Lucy (Corker) Rose (abt. 1658 - abt. 1700)

Born about 1658 in Colony of Virginia

Ancestors

Wife of William Rose Jr — married 5 Mar 1689 in Virginia

Descendants

Died about 1700 at about age 42 in Jamestown, James County, Colony of Virginia

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Lucy (Corker) Rose resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

Lucy was a Virginia colonist.

Lucy Corker was born in Virginia about 1658 the daughter of William Corker and his second wife Elizabeth (_________) White. Lucy's year of birth is extracted from a deed which gives her age as 24 in 1682.^[1]

Lucy is named in the will of her father William's nuncupative will he made at the house of Lucy's sister Judith Clay in Surry 26 Feb 1675/76. He divided his estate between his wife and three daughters: Susanna (who married George Branch, Jr.), Judith Clay (wife of William Clay) and Lucy Jordan (wife of Thomas Jordan). He also confirmed a gift to Elizabeth and Mary White, daughters of Capt John White of who Elizabeth had married Capt Robert Spencer of Surry.^[2] He gave his wife the estate on the north side of the James Rive - she to pay to certain indebtednesses owed to Richard Holden, Richard Lindsey, and Nicholas Merriwether. He gave as estate on the south side of the James River to his daughter, Susannah, wife of George Branch of Surry County, also a watch that as her mother's. He divided 1800 acres between his three daughters: Susannah Branch, Judith, wife of William Clay, and Lucy, wife of Thomas Jordan. He gave 50 acres to John Vincent. He also gave to Robert Spencer 50 acres. ^[3]

Lucy married Thomas Jordan whose first wife was Jane Brown Spencer, widow of Capt Robert Spencer.^[2] Thomas died 1685 and Lucy married second William Rose Jr.^[4]

Research Notes

Biographical information that applied to Lucy's grandfather John Corker which originally appeared on this profile has been removed. This information may be found at John Corker.

Contrary information on maiden name for marriage to Jordan:

• The Virginia magazine of history and biography. ... v.31 (1923) page 359. Quote: Carter—Lucy, who married Thomas Jordan (1600–1685). She was living in 1688.

Lucy Corker

Birth: 1657 in Jamestown, James, Virginia, USA 1 3 Death: 01 NOV 1709 in Surry, Virginia, USA 2 Parents: William Corker, Lucy Married: Thomas Jordan, William Rose Lucy was born in 1659 and was married about 1684 to Thomas Jordan (1655-1685), son of Arthur Jordan and Elizabeth of Surry County, as his 2nd wife. "Married second in 1679 to Lucy Corker aged 20, by whom he had a dau. Phillis."

She married second William Rose, son of William Rose and Ann ?, in 1688.1 Lucy died in Surry Co., Virginia.1

Family 1 Thomas Jordan

Child

Phillis Jordan2 Family 2 William Rose b. circa 1655, d. circa 1729

Children

William Rose b. 1691, d. c 1766 Ann Rose Henry Rose b. c 1694, d. 1752 John Rose b. c 1696, d. 1781 Richard Rose b. c 1698, d. 1765 Citations

[S426] D. M. Rose Jr., copied 23 January 2000. [S3190] "Lt. Hosea Rose", Part II--DNA and the Search for Hosea Rose's Grandfather (Vol. 24, No. 2), page 76. Links

Research Notes

There are two sets of Lucy Corkers that both married different Thomas Jordans. The younger one b. 1657 subsequently married William Rose.

This is what I am trying to sort through. I believe I am related to both Thomas Jordans; the youngest by my father and the older by my mother.

A Jordan descendant posted this and I’m working on connect the two sets of Lucy and Thomas:

THOMAS JORDAN & LUCY CORKER (X 2) LUCY CORKER & THOMAS JORDAN (X 2)

