English historians believe that the first Cockayne came to England as a soldier with William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, in 1066. As a reward for service, William gave this Cockayne a title and land in Derbyshire. Eventually Ashbourne Hall was built in Derbyshire, and this is considered the ancestral home for the Cockayne family in England.

      In 1417, Sir John Cockayne, Chief Baron of the Exchequer and a descendant of the Ashbourne Cockaynes, bought about 1500 acres of land in East Bedfordshire. On Sir John's 1500 acres there was a small village called Hatley Port or Hatley Bury. The town was so named because there is a hill nearby that looks like a hat. There was also a church in Hatley known as St. John the Baptist, which had been built in the 13th century. Sir John renamed the village Cockayne-Hatley and established his manor adjacent to the church. Parts of the manor house still exist but have been much modified. But, the church survives to this day as a wonderful example of an English country church. Many Cockaynes are buried in front of the altar. Many others are buried under brasses in the nave.

      The Ashbourne succession of Cockaynes died out in the 17th century, but the succession at Cockayne-Hatley flourished until 1897. The Cockaynes spread out from Derbyshire into every part of England and the world. In fact, the mayor of London during the 1850s was one William Cockayne. The Cockayne Coat of Arms consists of three silver cocks, armed, crested and wrapped in sable for the shield, and for the crest, there is a cock's head, beaked, crested, and wrapped in sable.

      This replica of the crest which exists in the Cockayne Farmhouse was likely painted by Irena Cockayne in the 19th Century. It bears the original spelling of the family name “Cokayne” and the family motto “En Bon Espoir,” roughly translated as “In good hope or faith.” The sketch was donated by Lisa Tater who purchased it at the Estate Sale of Sam Shaw, whose mother was Irena Cockayne Shaw.

     More than three centuries have passed since an Englishman named Samuel Cockayne arrived in America. Born in Gilling, Yorkshire, England in 1662, Samuel came to Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore in about 1700. Talbot County at that time was something of a paradise. Rich in game and with an abundance of sea life from the Chesapeake, the land provided well. Englishmen in Talbot County considered themselves the most fortunate of all of the colonials.

     Samuel's choice of Talbot County as his destination was far from accidental. In fact, his friends, mentors, and business associates, Richard and William Carter, had come to Maryland a number of years earlier and had established themselves as successful tobacco planters with extensive land holdings in the area. The Carters were from the town of Kirby Wiske, also in Yorkshire, and Richard and William were two of many children born to Thomas Carter and his wife, Unika Palisser. The Carters had prospered in Maryland, and they encouraged Samuel to join them and help them manage their business ventures in the fledgling colony. Samuel took to the area immediately, and consolidated his position with the Carters by marrying William's daughter, Anne Carter.

      Samuel had trained in the law, and he proved useful to the Carters in that capacity. Land, slaves, and tobacco changed hands often in colonial Maryland, and Samuel represented the Carters in business transactions involving holdings such as Hillson Farm, Costin's Chance, Lambeth Fields, St. Michael's Fresh Runs, Carter's Farm, and Jacob and John's Pastures. When Richard Carter died in 1708 at his plantation, Pleasant Valley, some of the Carters returned to England, leaving the administration of the family's business to Samuel and Anne Carter Cockayne.

      Samuel and Anne had four children--Thomas, William, Samuel, and Sarah—who they raised on their plantation near St. Michaels, Maryland. Samuel Cockayne from Gilling was dead by 1717, and Anne took over the management of the family's affairs. By 1725, Anne had died, but during the years subsequent to Samuel's death, Anne had become a regular at the Talbot County Courthouse, managing her land holdings and personal property with the expertise equal to that of any man in the colony.

      Every generation after Samuel's and Anne's would produce at least one, and usually several, Samuels. In addition, the Cockaynes were devoted to traditional naming patterns, passing along the name William and Carter multiple times. By marriage, the Cockaynes were related to and allied with many of Talbot County's families, including the Hopkins, Nobles, Teasdales, Hargraves, Coles, Perkins, Berrys, Kemps, and Edmondsons.

     The Cockayne family grew and dispersed in the years after Samuel and Anne died. Thomas's family was active in the Quaker movement, relocated to Delaware for a time, and returned to Talbot County where some of Thomas's descendants were still living in 1820. William was dead by 1740, leaving a daughter and a son he named Christopher. Samuel married and produced a family, and some of his children stayed in Talbot County while some likely moved across the Chesapeake to Maryland's Western Shore. Sarah took on the moniker, "Sarah the Spinster."

      Maryland was home to the prominent and powerful Lowe family. The Lowes had come to Maryland at about the same time that the Carters and the first Samuel Cockayne had come, and Marylanders regarded the Lowes as American royalty. The family of Richard Bennett, another Maryland dynasty, had married a descendant of Henry Lowe. The combined and extended clan was a sprawling group, holding land and important public offices in Talbot, Calvert, and St. Mary's Counties and extending their influence in the General Assembly in Baltimore City. In about 1761, Samuel Cockayne, probably born in Talbot County circa 1737, married Mary Lowe, one of the daughters of this imposing family.

     Samuel Cockayne and Mary Lowe had at least four children: William (1762), Carter (1764), Elizabeth (1766), and Samuel (1768). When the Revolutionary War began in 1776, Samuel Cockayne of the Western Shore raised a militia company and went to war. Samuel's kinsman, Carter Cockayne of Talbot County, did the same. In all likelihood, the Samuel Cockayne who participated in the Revolution was the same Samuel Cockayne who married Mary Lowe and fathered William, Carter, Elizabeth, and Samuel. It is also probable that Samuel's brother was the militiaman, Carter Cockayne, of the Miles River Camp of Talbot County.

