Richard Cocke (1597-1665) was born at Pickthorn, Stottesdon, Shropshire, England and was in Virginia by 24 Dec 1627. On this date, Cocke appeared in court in Jamestown where he testified as the purser of the Thomas and John that four of Mr. Sharples’s men had run away while being transported to Virginia. He appeared in court again on 10 Feb 1629 as the attorney for Patrick Canada, who was seeking ownership of Thomas Hunter’s estate.
Although by 1632 Cocke had married the widow (1) Temperance Bailey Browne, Cocke had to pay a fee of 6,397 pounds of tobacco to settle Browne’s estate. Temperance Baley [Bailey], the mother of Browne’s two daughters Mary and Margaret, was born in VA in 1617 and is listed on the Muster of 1624/25 as a member of Cecily Jordan’s household in Jordan’s Jordan. Cecily Jordan, identified as an ancient planter in a 1620 patent, is thought to be Temperance’s mother by an early marriage to a man named Bailey. The two sons of Temperance and Richard Cocke were Thomas and Richard, who later became known as Richard the Elder. After Temperance’s death, Richard Cocke married (2) Mary Aston, daughter of Walter Aston; the couple had another son named Richard (known as Richard the Younger), Elizabeth, John, William, and Edward. Richard Cocke became an important figure in VA, acquiring 10,916 acres of land, principally in Henrico County but also in Surry County where he first lived in the 1630s. He named his three homes Bremo, Curles, and Malvern Hill. He also served as a Burgess, first in 1632 representing Weyanoke and then Henrico from 1644 to 1654. He was a Colonel of the local militia and a court justice. Among Cocke’s prominent descendants are Robert E. Lee, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. First Mississippi Company Descendant of Richard Cocke: Charles David Hill
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 17th century map of Henrico County, VA Twenty-fourth in a series of biographical sketches whose descendants belong to the First Mississippi Company; in honor of the 400th anniversary of the July 30, 1619, meeting of the first representative governmental body in America at the 1617 Church on Jamestown Island Thomas Harris (1586-c. 1649) Henrico County, VA
Thomas Harris, an ancient planter and inhabitant of Virginia listed on the 1624-25 Muster, arrived on the Prosperous in May 1611 with a group brought by Sir Thomas Dale to establish a settlement in Henricus. On 18 Nov 1618, Harris was granted 100 acres as an Ancient Planter at Neck of Land and is listed in the Muster at Charles City as age 38 with his first wife Adria (Hoare), age 23. Thomas Harris and Adria were married in Virginia, as she had come to America in 1621 on the Marmaduke. Thomas acquired another 650 acres of land for the transportation of 13 persons to the colony and another 400 acres by inheritance. Harris also acquired the 700 acres known as Longfield that belonged to his neighbors, Edward and Ann Gurganey, when Ann Gurganey bequeathed the land to Harris in her 1619/20 will; this land was patented in his name in 1637. Harris was elected as a Burgess for Neck of Land in 1624 and for Henrico in 1640, 1647-48. He also served as a Commissioner for the “Upper Parts,” land which included Henrico, and as the Commander of Henrico County. After the death of his wife Adria, he married the widow of William Vincent, Joane, who was five years his senior. The only children of Thomas Harris were by his first wife Adria: Mary and William. Mary married Thomas Ligon, and William inherited Longfield in his father’s will, made about 1649 but now lost. Thomas Ligon (1623/4-1675/76) Henrico County, VA Thomas Ligon, the eldest son of Thomas Ligon (c. 1577-1626) and Elizabeth Pratt (1602-1631) was baptized at Walsgrave-on-Sowe, Warwickshire 11 Jan 1623/4. He immigrated to Virginia in the 1640s and settled at Henrico County. He married Mary Harris, daughter of Captain Thomas Harris, of Henrico County before 1649. Mary stated in a deposition given in 1684 that she was 64 years of age, making her birth year about 1620. The couple had five sons: Thomas, William, Richard, Matthew, and Hugh; and two daughters: Johan (wife of Robert Hancock) and Mary. Thomas, the immigrant, served as a member of the House of Burgesses for Henrico in 1656, was a lieutenant colonel in the militia, and was a surveyor of Henrico County until his death in 1675/76. Lt. Colonel Thomas Ligon left a will (now lost), dated 10 Jan 1675/76 and proved 16 March 1675/76, in Henrico County, Virginia. His widow Mary Harris Ligon gave her brother the “whole profits of the surveyor’s place” by an agreement recorded 1 Nov 1679 until her eldest son should become of age. In Mary Ligon’s will, dated 18 April 1702/3 and proved 1 Feb. 1703/4 in Henrico County, she left sons Richard Ligon and Hugh Ligon 200 acres lying in Curles, Henrico County, being part of the land given to her by her father, Captain Thomas Harris. First Mississippi Company descendant of Thomas Ligon and Thomas Harris: Charles Hill |
To Our ContributorsWe welcome properly researched contributions of ancestor profiles, vignettes and comments from members that focus on their ancestors’ roles in Jamestown’s history, plus other aspects of their lives, events and experiences in the colony. PLEASE NOTE that all information must be documented and backed up by primary source documents, and not unverifiable information and family and urban legends. Submissions without this backup may be rejected. Please limit contributions and blog entries solely to the ancestors themselves, and do not include subsequent lineage information. Entries should be no more than 400 words. Archives
August 2022
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