Cornelius Maddox (1660 - 1706)

Born 11 Feb 1660 in Gloucestershire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Smallwood) Maddox — married 16 Mar 1685 in Charles City, Charles, Maryland

Descendants

Died 1706 at about age 45 in Charles City, Charles, Maryland

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Biography

Cornelius Maddox/Maddock was the son of Edward and Ellinor Maddox of Shropshire, England. He was baptized on 4 October 1651 in the 12th-century Church of St. Michael, in Munslow Parish, Shropshire, England.[i] We have no additional records of him until he reappears in 1680, when a sponsor named John Reddich was paid for his earlier transport into Charles County, Maryland.[ii]

Family legend contends that the first of our Maddox immigrants to America arrived under duress — that he was banished to the Colonies when his parents discovered he had fallen in love with an unapproved girl.[ii.a.] Stranger family stories have proven true, and this one fits well into the documentary gap of Cornelius’ early life and into the context of his father’s apparent religious fervor. Cornelius’ father notably removed a daughter-in-law from his will because as a widow she married again without his approval.

By 1680 Cornelius’ father was a well-established member of the Maryland and Virginia Colonies, begging the question of Cornelius’ actual arrival date. Besides the family legend of his arrival, it’s possible that he remained in Shropshire until his arrival in Maryland, or perhaps he lived in Stafford County, Virginia, with his father. Nonetheless, 1680 was a year of superlatives, including the brightest comet of the 17th century and the first recorded tornado in the American Colonies… and an auspicious transition for Cornelius....

Disease, famine and violence frequently visited the Colony’s early settlers, and Cornelius’ lack of preparation for his own death begs the question of its circumstances, but there is no hint of its cause in any known records. His known willingness to hunt fugitives like Esquire Tom in the wilderness adds to the “mystique.” The Spring of 1705 was a significant “time of danger” with the Piscataway Indians, according to the Governor’s notes, and Cornelius’ father-in-law (the leader of the local militia) might have drawn Cornelius into the effort to secure the frontier. The Indians killed numerous colonists that Spring; perhaps Cornelius was one of them...

Continue reading at https://hisxmark.com/cornelius-1660-1705/ ^[1]

Children

1. Elizabeth Maddox, b. Abt 1685, Charles County, Maryland
2. James Maddox, b. 1686, Charles County, Maryland d. 6 May 1735, Charles County, Maryland
3. John Maddox, b. 1687, Charles County, Maryland d. 1758, NC
4. Phoebe Maddox, b. Abt 1688, Charles County, Maryland d. Aft 1792, Pomonkey Hundred, Charles County, Maryland
5. Edward Maddox, b. 1691, Charles County, Maryland d. 7 Oct 1771, Durham Parish, Charles County, Maryland
6. Benjamin Maddox, b. 1693, Charles County, Maryland d. 19 Sep 1770, Charles County, Maryland
7. Walter Maddox, b. Between 1705 and 1707, Charles County, Maryland

Sources

1. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 03 August 2020), memorial page for Cornelius Maddocks (21 Aug 1661–1705), Find A Grave: Memorial #124588563, citing Christ Church Port Tobacco Cemetery, Charles County, Maryland, USA; maintained by Blanche Keating Collie (contributor 47962376).

• https://www.colonial-settlers-md-va.us/getperson.php?personID=I003920&tree=Tree1
• https://hisxmark.com/cornelius-1660-1705/
• https://www.geni.com/people/Cornelius-Maddox/5566272227270065215

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Maddox-466 created through the import of Carroll-Dabney-Simons-Wells Fa.ged on Oct 8, 2012 by Janet Dabney.