All Boonies know that Quaker George Wilcockson took with him to Pennsylvania a ‘clearness certificate’, proving he was free to marry his intended, Elizabeth Powell. The certificate stated that George’s father was John Wilcockson of Cossall in Nottinghamshire.

The question has always been: why Cossall? It has never made sense, with no visible connection to John’s previous life and locations.

But new light has suddenly dawned.

On 31 July, two of us from the Wilcockson research group (Sarah Pearson and I) visited Nottingham University Library Manuscripts and Special Collections (NULMS for short), which holds the enormous ‘Middleton Collection’ – the family and estate papers of the Willoughby family who built Wollaton Hall in Nottingham and owned next-door Cossall.

Up to the last hour of the day, we rooted fruitlessly through rentals, surveys, leases and deeds. No sign of any Wilcocksons. As a last resort, I checked a dissertation the archive staff suggested, though they warned it was mostly about coal-mining so we had few hopes:

Cossall and the Willoughbys 1500-1700 – The acquisition and exploitation of a manor, by C M Whyld (June 1987, towards the Certificate in Local History)

And look what we found on page 71:

“The Compton census of 1676 revealed two recusants (at Cossall), which seems low, and two dissenters out of 40 of age for communion. One of the dissenters was probably Daniel Marshall, described as a Quaker when buried in 1698. In 1685, as an old and poor cottager on the waste, he was spoken for by Francis Willoughby and allowed to remain for a small payment. There seems to be some sympathy between the Catholics and the Quakers since in 1717 John Wilcockson was leasing the manor house from Francis’s son Robert. In 1712, John Wilcockson’s house was licensed as a meeting house for Quakers.”

Note that the sources for these statements about Cossall John were (1) the 1717 Register of Papists’ Estates; (2) Nottingham Quarter Sessions records for 1712. Both documents are held at Nottinghamshire Record Office.

Air-punching, dancing and whooping resulted. There was also disbelief and we had to keep re-reading the paragraph.

Let’s expand on this a little.

Cossall is tiny, a dot in the Nottinghamshire landscape. Even now it’s quite hard to find. It was a chapelry in the parish of Wollaton and we know from Churchwardens’ Presentments that chapel and parishioners were badly neglected by the Rectors at Wollaton over decades.

The Willoughby lords at Wollaton Hall were zealous Protestants – but their cousins at Cossall were stubbornly Roman Catholic. In the tiny chapelry of Cossall, both Catholics and Quakers were singled out for punishment in the persecution period before 1689’s Toleration Act:

AN/PB 305/41 presentment, 26 Apr 1670 – present Richarde Disney husbandman, a popish recusant, for standing excommunicated; John Kirby, husbandman, a Quaquer for standing excommunicated; John Martin husbandman and Joane his wife, both of them Quaquers, for standing excommunicated.

AN/PB 305/689 presentment, Cossall, 13 May 1679 – present Danell Marshall (tailor) Quaker for standing excommunicate.

AN/PB 306/342 presentment, Cossall, 20 Nov 1684 – present Francis WILLOUGHBY jnr gent & his wife for recusants; Daniell Marshall tailor for standing excommunicate.

AN/PB 306/399 presentment, Cossall, 27 Oct 1685 – present Daniell Marshall tailor for standing excommunicate… Mr Francis Willoughby jnr for being a recusant.

These extracts are taken from the comprehensive index of Notts Presentments available in the NULMS online catalogue of Archdeaconry of Nottingham records.

Earlier in the day, Sarah had pointed out rental records to me that showed how Francis Willoughby extended kindness to ageing Quakers in Cossall, including Daniel Marshall, allowing them cottages at tiny rents. We also knew that Cossall was a chapelry where very few tithes were payable. And, from Breach Monthly Meeting minutes, we had seen references to Nottinghamshire Quakers from parishes next door to Cossall who were members of Breach rather than the equally-close and more likely Nottingham MM – for example Luke Hanks of Eastwood.

In other words, when we wonder ‘why Cossall?’, we now have some answers:

• The risk of harassment and fines for Cossall Quakers’ non-payment of tithes was close to nil – because it’s almost certain they had none to pay
• No interfering Anglican priest at the chapel
• An influential landlord sympathetic to Quakers
• Other Quakers resident in Cossall and nearby, at least some of whom attended Breach MM alongside Cossall John and his family

We know from records of Quaker ‘Sufferings’ that Cossall John was fined for non-payment of tithes both in Staffordshire and back at Biggin in 1710 and 1711. We also know that the magistrates in Nottingham at this time were persecutory of Quakers to the point of psychopathy. What sensible Quaker would want to attract their malignancy through involvement in Nottingham MM when Breach was just as easy to get to from Cossall?

So it’s easy to imagine the conversations at Breach and in Friends’ homes about how to escape those attentions. Quite a few of the Breach Quakers chose migration to Pennyslvania. But the Notts Friends would also have talked of the supportive landlord at Cossall and the freedom from tithes, an easier option for an ageing John Wilcockson, especially as he could register his own house there for meetings for worship.

So, if we now understand ‘why Cossall?’ a little better, there are still other questions, perhaps most importantly to US Boonies – did Quaker George live there too? And how did Cossall John afford the Manor House???

Watch out for the next blogpost!