John Cox III (1717 - 1789)

Born 1717 in Portland, Cumberland, Maine

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Proctor) Cox — married 1739 in Falmouth, Cumberland Co., Maine, New England

Husband of Sarah (Bodkin) Cox — married 20 May 1763 in Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 2 Dec 1789 at about age 72 in Cornwallis, Kings Co., Nova Scotia

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Biography

Note: The inscription on his memorial stone in the Habitant Cemetery reads, “In loving memory of John Cox born in Portland, Maine in 1717, died in Cornwallis 1789 who came here July 1782”.( see photo)

John Cox House (ca. 1740) 143-147 Middle Street, West Corner of Pearl Street

John Cocks (sic) was born to John and Tabitha Cocks (sic), August 3, 1719, in Dorchester, Massachusetts.^[1]

On this site stood the house of John Cox, son of Captain John Cox: a mariner who was admitted an inhabitant of Portland in 1729, who was killed by Indians in 1747. John Cox, Jr. married, first, in 1739, Sarah, daughter of next-door neighbor Samuel Proctor, and granddaughter of John Proctor of Salem, Massachusetts, who had been hanged as a witch in 1692. John and Sarah (Proctor) Cox had nine children. She died in 1761, and he remarried, having another nine children with his second wife. By a third wife he had two more, for a total of twenty. Upon the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he moved to Nova Scotia, where he died in 1789. His house narrowly escaped the general destruction of the British (the fire stopped at Pearl Street), but had evidently disappeared by 1789. On February 21, 1789, the heirs of Sarah (Proctor) Cox divided their land, which extended six rods (about 99 feet) along Middle Street between John Kent's land to the west and a "Lane" (Pearl Street) to the east, and stretched northerly toward Back (Congress) Street. Nathaniel Huston and Nancy (Cox) his wife received Lot No. 1 on the corner, four rods (about 66 feet) northerly along Pearl Street by 2 1/8 rods (about 35 feet) westerly along Middle Street. Lot No. 2 adjoining to the west 3 7/8 rods (about 61 feet) along Middle Street went to Sarah Cox, while Josiah Cox received Lot No. 7, the northernmost lot.

John Cox received a grant of 1.5 shares in Cornwallis Township in Dec 1764. This was the 2nd land grant after the expulsion of the Acadians. The first record of John Cox in the Kings County Register of Deeds is in 1786 in Book 2/113. It does appear he waited nearly 18 years after his grant to settle here, which is unusual. In the year after 1780, when the Revolutionary War broke out, John loyal to the British Empire came to Nova Scotia with his second wife. They settled at Habitant between Canning and Kingsport. His six sons settled on the road between Canning and Kingsport. John and his first wife Sarah Proctor had nine children. Only one seems to have come to Nova Scotia. This was Kezia (Cox) Simmons (married to William Simmons) who was a widow and later married Dan Pineo.

The names of the children of John and his first wife, Sarah (Proctor) include:^[2]

• Keziah
• Sarah
• Dorcas
• Keren-Happuch
• Mercy (or Martha)
• Mary
• Nancy
• Josiah
• Samuel

The names of the children of John and his second wife, Sarah (Bodkin) include:^[2]

• Thomas, b 1765
• Harry, b 1768
• John, died young
• John, married Feb 4, 1796, Lucy Harris
• Gerritt
• Charles
• Samuel
• Susannah, b Jan 1, 1764

Sources

1. ↑ "Dorchester Births" Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850, (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). Reference Dorchester Volume 1, page 67
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Cox, Henry Miller, The Cox family in America: a history and genealogy of the older branches of the family from the appearance of its first representative in this country in 1610, published 1912, Reference Page 70

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/180967716/john-cox

• https://www.geni.com/people/John-Cox-III/6000000003938344661

• The Cox Connection - The Descendants of Captain John Cox (1717 - 1789).

It was prepared and written by Albert Peppard, Published by Valley Genealogies, Greenwood, Nova Scotia and printed by T & S Office Essentials, Kingston, Nova Scotia in1998.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Marie Chantigny for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Marie and others.