘business’ Meetings for which attendance and minutes were recorded. There are no records of the meetings for worship at Cossall so we can’t know who came along. However, it seems likely that the few other Quakers resident in Cossall and those who lived in neighbouring places appreciated this close-by location.

Nearby places, all on the Derbys/Notts border were:

• Attenborough, Awsworth, Bilborough, Bramcote, Broxtowe, Eastwood, Greasley, Stapleford, Strelley, Toton; Trowell, Wollaton, in Notts
• Alfreton, Cotmanhay, Codnor/Heanor (location of Breach Meeting House), Ilkeston, Ripley, Risley, Sandiacre, Smalley, Sawley, in Derbys

Breach is approx 8 miles from Cossall, an easy horse ride away. Nottingham was also about 8 miles from Cossall but the few references in Nottingham MM records to Friends from these border locations and the appearance of their names in Breach MM records suggests their usual preference.

For example, from a notebook of burials at Breach (held at Derbys RO in Matlock, ref. D4734/18/1), we already know that these Friends from Notts were associated with Breach MM in the 1675-1705 period:

• Adrin & Hannah Dawes of Newthorp in Greasley parish
• Thomas Mee of Eastwood
• Richard & Rebeka Maltsby of Lambclose in Greasley
• Kathrin Death of Newthorp in Greasley
• John & Rebeka Bennit of Begerlee in Greasley
• Luke Hank of Eastwood
• Thomas Right of Newthorp in Greasley

More Notts Friends will be found as we check again into Breach MM records – but Cossall John Wilcockson’s regular attendance at Breach in the period we now know he was resident in Cossall is already well-established (from Breach MM and Derbyshire QM Minutes held at Notts RO):

1712 – At Breach MM on 2 Oct, John Wilcockson was instructed to attend the next QM at Tupton. On 8 and 12 Oct MMs, he was also ordered to speak to a Samuel Johnson, and to a William Potter to prevent him from disorderly walking, also to attend the next QM.

1713 – John Wilcockson was present at Derbys QM in Chesterfield & made report from Breach MM

1714 – 1 April: At Derbys QM at Tupton, John Wilcockson reported from Breach MM that they take care of their poor but that several younger members are marrying out. 5 July: At Derbys QM, John Wilcockson reported from  Breach MM that they take care of their poor collections &c but the MMs are small and ‘other things but indifferent’ as previously reported. 30 Sep: At Derbys QM held at Tupton, John Wilcockson & Joseph Farnsworth from Breach MM report they take care of their poor ‘but can give no good account of truths prosperity’.

1715 – At Derbys QM at Tupton, John Wilcockson reported from Breach MM that they take care of their poor but have no weekday meetings.

1716-18 – John continued to represent Breach MM at Derbyshire Quarterly Meetings. The last entry found for him was on 2 Oct 1718, probably a few months before his death (date unknown but administration of his estate was probated in April 1719).

So, one little line on a page of the 1712 Nottingham Quarter Sessions minutes opens up all manner of new understandings – but even more intriguing was the second source reference in the Cossall dissertation that Sarah and I checked…

C/QDR/1/1 Register of Papists’ estates, 1717-1720.

On sheet 36 of this roll of entries for Nottinghamshire, we found the Catholic Robert Willoughby Esquire, on 29 April 1717, registering his estates as required by a recently introduced anti-Papist law, another persecutory effort by England’s Protestant establishment.

The entry tells us that Robert was leasing his Cossall Manor House to John Wilcockson at a rental of £60 12s/year, the second most costly lease in the estate. Here is the full transcript:

To the Clerk of the Peace of and for the County of Nottingham or his Lawfull Deputy.

I Robert Willoughby of Cossall in the County of Nottingham Esquire in Pursuance of a late Act of Parliament Intituled an Act to oblige Papists to Register their Names and reall Estates Doe desire that my Name and Estate of and in the Mannor Messuages Lands and Hereditaments herein after mentioned Scituate being and ariseing in the Said County of Nottingham may be Registred Pursuant – – – – – – –

A true Particular of the Mannor Messuages Cottages Lands and Heredittaments Scituate being and ariseing in the Parishes and Places in the said County of Nottingham whereof I the said Robert WILLOUGHBY am or any other person or persons In trust for me or For my Benefitt or Advantage is or are Seized or possessed or in the Receipt or perception of the Rents or profitts in the severall Possessions of my Severall and respective Lessees by virtue of the Severall Leases or Agreements made by me under the Reservations of the Severall and respective Partys Rents as the Same are hereinafter Severally and respectively mentioned and Expressed (Viz:) –

In Cossall in the parish of Cossall

The Lands hereafter mentioned containing in all about three hundred and Twenty Acres viz’t:

The Capitall Mansion House with the Outhouses Gardens orchards and Severall Parcells of Land thereunto belonging Lett by me Robert WILLOUGHBY to John WILCOCKSON the present possessor at Will, at the Yearly Rent of Sixty pounds and twelve shillings out of which is paid Yearly to the Viccar of Cossall Five pounds and to the Marquesse of Carmarthen a Chiefe Rent of Six Shillings and Eight pence –

A Messuage and Farm with the appurtenances and Lands belonging Lett by me to Elizabeth HALL the present possessor at Will at the Yearly Rent of Seventy one Pounds and Ten shillings –