Two early Virginia settlers named Thomas Jordan, one (ca. 1600-1644) from the Nansemond/ Isle of Wight supposed Samuel Jordan line and the other (ca. 1655-1686) from the Surry co. Arthur Jordan line, are said to have married Lucy Corker at dates over a generation apart (ca. 1630 & ca. 1675 respectively). There is better Virginian source evidence for the second case and a number of rigorous genealogists reject the first case as a simple confusion of identities without any substantive source evidence. True enough, I have found no source references for the first case, and yet almost every genealogical report of the Nansemond Thomas Jordan cites Lucy Corker as his wife. It is hard to believe that this was just dreamed up out of the confusion of identities when one takes into consideration the dates. His son Thomas became a leading Quaker and the Quakers were known to have kept very careful records. After taking a closer look at available Corker family genealogy records, which are far from clear and consistent, I have come to the conclusion that there must have been two individuals named Lucy Corker who both, coincidentally, married husbands named Thomas Jordan some 45 years apart. It is inconceivable, however, that both Lucys had the same set of parents. Most of the records show both Lucys' parents as William Corker and Lucy White. William Corker is often given the improbable life-span of nearly a century or more (ca. 1570/ 1584 -1675) and Lucy White (b. ca. 1575/ 1588/ 1599/ 1620) often appears to be a generation older than her father, William White, haberdasher of London, whose birth date is generally given as 1610, but sometimes as mid-16th c. Lucy White is described sometimes as the widow of John White and sometimes as his sister or even as his daughter. The data found suggests that there may have been more than one generation of William Corkers and that John White may have had both a wife and a daughter named Lucy, thus causing further confusion. It also seems that John White's daughter, Elizabeth, was sometimes referred to as Lucy! Indeed, the LDS database shows a considerable number of William Corkers with a wide variety of divergent birth dates and several different marriages, but, inexplicably, almost all with the same set of parents, namely John Corker (b.1554/ 1598?/ 1605?, Weedhampton, [Wedhampton] Wilts) and Dorcas UNK. (b. ca. 1601?/ 1605?) [A GENERATION AFTER HER SONS WERE BORN AND CONTEMPORANEOUSLY WITH HER GRANDDAUGHTER!!!] In order to unravel this tangle of mistaken identities, I suggest, speculatively, that John Corker Jr, son of John and Dorcas, was the father of the later William Corker, who married ca. 1651, ELIZABETH WHITE (often confused with Lucy White), the daughter of John White [WHICH ONE?], and they had three daughters, Susanna Wall/ Branch (ca.1657-), Judith Clay (ca.1659-) and Lucy Jordan/ Rose (ca.1661-), mentioned in William's will, probated in 1677. The mystery is that John White's will, probated in 1679, is said to leave his property to his sisters Lucy Corker and Mary White. Were there then two John Whites, father and son, so that Lucy was daughter of one and sister of the other? Or was Elizabeth also known as Lucy? Thus the Lucy Corker who married the Surry Thomas Jordan would be the first cousin once removed of the Lucy Corker who married the Nansemond Thomas Jordan (this Lucy being the first cousin of William Corker, father of the second Lucy). Elizabeth White is said to have later married Robert Spencer in about 1679, but this cannot be the same one who left Jane Browne a widow before she married Thomas Jordan, who married Lucy Corker after Jane's death ca. 1679 - or can it?. In fact Elizabeth was Robert Spencer's first wife, having married him about 1655. Through an incredible tangle of second marriages, it looks as if Thomas Jordan of Surry married, as his second wife, the step-daughter of his first wife: that is to say the daughter of his first wife's first husband's first wife with her first husband, if you can get your head around that one! It is easier to understand when you see it in graphic form. (See below for an explanation). The compacting of two generations of William Corkers into one individual would explain the remarkable 100-year life-span suggested by the data. Furthermore, there is the record of a deal made with Walter Chiles in 1643. If we accept the younger William's birth date as 1624, given in some sources, he would still have been a minor, so this deal must have been made by William the elder, although the latter's date of death is sometimes given as 1630. Again, the younger William could not have been a burgess at James City in 1641, as sometimes stated, but could have been in 1655 &1656, when the elder William would have been over 70 and rather old for this function. It would seem that the representatives of 1641 and of 1655-56 were two different individuals. The confusion probably arose because the father of both Williams was named John, one John being the son of the other. I also suspect that Dorcas was the wife of the father and Dorothy the wife of the son and that these two have also been confused on occasion. There may, of course, have been even more William Corkers! There is another marriage record in the LDS database, in 1651, for William Corker with Susanna Blackmore or Blackmaer (of London or the Netherlands). She seems to have been the first wife of the same (younger) William; note the names, Susanna, of his eldest daughter, and Elizabeth of Lucy's niece (Susanna's daughter?). A son, William, is also recorded, though it is not entirely clear who his mother was (Susanna or Elizabeth), and he probably did not survive as there is no mention reported of him in his father's will. Lucy Corker's own life-span is sometimes recorded as an improbable hundred years or so (outside dates 1600-1710). This is easily explained by the present hypothesis of the confusion two homonymous individuals a generation apart. There may also have been more than one Lucy White (b. ca. 1588 & 1620), but neither of these could have had a father born in 1610! The incredible tangle of intermarriages mentioned above goes like this. William Corker (the younger; ca. 1624-1675) m. ca. 1675 Elizabeth White (aka. Lucy?, ca. 1631-1677?), and they had, among others, a daughter Lucy Corker (ca. 1661). After William Corker died in about 1675, his widow Elizabeth remarried Robert Spencer (ca. 1630-1679), making Lucy Corker his step-daughter. Elizabeth must have died before about 1678, because Robert Spencer then married, as his second wife, Jane Browne (ca. 1658-1682), of about the same age as his step-daughter Lucy, but he left her a widow within about a year in 1779. Jane Browne then married Thomas Jordan (ca. 1655-1686), after 1779. But Jane Browne died soon after, in about 1682. Then, within three years, Thomas Jordan married, in 1685, Lucy Corker (ca. 1661-1700), who must have been the step-daughter and ward of his first wife Jane. Thomas only survived about a year after that, dying ca. 1686, whereupon his widow Lucy shortly after married William Rose. This intricate web of relationships offers us an excellent opportunity for cross-checking errant dates, since all the second marriage dates and children's births must occur after the first spouse's date of death. The rapidity of remarriage also impresses on us the precariousness of conditions for these early colonists and their generally short life expectancy, as well as the necessity of an adult woman to have a man to support and protect her, and of a man, especially with children, to have a woman to take care of the domestic necessities. In these times, there was a distinct shortage of women and eligible property-owning men were at a high premium as husbands. The Wiltshire origins attributed to John and Dorcas Corker are of interest as they reinforce the geographical ties with Samuel and Thomas Jordan, who are usually attributed with Wiltshire or neighbouring Dorset as their birthplace. Furthermore, as far as can be ascertained from unproven sources, Samuel Jordan's great-grandmother was named Jane Coker/ Cokers/ Corker (ca. 1504-), suggesting there could be an earlier family connection. His grandfather's nephew George Jourdain (1586-1633) of Exeter also married an Elizabeth Coker (1591-1633) of Stourpaine in Dorset. In the 16th c. there was also a White family in neighbouring Sturminster Newton, ancestors of John White b.ca. 1590/1596, Tickleford [UNIDENTIFIABLE], Dorset, having Pa. descendants. I have constructed a tree chart for the above CORKER/ WHITE/ JORDAN relationships should anyone be interested. Unfortunately, this cannot be reproduced here in text only format. This hypothesis remains largely speculative and requires access to, and careful examination of primary sources in order to be validated. Corker, White and Jordan family historians please help with leads, comments and suggestions.

