James Cock

Founder of the Cocks of Matinecock (Buckram, now Locust Valley) and grandfather of Mary (Cock) Frost. "Nothing is known regarding the ancestral relations" of James or of his wife Sarah. A family tradition had him landing at Bermuda after a ship was holed by a swordfish, and the name "Buckram," the compilers thought, came from Buckenham in Norfolk (source, pp. 1-2); neither is evidence.

Southold and Setauket. He was at Southold, on the east end of Long Island, between 1648 and 1658, living in "a House and Lot ... late in occupation of James Cock" (source, p. 2). With Capt. John Underhill, William Frost and others he moved west to Setauket, and on 6 August 1659 he made his mark, "James X Coke," on the petition of "Cromwell Bay alias Setauke" to be taken under the government of Connecticut, beside John Underhill and William Frost (p. 3). In 1662 he bought a house and lot in Oyster Bay, and he served in 1668 and 1669 as one of the town's four overseers (pp. 3-5).

Matinecock. On 29 May 1669 the Indian proprietors of Matinecock sold "unto Jeames Coke of Oyster bay" a tract "Joyning on ye south end to mathy priar's bounds ... and so to run upon an even breadth to ye solt medow on ye north end which wee gave to Capt. John Underhill," with timber, commonage, "fishing and foulleing, hookeing, huntting and Minneralls" (source, pp. 5-6). The deed was kept in the family, which still farmed the land in 1912 after "eight generations of the Cock name." Friends' meetings and marriages were held in his house (p. 10). He witnessed Captain Underhill's will in 1671 (record, p. 78), was taxed on £100 in 1683, arbitrated a boundary between William Frost and Samuel Tillear in 1684, and was one of those to whom the Indians released all their remaining Matinecock land in 1684/5, with John Underhill and John Feke (source, pp. 10-11).

His will, 23 July 1699, signed by his mark: "I, James Cock, senior of Matinecock ... Item, I give to my son James Cock all my land lying on ye South side of Musketa Cove path with two third parts of my right of Commons ... Item, I give to my son James my meadows I had of John Tompson"; the homestead to his son Henry; land to his sons Thomas and John; the movables, after his and his wife's death, to "my four Daughters, Mary Bowne, Hannah Delaplaine, Sarah Cock & Martha Cock"; and "my loving friends John ffeake and John Dewsbury to be ye overseers" (source, pp. 11-12).

His children, from the Friends' register "Copied out of ye Oreganall by Isaac Horner" (p. 13): Mary (1st of 11th month 1655), who married John Bowne of Flushing as his third wife; Thomas (15th of 8th month 1658); Martha (7th month 1661, d. 1670); John (22nd of 11th month 1666); Hannah (5th of 6th month 1669); Sarah (20th of 7th month 1672); James (4th of 2nd month 1674); Henry (1st of 2nd month 1678); and Martha (13th of 12th month 1680).

Research: The Long Island Quaker families of the Frost line.

Open questions

• His origin, and his age.