A Messuage and Farm with the appurtenances and Lands belonging Lett by me to William RADFORD at Will, the present possessor at the Yearly Rent of Forty pounds and Five Shillings out of which is paid to George GREGORY Esquire a Yearly Chiefe Rent of two pounds Seventeen Shillings and Eight pence –

Severall Pieces of Land Lett by me to Richard TURFY the Present Possessor at Will at the Yearly Rent of Eleven pounds –

A piece of Land Lett by me to Robert WOOD the present Possessor at Will at the Yearly Rent of two pounds –

A piece of Land Lett by me to Joseph MOULT the present possessor at Will at the Yearly Rent of Eight Shillings –

A parcell of Wood Ground called Lawn Wood in my own possession value uncertain –

In Attenburrow in the parish of Attenburrow

A Cottage in the possession of Mary SMITH held of me at Will at the Yearly Rent of Five Shillings –

A Croft in the possession of Edward CAWDALL at the Yearly Rent of Fourteen Shillings, he being Tenant at Will –

Of all which said Lands in Cossall I am seized in fee But Say the same are charged with the Portions of my Sisters by the Last Will & Testament of my Father Francis WILLOUGHBY late of Cossall dec’d and say I am Seized in Fee of the premises in Attenborough free from Incumbrances –

Signed: Robert Willoughby

This Entry was duely made by Robert WILLOUGHBY of Cossall Esqr at the Generall Quarter Sessions of the peace for the said County of Nottingham holden at the Shire Hall in Nottingham on Munday the twenty Ninth day of Aprill Anno Dmi 1717 between the hour of Three and Four in the Afternoone of the same day before his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the Said County of Nottingham who have subscribed our Names as Witnesses thereto in open Court:

Signatures: ?Fra: Molyneux; Julius Hutchinson; L: Pinckney; M: Musters.

Cossall Manor House

Cossall was tiny in 1712 and it still is. Like Biggin, it has barely changed over the centuries of its existence. The Manor House (now known as Manor Farm) was originally moated and traces of the moat exist, as the map shows

Sarah Pearson made a recent visit to this last home of her ancestor John, reporting that “all that remains of Cossall John’s house (I think) is the front elevation. It looks like the original building has been modernised inside. It has been extensively extended as well.”

While other buildings in Cossall have listed status, sadly the Manor House does not.

With permission of the owners, Sarah took photos of the house and the view that Cossall John would have had from his front door in 1712-19:

Yet more questions

£60/year in rent was serious money in 1717. At the probate of his estate in 1719, John was described as a Yeoman, so his status was top of the farming league, close to minor gentry. But we have no inventory for him and very little evidence of his income sources.

It appears that in 1712 when John most likely moved to Cossall, his son Biggin John took over the main family lands and homesteads in Biggin and lived there with his new wife Phebe (Taylor), paying his parents a ‘pension’ of £10/year. It also seems logical that in 1712 the rest of Biggin John’s sibs were at Cossall with their parents:

• Eldest child Ann, aged 25, married Quaker Jonathan Greene of Yorkshire at Breach in 1713/14 when she was described as ‘of Cossall’.
• Dorothy, aged 22, married Quaker John Bower at Breach in 1715
• Isaac, aged 20, was described as a Cloth Worker of Cossall in 1719 when his father’s estate was probated, perhaps nearly at the end of his apprenticeship in 1712
• George was aged 17 – the age to be mid-apprenticeship.
• David was aged 13 – nearly the usual age for apprenticeship to start.

We have no record of David’s adult occupation but we do know that George, once settled and married in Pennsylvania, was a Weaver, as apparently was his son “1720 John”, most likely apprenticed to his future father-in-law and weaver Squire Boone. With son Isaac also described as a Cloth Worker, it does appear that weaving and cloth were in the Wilcockson bones. Puritan William Wilcockson who migrated to New England in the 1630s, and thought to be from Biggin originally, was also a Weaver.

Perhaps Cossall John was a Weaver too, as a dual occupation with smallholding (by the look of the 1717 Papists’ Estates entry, he didn’t have much land with the manor house in Cossall). An inventory for him might have told us he owned looms. But it’s not beyond the realms of imagination to picture the old Manor House providing plenty of room for weaving work to be carried on by the whole family and perhaps other craftsmen too. And that might help to produce the dosh for a £60/year rental, though it seems pretty certain to me that income from land and property somewhere must have been part of the mix too.

And Quaker George?

We all want to know where George was before he migrated. The latest info about Cossall suggests he might have been there with his parents and sibs, perhaps completing a weaving apprenticeship.

For me personally, the fact of a very narrow date-window for George to marry Elizabeth Powell in PA in 1719 (when he was about 24) leaves me theorising that he probably made a visit or visits to America in the 2-3 years before then, giving him chance to become acquainted with Elizabeth, perhaps returning home to see his father before his death and to gain the clearness certificate from Breach MM. A goodly number of Quaker neighbours and potential kin were already settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania from the 1680s, so George would not have lacked welcome and hospitality there.

This is a rich area for more research in America, Wales and England! But for the moment, we still don’t know where Quaker George was before he migrated. Sorry folks.