Bowler Cocke

Biography

According to the website, "The Virginians", by John Pritchett, Bowler resided at "Bremo" and then "Shirley". He was a Henrico County justice, county clerk (1728-48), militia colonel, a vestryman of Henrico Parish (1730-43), and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (1752-65).

• Bowler had patents of 800 acres and 400 acres in Henrico (now Chesterfield) County in 1727.
• He got 2,400 acres in Goochland (now Cumberland) County 26 June, 1731.
• 1733 court case in Goochland, VA involved a male slave of Bowler Cocke's named Valentine, convicted of murdering Robert Allen, along with other slaves. Hanged
• Bowler Cocke, Sr. gave his son Bowler Cocke, Jr. 30 slaves per deed in Henrico County in 1769, seemingly after a slave rebellion took place on his plantation.
• His obituary appeared in "The Virginia Gazette" 22 August 1771.

Slave Rebellion

Virginia Gazette, (Rind), Williamsburg, January 25, 1770.

Some time about Christmas last, a tragical affair happened at a plantation in North Wales, Hanover county, belonging to Bowler Cocke, Esq; the particulars of which, according to the accounts we have received, are as follows, viz. The Negroes belonging to the plantation having long been treated with too much lenity and indulgence, were grown extremely insolent and unruly; Mr. Cocke therefore had employed a new Steward. The Steward's deputy is a young man; had ordered one of the slaves to make a fire every morning very early; the fellow did not appear till sunrise; on being examined why he came not sooner, he gave most insolent and provoking answers, upon which, the young man going to chastise him, the fellow made a stroke at him with an axe (or some such weapon) that was in his hand, but happily missed him. The young man then closed with him, and having the advantage, a number of the other slaves came to the negro's assistance, and beat the young man severely. At last the ringleader (a very sensible fellow) interceded for him, on which they desisted. The young man then made off as fast as he could, to procure assistance to quell them. Whilst he was gone, they tied up the Steward, and also a poor innocent, harmless old man, who over looked a neighbouring quarter, and on hearing the uproar, had paddled across the creek to know the cause of it. These they whipped till they were raw from the neck to the waistband. At that time the young man returned, with about twelve white men, and two little boys carrying each a gun. They released the two unhappy sufferers, and then proceeded to a barn, where they found a large body of the Negroes assembled (some say thirty, some fifty) on whom they tried to prevail by persuasion, but the slaves, dead to all they said, rushed upon them with a desperate fury, armed with clubs and staves; one of them knocked down a white man, and was going to repeat the blow to finish him, which one of the boys seeing, levelled his piece, discharged its contents into the fellow's breast, and brought him to the dust. Another fellow having also knocked down another of the Whites, was, in the same manner, shot by the other boy. In short, the battle continued sometime desperate, but another of the Negroes having his head almost cut off with a broad sword, and five of them being wounded, the rest fled. The accounts vary; some say three were killed upon the spot, and five wounded, others that two were killed, and five wounded, one of whom died soon after. It is said they had threatened to kill the Steward as soon as he came to the plantation. The ringleader was one of the slain.

June 22, 1770: Mr. Archibald reported from the Committee of Public Claims on the petition of Bowler Cocke and Charles Carter, Esquires. The Committee's resolution, to which several depositions and the coroner's inquest are annexed: "the said petition is reasonable; and that the petitioners ought to be allowed for the Slave Tom the Sum of Eighty five Pounds, for Matt One Hundred Pounds, and for Phil Eighty-five Pounds; and also the Sum of Twenty five Pounds for reimbursing them the Surgeon's Charge for attending and dressing the Slaves concerned in the Insurrection, in the said Petition mentioned." Agreed to by the House.

John Pendleton Kennedy, ed., Journal of the House of Burgesses of Virginia (Richmond, 1906), 1770-1772, 92.

Family Data Collection - Births about Bowler Cocke

Name: Bowler Cocke

Father: Richard Cocke

Mother: Ann Bowler

Birth Date: 1696

City: Henrico

State: VA

Country: USA

Source Information:

Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Births [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001.

• Updated from WikiTree Genealogy by SmartCopy: Jan 23 2015, 23:19:38 UTC

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GEDCOM Note

His name from correspondence of Georgia Munro, Grand Junction, CO...her sources includes Railey book...

GEDCOM Note

She is recorded as the 14th child of Frantz & Catharine Krick. However, only 13 children are listed in Frantz' will. If there was a 'Julia'-did she predecease her father?

1. Benjamin Cocke, of Surry. ?
2. Richard Cocke, of Surry. - 1707–1772
3. Tabitha Cocke Adams - 1698–1760

Half Siblings:

1. Anne Mary Cocke Bolling - 1686–1749

He was member of the house of burgesses for Henrico from 1752 to 1763.

He married (first) Sarah

Elizabeth Carter, daughter of John Carter.

After the last marriage he lived at "Shirley," in Charles City county. He died in 1771." - Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Vol. 1, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, 1915, page 214.

"On June 26, 1731, about fifteen years after Governor Spotswood's trip of exploration to the Blue Ridge Mountains had caused the gradual movement of the settlements, from the head of tide-water on the James and other rivers towards the foot of the mountains, a Land Patent, covering the site of Oakland, was issued in the name of George II, King of Great Britain, by Governor William Gooch, to "Bowler Cocke, Gentleman."

This patent or grant was made in consideration of 12 pounds, for 2400 acres of land on the south side of the James on Muddy Creek, formerly in Henrico County, at that date in Goochland County, and now in Cumberland County (Virginia Land Office, Land Patents, Vol. 14, p. 187)." - Historic Virginia Homes and Churches, Robert Alexander Lancaster, 1915, page 173.