Abigail Shugan Jones-Cook

• BIRTH 1705 Surry County, Virginia, USA
• DEATH 16 Oct 1791 (aged 85–86) Warren County, North Carolina, USA
• BURIAL Burial Details Unknown
• MEMORIAL ID 67176212

Abigail was the daughter of John Shugan aka Sugars and Elizabeth Swann. She married Col. Edward Jones III, Esq. and they had several children. After Edward's death, Abigail married Thomas Cook. Abigail is credited with being the first anglo woman to settle in Warren County, North Carolina circa 1732 and the first white woman to cross over the Great Shocco Creek. They lived at Shocco Springs. Her life has been commemorated by many as a remarkable woman for the strength of her intellect, "A silver pipe,belonging to Abigail, engraved "A. Jones," is in the North Carolina Museum of History. [1]

The name of "Sugar" is derived from the French Hugenot name of "Shugan" or "Shugar". Edward Jones married Abigail Shugan daughter of John Shugan a French Hugenot who came to America to escape religious persecution. During the reign of Louis XIV the Hugenots were cruelly persecuted and in 1681 their rights greatly curtailed--many fled to England, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Carolina, New York and Virginia. Between 1681-1684, this family fled to Virginia Colony--in France this was a well known name, but in America, it came difficult to prounce to American tongues. Most often it came out as "Sugar" rather than "Shugan" or "Shugar".It was not uncommon to find the name mispelled many ways on the same document. It seems the family just finally accepted the name as "Sugar" since that is \how most people interpreted it anyway. The first known Sugan in America is a Margaret Sugan who left a will in Isle of Wight County, VA on 17 June 1687. The next is John Sugan, father of Abigail Sugan. He left his land to her that adjoined Edward Jones on 21 December 1726. At some point Edward and Abigail married and in a few years they crossed the line from VA and moved into the Province of NC. Abigail in her lifetime held the distinction of being the first white woman to cross over the Great Shocco Creek. They settled on Shocco Springs--that section was then known as Edgecomb NC but later called Granville Co, then Bute County and in 1779 Warren Co NC so records are scattered all over--even though they lived in the same place. [2]

A near neighbor, also prosperous, was Edward Jones, who had journeyed down from Gloucester County next to New Kent in Virginia, and who may have been an old acquaintance of Gideon Macon's family. Jones was born about 1695, and so was a man in his early maturity when he came to North Carolina in the 1730s. He was father of several children; his wife, Abigail Sugan, apparently of French Hugueonot stock, has been thought by some to be the first white woman to settle in her section of what would some day become Warren county. Certainly she was one of the first, and she proved herself an ideal of pioneer wifehood and motherhood, and a woman of outstanding charm, courage, and enterprise.

From somewhere comes a picturesque description of her as "a barefoot pioneer girl", following her father into the new country; but she had been born about 1702, and was some years married and the mother of a sizable family when she arrived on the banks of Shocco creek. There is no evidence that her father came to North Carolina, and indeed he may have died early in her life; for, in 1736 Abigail and her husband successfully petitioned the sheriff of Isle of Wight County, Virginia for permission to sell eighty acres of land on Malvern River that was Abigail's by inheritance. The petition refers to other lands of hers, which were entailed so as to be unsalable at the time." Page 20 "Twenty-five pounds, a substantial sum in that time and region, was the stated value of this property, and it is doubtful if a young woman so comfortably established would be apt to go shoeless by custom or necessity. At the time of the sale of that Virginia land, the Joneses contemplated moving south of the Roanoke.

Two years afterward Jones applied for a grant of four hundred acres in the new precinct of Edgecombe. The tract was described as lying "on the south side of Shocco Creek, beginning at a red oak at the mouth of Jumping Branch." Three other grants were made to Jones that same year, which indicates that he was head of considerable household, black and white. The year 1739 must have seen the arrival of Edward and Abigail Jones on their Shocco Creek estate not far from the holdings of Gideon Macon. Family tradition says that Edward and Abgail Jones led their cavalcade of children, slaves, wagons, and packhorses across Fishing Creek on their way to their new home, a noisy crashing in the waterside reeds startled them. At once Jones dismounted, threw his reins to Abigail to hold, and advanced alone with his musket ready in his hands. The others of the party waited and heard the report of his piece. He returned in high triumph to say that he had killed a buffalo.

If this story is true, the incident must have seemed a good omen to the immigrants, and the buffalo must have furnished some savory steaks and roasts to parents, children, and slaves for some days. Within five years Jones established title to still more land on Sandy Creek and the south bank of the Roanoke by certifying himself as the head of family of seven whites and nine Negro servants. The Jones Family Bible, which has descended to modern times, indicates that this tidy settlement included five Jones children---Sugan, Priscilla, Sarah, Obedience, and James. Theirs was a comfortable and happy childhood. In the new home, four more children were born to Edward and Abigail Jones ---Rebecca, Edward, Daniel and Robert." Page 25 "Edward Jones died in 1750, survived by Abigail and eight children. He left a property of considerable value, and his oldest son, Sugan, was grown up and able to manage it. In 1754, the influential Colonel William Eaton recommended Sugan Jones for a commission in the North Carolina militia, calling him " a very promising young man."

Later, the widowed Abigail married Thomas Cook, some twenty years her junior, who was able to write "gentleman" after his name and to deserve the title. Abigail Cook was destined to live to a ripe old age, surrounded by grandchildren whose names were mighty in the land." Page 57 " The family founded a half a century before by the elder Edward Jones on the banks of Shocco creek could count among it's various members some 40,000 pounds (British currency) in property. The aged Abigail lived with her husband Thomas Cook on a small snug tract. Page 65 "Abigail Sugan Jones Cook had died, too, full of years, "Grandmother Cook" to the affectionate children of neighboring families, mourned by sons and grandsons who had become prosperous and distinguished. [3]

Abigail was named in the Last Will of her father, John Shugan, dated December 1, 1726, and probated in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, on September 25, 1727. As an elderly woman, she was affectionately known as Grandmother Cook. [1]

Spouse
Edward Jones 1695–1750

Children
Sugan Jones 1726–1761
Priscilla Jones Ransom 1729–1802
James David Jones 1730–1777
Sarah Jones Bowers 1733–1808

References

[1] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67176212/abigail-jones-cook#

Sources

[2] http://awtc.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=davidhunterbrown...

[3] "The County of Warren, North Carolina 1586-1017" by Manly Wade Wellman" Page 19, "