For me, genealogy research feels a little like walking through an enormous old house with endless hallways and rooms.
Some doors open into empty rooms. Others contain a few scattered clues, just enough to make you keep looking. Then, every once in a while, you stumble into a room previous generations of researchers have already filled with portraits, deeds, wills, scandals, land grants, court records and enough rabbit holes to occupy an entire weekend.
That happened this weekend while I was working on my Booth family line.
Richard Cocke
Richard Cocke (1597-1665), possibly my 11th great-grandfather, was an early English settler in colonial Virginia. His first wife, Temperance Bailey Browne Cocke (about 1617-about 1652), was among the earliest documented English children born in the Virginia colony. 1
Here is my line to Cocke, at least as my research currently shows it at this time:
| Richard Cocke (1597-1665) and Temperance Bailey Browne Cocke (about 1617-about 1652) were the parents of Thomas Cocke (about 1639-before 1697), the father of Stephen Cocke (about 1664-before 1711), the father of Agnes Cocke Smith (about 1696-before 1774), the mother of Mary Smith Booth (about 1726-1807), the mother of John Booth (1735-1807). John Booth was the father of Stephen S. Booth (1765-1832), the father of James Booth (1790-after 1850), the father of William G. “Billy” Booth (1816-1892), the father of Sarah Evelena “Lena” Booth Marbury (1868-1949), the mother of Allie Marbury Brantley (1898-1995), the mother of Virginia Brantley Lovelace (1917-2007), the mother of Shirley Lovelace Williams (1939-present), who is my mother. |
Richard Cocke was born in Pickthorn, Shropshire, England, and was baptized Dec. 13, 1597. His father was Thomas Cocke of Pickthorn and his grandparents were William Cocke and Elizabeth Cocke. The Virginia House of Delegates history gives Richard’s birthplace as Pickthorn and his death year as 1665.
Richard arrived in Virginia by 1627, when he appeared in court at Jamestown as purser of a ship called the Thomas and John. He eventually became one of the powerful landowners of Henrico County, where he settled at Bremo along the James River, about 15 miles east of present-day Richmond. 2
Temperance Bailey Browne Cocke
Before June 5, 1632, Richard married Temperance Bailey Browne Cocke, the widow of John Browne. Temperance had been born in Virginia about 1617. The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America identifies her as Temperance Bailey Browne Cocke and gives her dates as 1617 to about 1652, citing Adventurers of Purse and Person. 3
Temperance’s story reaches back to the earliest years of English Virginia. In the 1624/25 muster, a 7-year-old Temperance Bailey appears at Jordan’s Journey, the plantation associated with Samuel Jordan (died 1623), Cicely Jordan Farrar (about 1600-after 1637) and William Farrar (1583-before 1637). That makes her one of the earliest named English children born in the colony.
Many researchers believe Cicely Jordan Farrar was Temperance’s mother, but while the evidence points in that direction, it does not prove it beyond question. The 1625 records place Temperance in Cicely’s household, and later researchers have inferred a mother-daughter relationship, but the records do not come right out and prove, Cicely was Temperance’s mother.
Cicely had a remarkable story of her own. She wrote that she had arrived in Virginia aboard the Swan in August 1610, when she would have been about 9 or 10 years old. Some modern researchers believe the ship actually arrived in August 1611, but either way, Cicely reached Virginia when the colony was still struggling to survive.
During the Starving Time of 1609-1610, Jamestown nearly collapsed. Historic Jamestowne says survivors from Bermuda arrived in May 1610 and found only about 60 colonists still alive in the fort. The National Park Service says 80% to 90% of the settlers had died by early 1610 from starvation and disease. 4
The Curles Neck peninsula was named for the curls of the James River or for a family of that name. Richard Cocke patented land on the eastern side of the neck in 1636 and built Bremo, where his descendants lived for many generations. More
Richard Cocke prospered in Virginia establishing a political and social dynasty that firmly seated itself as among the most prominent in Virginia. He served as a lieutenant colonel in the Henrico County militia, represented Weyanoke in the House of Burgesses in 1632 and later represented Henrico County. He also served as sheriff of Henrico in 1655. By the time he died, he owned 10,916 acres spread across three sites: Bremo, Malvern Hill and Curles.
After Temperance died, Richard married Mary Aston, daughter of Walter Aston. The Virginia House of Delegates history lists two sons by Temperance, Thomas (my tenth great-grandfather) and Richard, known as Richard the Elder. It lists Richard the Younger, Elizabeth, John, William and Edward as children by Mary Aston Cocke.
Richard dated his will Oct. 4, 1665, and died that year. In the will, he asked to be buried in his orchard near his first wife, Temperance. He named his then wife Mary, his sons Thomas, Richard, William, John and Richard the Younger, and his daughter Elizabeth. He also mentioned enslaved people, livestock, land, a mill and the complicated division of a large colonial estate.¹³
Thomas Cocke
Thomas Cocke (about 1638/1639-before April 1, 1697), my 10th great-grandfather, belonged to the first generation of the Cocke family born in colonial Virginia. Thomas lived in Henrico County and became associated with Malvern Hill, on property that later would be the site of an 1862 Civil War battle. Thomas served Henrico County as sheriff, coroner and justice, and he represented the county in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1677. Genealogical sources generally identify his wife as Agnes Powell, widow of George Powell.
