Captain Christopher Cocke

A Christopher Cocke was baptised at Constantine, Cornwall on the 14th Dec 1643 at Constantine, Cornwall, the son of Thomas & Mary Cocke. [Note: Not at Wendron]. This is not the Christopher Cocke who emigrated to Virginia [ as the three sons of Thomas & Mary Cocke who did go to Virginia describe Christopher Cocke who went with them as a cousin]. The Constantine Christopher Cocke may be the one who married Grace Bolitho [but no evidence]

On the 27th October, 1674, a Christopher Cocke married at Wendron to Grace Bolitho. They baptised a son Thomas on the 6th April 1675 at Wendron & a son Christopher 29th September 1677 at Wendron.

Immigration

ABT. 1685 A Christpher Cocke came to Virginia with his cousins; brothers ,William, Walter, Thomas Cocke.

Captain Christopher Cocke1 in the year 1700'was the clerk of Princess Anne county (the second who held that office). He continued to serve the county in this capacity until his death in 1716.

He too left four daughters and no sons, and we lose sight of his descendants with his will.

He leaves his property to his daughters, which does not appear to have been very large, and he commits his three daughters, Mary, Ann, and August to the care and bringing up of his " Uncle & Aunt Bolithoe " until the age of sixteen, "to be brought up by them in a christian and virtuous manner in such learning and housewifery as are suitable for their sex. quality, and degree;" and his daughter Elizabeth he commits to the care of his uncle, William Cocke. All his plate he leaves to his daughter Ann, to his daughter Mary his "horse Button and his blewfish side-saddle " and all his land and appurtenances at Newtoun. Unto his affectionate friend, Sampson Trevethan, a mourning ring, &c. [He was Surveyor for Lynnhaven Bay in 1714.] He leaves to Mr. Maximilian Boush all his law-books and books of history, with his silver-hiked sword and belt. His " books of practicall Divinity " he leaves to John Bolithoe for life, and then to his daughters, and his " physick books" he gives to his daughter Mary. His executors are John Bolithoe, Maximilian Boush and Henry Chapman.

These Princess Anne and Surry Cockes, came, as we have ascertained, to Lower Norfolk and Surry about the years 1685-90 from the county of Cornwall. England, and from the extreme southwestern point of England—from Helstone on Mounts Bay, some 15 miles east of L-ind's End.

Bolithoe and Trevethan, names found in the wills above-given of Capt. Christopher and Capt. Thomas Cocke, are both from the county of Cornwall. The very name Sampson Trevethan (who was one of the Naval officers on the Lower James) occurs about this time in Cornwall, and both the Cockes and the Bolithoes intermarry near this date in Cornwall with the Penhellicks. We learn from the Herald's Visitation of Cornwall for 1620, published by the Harleian Society, that in that year the Burgesses of Helstone were Alexander Bolithoe, John Cock, Robert Cock, &c., and that in 1623 Grace Bolithoe married Humphrey Penhellick. mayor of Helstone. The Bolithoes also intermarried with the ancient family of the Vivians, who were connected with the ArundeH's.

The Trevethans were an old family in Cornwall, descended from Sir John Trevethan (1450), brother-in-law to "ye great Arundell of Lan- horne."

References

• Southside Virginia Families, Volume 1 Page 146-147 Googlebooks
• James P. C. Southall. “Origins of the Cocke Families of Virginia.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 1, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1929, pp. 49–59, https://doi.org/10.2307/1920377.