John Cocke Papers, MSS.0328

Abstract: Business correspondence, accounts, legal documents, and other materials (including the selling and purchasing of slaves) of this 19th century Marengo County, Alabama, plantation owner.Scope and Content Note: This collection contains the personal, business, and legal papers of this Marengo County, Alabama, plantation owner, who not only managed his own plantation but also served as agent for various family members. The correspondence relates to both business and personal matters.Financial papers consists of receipts from grocers and suppliers detailing purchases (including slave purchases); account books for his blacksmith shop; and labor accounts with payroll. There are cotton records that contain correspondence as well as accounts.Biographical/Historical Note: John Cocke, born February 16, 1805, moved with his father, John R. Cocke, and family to Greene County, Alabama, from Halifax County, Virginia, in the mid 1820s. John R. Cocke and wife Mary (Polly) Coleman Cocke's children included John Cocke, Martha T. Cocke (married Scott Gray in 1829, Benjamin Borden in 1845), Lucy Herbert Cocke (married George Goodrum in 1825), James Thomas Bertress Cocke (married Harriett Jack in 1851), William T. S. Cocke, and Edward A.R. Cocke. John Cocke and his wife, Amanda E. Bohannon (1815-?), resided in the Greensboro, Hale County, Alabama, area and had the following children: John R. Cocke (1832-?); Lucy Herbert Cocke (1837-?; married Samuel Webb in 1854, George W. Brooks in 1859); Susan Wade Cocke; William T. Cocke (1844-?); Mary Batherst Cocke (1841-?; married J.A. Westbrooks in 1859, Christopher Burton in ?); Amanda Bohannon Cocke (1846-?); Elizabeth Ruffin Cocke (1841-?; married B. Abernethy in ?); and John Cocke, Jr. (1850-?; married Jessie Webb).John Cocke owned land in Greene, Marengo, and Sumter Counties. In addition to managing his own plantation operations, Cocke served as agent for his mother, siblings, children, and other family members as well, including his cousin John Hartwell Cocke of Bremo, Virginia. John Cocke assisted his cousin by serving as an occasional supervisor of John Hartwell Cocke's Hopewell plantation and entered into a partnership in a blacksmith shop with his Virginia cousin.John Cocke later moved to Marengo County with his second wife, America P. Cheney (they married in 1857; she was the sister of Amanda E. Bohannon Cocke and widow of William J. Cheney), settling in the Jefferson area. John Cocke's funeral was held on April 22, 1884 at his home in Marengo County.Sources: John Hartwell Cocke of Bremo: Agriculture and Slavery in the Antebellum South by M. Boyd Conyer Jr. (University of Virginia Doctoral Dissertation 992, 1961); Marriage Records of Greene County, Alabama, 1823-1860 compiled by Pauline Jones Gandrud (The Milestone Press, 1969); Marriage Records of Marengo County, Alabama, 1818-1860 compiled by Pauline Jones Gandrud (The Milestone Press, 1970); and the John Cocke Papers at the Hoole Library