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| (Woodcut from Narrative of Mary Rowlandson) |
But on occasion, stories emerge -- even though limited by available statistical and vital records -- that provide glimpses into the courage and determination of our maternal American ancestors.
Two such women came to my attention in my research efforts to chart family records during the Colonial period in American history: the life of Juliana Connor King (my maternal eighth great-grandmother) and the life of Grizel Kessiah Sims Cocke (the wife of a first cousin, six times removed).
Both proved resilient, resourceful, and more than capable of surviving and even thriving, despite the loss of one or more husbands.
Juliana Connor (1637-1680)
(My grandmother Lola Sims Hardin was the daughter of Mary Clementine King, whose fifth great-grandmother was Juliana Connor.)
Gullian ("Juliana") Connor was born about 1637 in England. Nothing is known of her parents or her circumstances, but she may have secured passage to the New World as an indentured servant.
She sailed from England, apparently alone, to the Isle of Wight, Colonial Virginia, with Capt. William Canfill, who transported her to the westward side of Lyons Creek near Hoggs Island Creek on 24 Jan 1656.
Juliana arrived in Colonial Virginia at about age 19, and she may have sought marriage as soon as possible: Young women were emancipated from servitude as soon as they married, but she also arrived as a "headright," an immigrant entitled to 50 acres of land upon marrying, which would have made her a prize in a world where single women were scarcer than in the colonies further north.
And,
in fact, she did marry William Henry King, a planter, that same year of
1656 in Surry, Isle of Wight County, Colony of Virginia, British
Colonial Amerca, and the couple had a child, Henry, the next year, 1657.But her time with husband William lasted only a few years: He died, possibly before 1660 but no later than 1670, which was the year Juliana remarried "since the courts would have appointed a guardian for young Henry and she would have lost control of her son,” according to a King historian, Jeane Austin King Gelau.
Juliana's new husband, Darby Stantlin, ill at the time of the union, recorded in a will on 25 Apr 1670, in Upper Parish, Isle of Wight, Colony of Virginia, "wife Gulian, sick at present time, if she should die, my friend Mathew Waikley [is] to remain on my plantation until Henry King becomes of age; in case of wife's death and of her son Henry King my plantation [goes] to Mathew Waikley."
She survived, but husband Stantlin did not, and that same year on 25 Oct 1670, she once again married, this time to Waikley, according to court records: "acknowledged in open court by Gullian Stantlin and confiremed [sic] by Mathew Waikley her now husband."
Times must have been tough and trying despite her multiple alliances because "Gullian" died in or before 1680, at the age of 43, since Waikley recorded a will on 18 Mar 1680, for which the abstract states, "by noncupative will, whole estate to Henry King."
Juliana's life reveals her ability to navigate legal and civil limitations of the time and the requirements of marriage in order to make her way in the New World from the very start, and to marry twice again to preserve the future inheritance for her son Henry.
Grizel Kessiah Sims Cocke (1768-1820)
(My
grandmother Lola Sims Hardin's third great-grandfather, Pariss Sims,
was uncle to Parrish Sims, whose wife was Grizel Kessiah.)
Grizel Kessiah was born on in Amelia, Culpepper County, Colonial Virginia.
She married Parrish (his mother's maiden name but often written "Parish") Sims on family moved to Hawkins County, Territory of North Carolina (later to become Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1793)
According to Sims historian Almon Sims, "Both Parish and his father were large land owners, had slaves, and were active in the early development of Hawkins County which in the early days included Claiborne, Hancock and Grainger counties, all in North Carolina territory."
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| Sims Settlement, Alabama |
Later that same year, on 26 Nov 1807, Parish wrote his last will and testament, stating, "I, Parrish [sic] Simes . . . give to my beloved wife, Grizel, all of my estate." He died only a few months later in Sims Settlement, Limestone County, Alabama.
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| William Cocke |
Cocke had spent time trailblazing and settling lands in Kentucky and later East Tennessee in the company of Daniel Boone. According to an entry in Wikipedia, Cocke "was elected a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and a colonel of militia; in 1776, he led four companies of that militia into to what became Tennessee for action against the Indians," who had allied with the British during the War of Independence.
Later, Cocke was appointed as the Agent for the Chickasaw Indians in a First Nations' dispute against the Sims Settlement inhabitants as trespassers.
Almon Sims records, on "September of 1810, a petition was sent to President Madison, and one of its signers was Grizell [sic] Sims, widow of Parish. . . . This petition asked the President not to allow the removal of the settlers even though their purchase of the land from the Cherokees was in dispute by the Chickasaws. This 'trouble with the Indians' is significant in that it may be how widow Grizel Sims, referred to in some records as Kissiah Sims, came to meet and know William Cocke."
Grizel's gumption must have made quite an impression on Cocke since the two married that same year.
The couple later moved to Columbus, Mississippi, where they lived "in the dogtrot cross hall two-story log house on the bluff above the Tombigbee," according to the family records cited by Sims descendant Hershel Parker. Cocke continued a political career and, at times, serving in appointed positions for the President, including a commission as General in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812.
Grizel died in 6 Aug 1820, and was buried in Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi, where her second husband was later buried in 1828, and where they share a joint tombstone.
The Lives between the Lines
Available
records don't do justice to either of these women, but we nonetheless
see glimpses -- albeit at times almost between the lines -- that they
were often actors on the stage of early America in ways we can only
surmise as compared to the lives of their better-documented husbands.
However, they often persisted beyond the lives of those husbands,
leaving their own marks in the record books and in the lives and
traditions of subsequent family generations.(Click here for the next article, "The Ancestral 'Scrabble' Name Game.")
Profiles, sources, and documents for the individuals described above are on WikiTree:
* * *
Mark and Kym Todd are volunteers on WikiTree, a project to create the entire human tree.Profiles, sources, and documents for the individuals described above are on WikiTree:
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