Although the Bible of William Cook III indicated that William Cook, Jr. was an only son of William Cook and Ann Griffin, it appears that he may have had a brother John Cook. On 04 March 1776,
John Bohannon, Joshua Bohannon and William Dunn, sons-in-law of William Cook, Jr., witnessed the will of William Cook of Bedford County, Virginia, who was a son of John Cook.
John Bohannon married Helen Cook, Joshua Bohannon married Rhoda Cook, William Dunn married Bathsheba Cook, daughters of William Cook, Jr. and Margaret Jones. This strongly suggests that William Cook of Bedford County was related to William Cook, Jr. who lived in adjoining Henry County at this time.
Proved on 16 September 1777, the will of William Cook of Bedford County indicates that he was unmarried and probably a young man.
He appointed his father John Cook as executor of his small estate, which included a white mare that he left to his brother John Cook, Jr., with the stipulation that, if John should not return from the war, the mare was to go the child of his brother’s wife, who was pregnant at the time the will was written. The rest of his effects were to be distributed to his other, brothers and sisters by his father John Cook.
William Cook of Bedford County appears to have been of the same generation as Helen Cook Bohannon and her siblings, so perhaps his father John was a brother of William Cook, Jr. of Henry County [1]
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