Christopher Cox

Christopher Cox was born 11 June 1554 (he stated, in his will, that he was "full of yeares 70 yeares ould att Barnabas daie next 1624"). He was a macer (a grocer or spicer) and was of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England. Of his situation in life, he stated that he had "receiued extraordinary blessings from the Lord aboue any of my fathers Children."

Christopher married first -- --. Her name is not known but a couple of the details of her life are known. First, Christopher, in his will, mentioned that she was "an heire to 3 M'." Second, she was buried (as "The w
ife of Christopher Coxe") 12 January 1599/1600
at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.

Christopher second Mary -- (perhaps the "Mary Cox, widow" who married Miles Borowes 21 March 1627/8
at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England). Of his two wives, Christopher stated that "having by the Lordes great  and exceedinge loue granted vnto me Two yokefellowes of special vnderstanding for the good of their soules & for their bodies."

Christopher was buried 29 January 1624/5
at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England. His will was dated 7 April 1624 and proved 11 February 1624/5. In it, he notes his two wives and sons and daughters but only names his second wife ("Marie") by name, appointing her his executor.

Christopher’s children by his first wife are:

  1. Elizabeth Cox, baptized 1 Jan 1588/9 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England, married Thomas Clover 29 Apr 1612 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.
  2. John Cox, baptized 11 Nov 1590 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.
  3. Thomasen Cox, (daughter), baptized 18 Jul 1593 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.
  4. Mary Cox, baptized 28 Apr 1596 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England, married Robert Greene 3 May 1615 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.
  5. Sarah Cox, baptized 17 May 1598 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England, married John Moody (bp. 8 Apr 1593 in Moulton, Suffolk, England, son of George and Margaret (Chenery) Moody, admitted freeman 5 Nov 1633, Deputy to the General Court for Roxbury on 2 Sep 1635, lieutenant in the train band in Apr 1640, will dated 23 Jul 1655 and proved Dec 1655, inventory taken 6 Dec 1655) 8 September 1617 at St. James church, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, arrived in New England in 1633, settled first at Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts, moved to Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut by 1639, died 4 Nov 1671 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts.

Christopher and Mary’s children are:

  1. Samuel Cox, baptized 4 Dec 1603 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.
  2. Mary Cox, baptized 23 Jan 1604/5 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.
  3. William Cox, baptized 11 May 1606 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.
  4. -- Cox, name and gender unknown, died unbaptized, buried 15 Mar 1610/1 at Bury St. Edmunds St. James, Suffolk, England.


Sources: 

  1. Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.
  2. Moody, Plinius, The Moody Family, or Records of the Descendants of Mr. John Moody of Hartford, Connecticut, 1856, organized and recorded By Theodore L. Moody And Maxine Bull Moody, Nov 1991.
  3. Boltwood, Lucius Manlius, Genealogies of Hadley Families: Embracing the Early Settlers of the Towns of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst, and Granby, Amherst, MA: Metcalf & Company, 1862, pgs. 100-101.
  4. Torrey, Clarence A., New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004.

 

Records related to the John and Sarah (Cox) Moody family but not copied below due to copyright considerations:

  1. Entry for John Moody; Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3; The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-6. Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.
  2. Redstone, Lillian J., "Genealogical Research in England: Moody," New England Historic Genealogical Register, vol. 80, Jul 1926, pgs. 313-27.
  3. Will of Christopher Cox, 11 February 1625, found in the Peculiar Court of Canterbury, PROB 11/145/228, held by the National Archives, http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D3380519.




Church Records

Name:    Elizabeth Coxe
Gender:    Female
Baptism Date:    1 Jan 1589
Baptism Place:    Saint James,Bury Saint Edmunds,Suffolk,England
Father:    Christophori Coxe
FHL Film Number:    0097124, 0993230

Name:    Thomasen Coxe
Gender:    Female
Baptism Date:    18 Jul 1593
Baptism Place:    Saint James,Bury Saint Edmunds,Suffolk,England
Father:    Christophori Coxe
FHL Film Number:    0097124, 0993230

Name:    Sarah Coxe
Gender:    Female
Baptism Date:    17 May 1598
Baptism Place:    Saint James,Bury Saint Edmunds,Suffolk,England
Father:    Christopheri Coxe
FHL Film Number:    0097124, 0993230

Source: Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.


Plinius Moody's The Moody Family

MR. JOHN MOODIE whose descendants are traced in following pages, came from England to America as early as the Spring of 1633, and with his wife Sarah, settled in Roxbury in the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay. He took the oath of Fidelity to the government on the 5th of Nov. of the same year (Col. Rec., Vol. 1, p. 79, printed Ed. Vol. 1, p. 268.) at which time we find the honorable title of "Mr." prefixed to his name and the same distinction is given in most of the ancient manuscripts.

That some little fortune remained after a voyage across the Atlantic and especially at a time when the Puritan faith was often the occasion of entire loss of property we have evidence from the Journal of Winthrop.

The record bears date Aug 3, 1633. He had at this time two men servants, one of whom had bound himself for divers years but afterwards relented "thinking that were he at liberty, he might get greater wages yet in the language of Winthrop, his master used him very well. The event which released them both from the contact, as well as from the restraint of pious council, was providential. They went out to gather oysters and not making fast their boat when the flood came it floated away and they were both drowned. (Winthrop's Journal, Vol. 1, p. 106)

The map of Hartford as it was in 1640, prepared from the original records by vote of the town and drawn by William S. Porter, Surveyor and Antiquarian, which map was published a few years ago, clearly defines, among others, the residence of John Moodie. To which is sufficient to illustrate the first parcel of land above described with the residences of a few of the settlers who were neighbors to him.

