And in America…

The Wilcockson quest in the UK is particularly blessed with available sources, especially (as this blog will reveal) Manorial and Quaker records. We can’t say the same about the Boonie Wilcockson early years in America.

Quaker George, the first Boonie migrant from the Biggin families, arrived in Pennsylvania in 1718-19, married Elizabeth Powell from the ‘Welsh tract’ of PA and lived with their several children in frontier conditions. Sadly for descendants, they didn’t maintain unity with the Quaker Meetings so are missing from those records – from all records in fact, until they died in 1739 and 1740. We don’t even know the numbers and names of their children, other than their youngest, five year old Mary, who was taken under the wing of Quaker Philip Yarnall when she was orphaned.

Y-DNA testing however happily confirmed that the eldest child of George and Elizabeth was most likely “1720 John” who seems to have had a weaving apprenticeship with Squire Boone, father of the famous Daniel Boone, and then married Daniel’s sister Sarah. Their descendants and ancestors are, of course, called Boonies.

The story of these interwoven Boone and Wilcockson lives in 18th century frontier America is like a film Western. Full of adventure, tragedy and survival against the odds. But very lacking in official genealogical records.

Chris Robinson, a US Boonie descendant who has researched these families for many years recently summed up the state of knowledge and speculation regarding the final days of Sarah (Boone) Wilcockson in a fascinating article which can be found here.

Isaac Wilcockson

Chris has also recently speculated on the fate of Quaker George’s brother Isaac, who we know was a Cloth Worker resident in Cossall at the time of his father John’s death there in 1718-19. Breach MM Minutes show that Isaac was granted a certificate for travel to America in 1721, though if he went he came back. From 1723, Monyash MM Minutes show him in active unity with them until 1727. He was even a Trustee of the Monyash Meeting House. After 1727 however, no mention has been found of him in any UK records, no burial, no nuttin. The Monyash Friends despaired of trying to locate him. As a result, I thought it likely he made his life permanently in America from 1727 or soon afterwards.

Now Chris has told us this:

“We now believe that Quaker George and Elizabeth (Powell) Wilcockson had sons, including 1720 John; George (ca1730-1785), and likely Isaac (ca1724-1765)–all of whom eventually settled in Rowan Co., NC. What intrigues me though is the presence of another Isaac Wilcockson in Middletown, Bucks Co., PA.

“We know that this Isaac is named in a Middletown MM list of attendees at the wedding of Thomas Goinks in 1731. Years ago, a reference to a Bucks County lawsuit (dated June 17, 1732) was brought to my attention, in which Richard Mountain sued Isaac Wilcockson [Bucks County PA Criminal Papers–Court of Common Pleas]. Joseph Wildman of Middletown, PA was named as a surety in the lawsuit.

“It would be great to know whether any other details regarding this lawsuit still exist within Bucks County records. It is also interesting to note that Squire and Sarah (Morgan) Boone also lived in Bucks Co., PA from 1720 to ca1730–during which time their first child, Sarah (Boone) Wilcockson was born. In ca1730, Squire Boone moved his family to Berks Co., PA. Might Quaker Isaac Wilcockson of Middletown, Bucks Co., PA have known the Quaker Squire Boone family during their time of residence in Bucks County? More food for thought!”

From Biggin to Cossall, to Pennsylvania and beyond – always more to find out.

Cossall John Discovery!

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!

On the Wilcockson trail

After eight years, on and off, researching Wilcocksons, it’s still hard to believe that so many Americans and Brits owe their existence to two Quakers (Cossall John and his son George) whose roots lie in the remote soil of Biggin by Hulland in Derbyshire.

Blog-readers new to the Boonie Wilcockson story undoubtedly want solid proof that 1720 John who married Sarah Boone was born to Quaker George from Biggin (and not Wales, or any other location that’s been proposed over decades of speculation).

So it seems logical to open the data-store here on this blog with the tale of how we discovered the proof of 1720 John’s origins.

In February 2017, I wrote a Case Study for Chesterfield & District Family History Society setting out the Boonie Wilcockson research strategy and the findings made, alongside results of Y-DNA testing. This included an appendix supplying the direct lineage of Quaker George back to his brickwall ancestors, John Wilcockson (who died in 1610, so is known as ‘1610 John’) and his wife Ann.

More research has been done in 2019 so I have updated the Case Study and compiled transcripts of the key sources that it mentions (marked in red). You can find these documents here:

Wilcockson Case Study

Sources for Wilcockson Case Study

Leave a Reply in the box below if you have any trouble accessing these documents. Any other comments always welcome too.