Napoleon Tarquin Cox (1836 - 1931)

Born 1836 in Port Tobacco, Maryland, USA

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 30 Nov 1931 at about age 95 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Karen Daye [send private message]

Biography

Tarquin was born in 1836. He passed away in 1931. He was a blockade runner for the South until he decided to go to Richmond to join the Confederate Army. The confederates arrested him as a suspected spy, which he wasn't, and sent him to Libby Prison. After the war he resumed his shipping career, conveying produce from Southern Md. to the markets in D.C., and also farmed in Charles Co. The couple eventually moved to D.C.

Some records and family trees call him Tarquin Napoleon Cox. But the first tree I (his great-great grandson) saw, and all local newspaper mentions of him, have it the other way around. But his wife called him "Tark." Or "Tarq", if you will.

One death notice says he was 96, which would mean he was born in 1835 or possibly '34.

His mother was named Mary. The 1850 and 1860 censuses document that. So does her will, made and probated in 1862. I haven't made a wikitree page for her because I don't know her maiden name. I have the maiden name "Barkley" for her on one tree, but the link does not go to a specific Mary who married a Cox. The source for that name was Karen Daye's MyHeritage site as of 2013, and my best guess is that she removed the name from it since then on purpose and for a good reason.

He had brothers named James Cox and J.L. Cox, according to the obituary of his daughter, Jennie (attached). Ancestry says these are James Benton Cox and James L. Cox, who were born 12 years apart and both survived him. Odd that his parents gave him such a unique name but then named two surviving sons James. The 1860 Census has them both living with William and Mary, so I guess we have to assume they are both sons until we find that one was a nephew or something. I also have DNA matches with descendants of both of them.

Sources

• District of Columbia, Select Deaths and Burials 1840-1964

1860 Census, Doncaster, Charles County.

Will of Mary Cox, 1862: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9MX-TSQM?i=308