Michael Lutley Jordan November 2009

Sources

1. ↑ Surry County Deed Book 2, p 328, cited by John Boddie.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Boddie, John Bennett, Southside Virginia Families, Reprint Genealogical Pub Co, Baltimore, 1999, I:168-170
3. ↑ Davis, Eliza Timberlake, Wills & Administrations of Surry County Virginia, Genealogical Pub Co, Baltimore, 1980
4. ↑ Boddie cites pg 307 of V.H.G. which does not seem to appear in the list of abbreviations in Southside Families and needs to be identified.

See also:

• Wulfeck, Dorothy Ford, Marriages of Some Virginia Residents 1607–1800 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1986) Page: 69; Quote: Jordan, Thomas, b. 1600, England, son of Samuel, who came to Va., in 1609, m. Lucy Corker, dau. of Capt. William Corker of Surry Co., sis. of Susanna. They res. in Isle of Wight Co. Proven by will of William Corker, dated 1677, Surry Co.
  • The William and Mary Quarterly, v. 7, no. 1, p. 232; Quote: Footnote 5 continued from previous page: ... In the Surry records there is a deed (year 1688) of Lucy Jordan, wife of Mr. Thomas Jordan (the Isle of Wight man), conveying to Phillis Jordan that portion of land "which I hold in partnership with sister Susannah Branch and niece Eliz. Parsons, dau. and sole heir of sister Judith Clay, dece'd, which land descended unto said Susanna, Judith, and Lucy, as daus. and coheirs of Capt. William Corker, dece'd" (son of John Corker). Witness, James Jordan, Richard Washington. In 1685 Lt. Coll. Wm. Browne and Mr. James Jordan presented in Surry an inventory of goods of Mr. Thomas Jordan, dece'd. There is in Surry the nuncupative will of Capt. William Corker "made at the house of his dau. Judith Clay in y^e Isle of Wight Co." Feb. 26, 1675-6. Divides his estate between his wife and his three daus: Susanna (who m. George Branch, jr.), Judith Clay and Lucy Jordan; he confirms a gift to Elizabeth md. Capt. Robert Spencer, of Surry. ... The Jordans of Isle of Wight were leading Quakers.
  • A History of Halifax County Virginia, by Wirt Johnson Carrington, 1924, p. 215. Image Quote: Jordan (2) Thomas Jordan (son of Samuel), born 1600 in England, married Lucy Corker, daughter of Captain Corker of Surry County, Va. (He was burgess in 1629–1632, was a soldier with Yardley.)
• http://person.ancestry.com/tree/35576955/person/20397336303/facts

• Vols XI,XII,XIII: Issue of William And Anne Rose

• http://www.lawrencefamhis.com/rose-o/g1/p1065.htm#i26613

• http://bapresley.com/genealogy/hawkins/rose/williamrosejr.html

• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=rose_hill&id=I963