Searching for Phoebe Cocke, b 1775. Husband's 4GGM.

Question

I'm trying to find information on Phoebe Cocke, b 1775. Husband's 4GGM. She married Walter Leake Johnson in 1795, and they had a son, Alexander C Johnson b.1812. All in or around Fluvanna Cty. Virginia. My BIL and I have searched for years to verify her birth and parents, but it has been a solid brick wall. Can anyone help?

Comments

Is this profile the husband? https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Johnson-39540

Was he 20 years her senior and this was his second marriage or is it a different Walter Leake Johnson?

It may help to create a profile for Phoebe and include primary source documentation that you have for her. That will aid others in looking for additional information.

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He husband was Wm. Leake, Walter was his father. Wm was 19 when he and Phebe married. She was 18.

There is a family story that she is the great aunt of Ivanhoe  and Reynold Cocke, but I have not been able to verify this. It was in an anecdote written by Walter Leake Johnson's great granddaughter.

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I'll look at this further another day. The Cocke family (especially the Phoebe Cocke of an earlier generation) is always a tangled mess due to lack of records and misinterpretation of what does exist.

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The tangled mess is what I have found. I have the marriage record for Wm and Phebe.

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Sorry but I have become confused. Phoebe is the wife of Walter or a son William?

The will of Walter Johnson is extant in Fluvanna County records and his wife at death is named Margaret. Sons William, Henry, Samuel and John; daughters Killy and Mary. The will is dated 23 Jul 1825.

Edit: Yes, Phoebe is the wife of the son William, married 24 Nov 1795 at Goochland County. Unfortunately, the marriage register (pg 338 of the handwritten register) does not give the names of the parents of bride or groom. I think this link will get you to the actual register page: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99XF-C6BZ?i=532&cc=4149585

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This is what I have found also.

Now I'm trying to find her parents, and that is the brick wall.

We have been able to trace her husband William's family back to the mid 1500s in England, but can't even find her birth record.

We know that there were many Cocke families in the area and both the Johnson and Cocke families were well known and prosperous, but there were also several Phoebe/Phebe Cocke/Cox and that makes it more difficult.

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I'd issue a caution on the Johnson line between the colony and England as I do not see anything which establishes that the William Johnson (c 1664-1714) who marries Mary Bennett in the colony is the man born in Norwich, England. The WikiTree profiles are not well sourced but the book being used as a citation does not give any sources for making the connection other than similarity of name. There also seem to be unknown parent issues with the elder William Johnson.

On the Cocke family in the colony, many records simply no longer exist (and some may have never existed, records were often not kept) meaning some connections will likely remain unknown. There is a DNA study which people try to use to make connections but the underlying data/testing is not sufficient to make any of those connections. This issue plagues the Virginia Cocke line in my ancestry.

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re: Johnson family, William (which one)

"unknown parent issues"?

I'm looking at my BIL's tree and see that he has W. Johnson, Sr. as marrying in 1630, but Wm. Jr was born in 1664. If his mother was Lydia Sutton and she was 18y/o at marriage in 1630, she would have been 52 when he was born.

Although there are some women in their late 40s still naturally bearing children, it would have been extremely unusual. Thus, I see your point that it is suspect that Wm. Sr. is Wm. Jr's father.

Thank you for the information on the Johnson side. Phebe's parentage will thus and also remain unknown.