Home Sweet Home
Richard Cocke lived at the original Bremo in Henrico County, Virginia, on the James River, in an area now associated with Curles Neck Farm. That early Bremo should not be confused with the later and much better-known Bremo estate in Fluvanna County, which was developed generations later by John Hartwell Cocke (1780-1866), or with Edgemont in Albemarle County, which belonged to James Powell Cocke (1748-1829). Richard Cocke also owned land at “Mamburne Hills,” later known as Malvern Hill, but evidence suggests his primary residence stood at Bremo. His son Thomas, my 10th great-grandfather, became associated with Malvern Hill.
While Richard Cocke’s original 17th-century house did not survive, the old Bremo cemetery connected to the family remains on private property.
According to a 1949 Richmond Times-Dispatch article, Richard Cocke first owned the land Malvern Hill and referred in his 1665 will to property he had already given to “my son Thomas Cocke.” Thomas had married Margaret Jones, a widow, in 1663, and the article suggests he either built or substantially developed the early house at Malvern Hill soon afterward. 5 The old house later became known as one of Virginia’s rare cross-shaped colonial houses, with massive brick chimneys, a steep roof, a basement kitchen and architectural features that belonged to the transition between medieval English building traditions and the later Georgian style.
Malvern Hill was destroyed by fire in 1905. In 2018, the Capital Region Land Conservancy purchased the 871-acre Malvern Hill Farm from descendants of William H. Ferguson Sr., placed much of the historic property under conservation easements and began transferring portions for public recreation, river access and future inclusion in Richmond National Battlefield Park.
Malvern Hill’s history stretched far beyond the Cocke family. The estate stood on high ground about 15 miles below Richmond, and its location made it important in several wars. Lafayette camped there during the Revolutionary War, troops gathered there again during the War of 1812, and the property became famous during the Civil War as the site of the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, the final major battle of the Seven Days Campaign.
| Cocke Family Reunion In 1932, descendants of Lt. Col. Richard Cocke gathered to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the 1636 Henrico County land grant that established Bremo, one of the family’s earliest Virginia seats. The event, reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on July 3, 1932, brought together members of the Cocke family and descendants of other early Virginia colonists who shared ties through marriage and ancestry. Organizers framed the observance not just as a family reunion, but as a celebration of Virginia’s colonial beginnings, when men such as Richard Cocke helped shape Henrico County’s early government, militia system and plantation society. The article emphasized Cocke’s arrival in Virginia in 1627, his later service as county commander, Burgess and militia officer, and the family’s long association with Bremo, Malvern Hill and other historic Virginia properties. |
In 1931, Bremo, John Hartwell Cocke’s historic Cocke family estate in Fluvanna County, Virginia, opened to the public as a museum of antebellum life after more than a year of restoration by its owner, Clara Cocke Forney Johnston. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that the estate would open Sept. 1 and described it as one of the finest surviving examples of old Virginia planter architecture. The article emphasized Bremo’s long connection to the Cocke family, its association with John Hartwell Cocke and Thomas Jefferson and its collection of original furniture, portraits, antiques, outbuildings and grounds. 6
Stephen Cooke
Although the main Malvern Hill estate appears to have passed to Stephen Cooke’s (my 9th great-grandfather) elder brother, Captain Thomas Cocke, Stephen received land from his father in 1687 that included part of the Malvern Hills tract and the mill property. He later conveyed portions of that land, including the mill tract, and by the early 1700s had moved into the circle of the Banister, Bolling and Jones families across the river in what became Prince George County. Stephen first married Sarah Marston in 1688 and then after her death, Martha Banister in 1694. I could find no will for him, but I did find he died in Prince George County in 1717. His known children included Abraham Cocke, ancestor of the Tennessee Cocke line, and Agnes Cocke, who married Richard Smith. They are my 8th great-grandparents.
I could keep going, but I have to leave the Cocke family and get back to the Booth family.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
- “Richard Cocke,” A History of the Virginia House of Delegates, accessed May 24, 2026; National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, “Temperance Bailey Brown Cocke.” ↩︎
- Henrico County Historical Society, “Biography, Genealogy, and Will of Richard Cocke”; “Richard Cocke,” A History of the Virginia House of Delegates. ↩︎
- National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, “Temperance Bailey Brown Cocke”; John Frederick Dorman, Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607-1624/5, 4th ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004), cited in National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, “Temperance Bailey Brown Cocke.” ↩︎
- Historic Jamestowne, “The Starving Time,” accessed May 24, 2026; National Park Service, “Historic Jamestowne: The Starving Time,” ↩︎
- John Francis Speight, “‘Malvern Hill’ Was Rare Survival,” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA), February 20, 1949, 6-D. ↩︎
- Douglas Deane Hall, “Epitome of Planter Civilization, Where Atmosphere of Days ‘Befo’ De War’ Still Obtains, Is Presented at Bremo, Historic Estate of Old Virginia,” Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA), August 16, 1931, sec. 3, 1. ↩︎
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