By comparison of this with the map of Hartford as it is now, it will be seen that his house stood on the south corner of Main and Buckingham Streets nearly west from the Charter Oak (The venerable oak above referred to was prostrated by a storm on Thursday morning 21 Aug 1856. From sorrow at the event the bells of Hartford were tolled at sundown of the same day.) and that the South Congregation Church (The Church referred to is one of the largest in that city and second in regard to time of erection of the churches now there) occupies the identical the spot, as if to invite his widely scattered descendants to meet under it's spacious roof and think of generations past and of the brief space ere they too shall thus be numbered.

The following items have been taken from records at Hartford.
1 Aug 1639, John Moodie had an attachment granted uppon the goods of Thomas Gaines in the hands of Mr. Stoughton for a debt of 5 lbs. weight of tobacco.
5 Sep 1639, John Moodie contra Blackford for a fowling piece he bought and should have paid for it 40 s per bill of. The jury find for the Pl. 41 damages. Costs 6 s.
23 Dec 1639, At the first regular town meeting--voted John Moodie-- (4th name) to order the town affairs for one year.
In 1640, he was chosen Lieutenant. (Hinmans Catalogue)
27 Jan 1642, he made oath to the Will of Richard Lyman.

As Illustrating the habits of the Colony in whose affairs he was a prominent actor, the subjoined is inserted.

Ordered that the watch who are under the direction of the Constables shall ring the large cow bell every morning one hour before day break-to began at the bridge (over Little River) and so ring all the way forth and back from Master Moodie's to John Pratts, and see that one be up with a light in every house with fifteen minutes after the ringing of the bell on the penalty of one shilling and 6 pence

In the 'Catalogue of the Puritan Settlers of Conn.' (Hinman's) the title of Deacon has been prefixed to the name of John Moodie, but on what evidence I have not found.

Among papers filed in the Probate Office in Hartford are the Will and the Inventory of the Estate of John Moodie. Like most men he seems to have deferred the disposition of his property till his sickness, hence his signature is there traced feebly as is the apostrophe subjoined. The matter so far as it can now be well deciphered is arranged according to the original design, but his autograph is taken from a deed the `third day of Feb A Dom 1644. And is preserved in the State Papers of Connecticut (deposited in the State Library at Hartford) in the first Vol. of Private Controversies Doc. 4. A facsimile of the autograph is here added to the Will.

The last Will of John Moodie, I doe make my loving wife Sara Moodie sole exectris and I doe wil that half of all that I have booth land and stoke excepting the howshold stuff which I leave wholly to my wife I give it to my son Samuel Moodie for to have it at the age twenty fower yeares. I will allso that Elizabeth Peper shall have five & twenty pound payd ( Elizabeth Peper witnessed the Deed above referred to at which time she made her mark to the name Elizabeth Peppercorn. This however was evidently a humorous suffix. It is quite probable that she lived many years in the family, but who she was, I am not informed.) her within a yeare (XXX not quite illegible XXX--------) and this and all my dates for to be paid out of the whole
July 23, 1655
Witnesses to this Gregory Wolterton, John Barnard.

I give my sole to ye Lord Jesus Christ my and redeem in God ye father. (to be saved by my) God in Jesus Christ.

The date of the above inventory compared with the date of the Will fixes as nearly as can now be ascertained the time of his decease. He died in the Autumn of 1655 and from circumstantial evidence appears to have been aged somewhat above 50 years.

His funeral was undoubtedly attended by Revs. Messrs. Stone and Hooker with whom he had been associated from the planting of the Colony and whose names are embalmed in New England's History. He was buried in the grave yard back of what is now the First Congregational Church in Hartford, Conn., but no man knoweth of his sepulcher to this day. A monument, however, more lasting and far more befitting than the straightened circumstances of those times would have been likely to produce has since been erected to his memory. By liberality of the `Ancient Burying Ground Association of Hartford' an obelisk of red sand stone erected in 1837--bears his name. After the modern orthography deeply engraved, with the names of others of the first settlers - one hundred in all - whose dust coming generations would fain respect

Sarah, the wife of John Moodie remained a widow in Hartford till 1659 when she removed with her son to Hadley, Mass. where she died 4 Nov 1671 as appears by the Hadley town records. Her grave is unknown; but she rests, not forgotten!

Source: Moody, Plinius, The Moody Family, or Records of the Descendants of Mr. John Moody of Hartford, Connecticut, 1856, organized and recorded By Theodore L. Moody And Maxine Bull Moody, Nov 1991.


Boltwood's Genealogies of Hadley Families

MOODY, Sarah, wid. of Dea. John of Hartford, d. in Hadley, 1671.

Source: Boltwood, Lucius Manlius, Genealogies of Hadley Families: Embracing the Early Settlers of the Towns of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst, and Granby, Amherst, MA: Metcalf & Company, 1862, pgs. 100-101.


Torrey's New England Marriages Prior to 1700

MOODY, John (1593-1655) & Sarah COX (-1671); St. James Bury, St. Edmunds, 8 Sep 1617, b 1633; Roxbury/Hartford

Source: Torrey, Clarence A., New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004.



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Author: Michelle A. Boyd

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Last updated 16 Apr 2018