     By the time the war was over, the children of Samuel and Mary Lowe Cockayne were reaching maturity. According to family legend, William died of small pox while on a ship at sea. Elizabeth married a man with the last name of McKain and moved to the part of western Virginia that would become the state of Kentucky. By the mid 1780s, of the four children born to Samuel and Mary Lowe Cockayne, only Samuel and Carter remained in Maryland. Then in about 1784, Samuel Cockayne, the father, died. There are no records to indicate what happened to Mary Lowe Cockayne, but by January of 1785, the administrator for Samuel's will, Carter Cockayne, was settling Samuel's estate. We may never know if the administrator of Samuel's will was his son Carter, his brother Carter, or another of his kinsmen. But we do know that sometime after 1785, Samuel's sons, Samuel (1768) and Carter (1764), decided to move west.

     The Cockayne brothers had several reasons to eye land to the west. Times in post-war Maryland were difficult. Tobacco had leached the soil of its nutrients, and war had disrupted the local economies. Historians estimate that between 1785 and 1795, Maryland lost up to thirty percent of its population to the western territories. With their father dead and the assets from his estate distributed, Samuel and Carter would have had the financial means to join the westward movement. By about 1787, the brothers had moved to the Amberson Valley in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, not far from the town of Shippensburg. At some point, Samuel married. We know little of Samuel's wife except that her name was Sarah. The Cockayne family believed that Sarah's last name was Jones, but there are no records to support this claim. It is unclear whether Samuel married Sarah before leaving Maryland, or whether he met and married Sarah in Pennsylvania.

     What is clear is that some of the Maryland Lowes were already living in Amberson Valley and had called this place home for some time. Their presence may explain why Samuel and Carter chose this area. Elizabeth Lowe of Talbot County had married a man named John Ludwig Harmony (Harmoni or Harmanni) and had moved with him to the Amberson Valley in 1774. Henry Lowe, who might have been Elizabeth's brother, was living nearby. Mary Lowe, Samuel and Carter's mother, was likely related to Elizabeth Lowe Harmony and Henry Lowe, but the details of that relationship remain a mystery. By 1790, the Cockayne brothers along with Samuel's wife, Sarah, were well established in Franklin County, where they lived in close proximity to Henry Lowe and to John and Elizabeth Lowe Harmony.

     Samuel and Sarah Cockayne's first son, William, was born in 1792 in Franklin County. It is possible that their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was also a Pennsylvanian by birth. In about 1794, the Cockaynes decided to leave Franklin County and move two hundred miles westward to Ohio County in the western part of Virginia, near present-day Moundsville, West Virginia. At least one other family from the Amberson Valley appears to have made the trip to western Virginia at about the same time. The Van Scyoc family had lived in Franklin County for many years and farmed in addition to owning various businesses. Abel Van Scyoc and his brother, Benjamin, were neighbors of the Cockayne family, and it seems that a good friendship developed. When Samuel and Carter decided to move to western Virginia, Abel elected to go with them.

     Samuel Cockayne wasted no time establishing himself in Ohio County. He initially purchased land to the north of Moundsville where he built a home, farmed, and operated a hotel. As time went on and the means presented themselves, Samuel bought more and more land. Samuel and Sarah's family continued to grow as well. In addition to William and Elizabeth, Samuel and Sarah became parents of Jane, Samuel (1801), Bennett (1805), Vincent Lowe (1807), Mary (Polly), and Hiram (1810). Samuel and Sarah Cockayne would maintain their close relationship with their old Pennsylvania neighbor and friend, Abel Van Scyoc, until Abel's death in 1814.

      Sarah Cockayne was probably dead by 1816 although no record exists to confirm this date. Sarah's death would have left Samuel alone to raise their young children. Although William, Elizabeth, Jane, and Samuel (1801) were old enough to have needed little attention from their father, Bennett, Vincent, Mary, and Hiram would have been young enough to have required his help. The family of George Washington Price lived close to that of Samuel's, and by 1820, Mr. Price had died leaving his widow, Martha Ellis Burbridge Price, with a growing family and the same challenges raising her children alone as Samuel Cockayne faced. Shortly after Mr. Price's death, Samuel Cockayne and Martha Price married, thus combining their two families. Although the two families were now one, it appears that the children thought of one another more as good friends than siblings. Friendship became something more when Samuel (1801) Cockayne married one of Martha's daughters, Mary Price, in 1822, and four years later, Bennett married another of Martha's daughters, Sarah Price. Martha's death on February 25, 1825 did nothing to lessen the ties between the Prices and the Cockaynes. Bushrod Washington Price, Martha's son, would count himself a close friend of the Cockaynes until his death in 1903.

      Again, Samuel found himself without a wife, and again, he married. This time, he chose a woman more than twenty years his junior. Hannah McDonald Arnett was a young widow when she agreed to marry Samuel Cockayne. Their daughter, Margaret Cockayne, was born in about 1827.

     As the years passed, Samuel became a prominent and wealthy man, well known in the Glen Dale and Moundsville areas. Carter Cockayne continued to live with his brother until the mid-1840s, when Carter moved out of Samuel's home and began boarding with family and friends. Samuel and Sarah's daughters, Elizabeth, Jane, and Mary all died at young ages. Two of the couple's sons, Samuel (1801) and Hiram, moved to Burlington, Iowa. By 1840, only William, Bennett, Vincent, and Margaret remained in close proximity to their father. Carter died in March of 1850 at the age of 87. Samuel died on June 14, 1854, just two months and a few days shy of his 86th birthday.

     Samuel and Anne Carter Cockayne would have been hard-pressed to imagine the lives their offspring have lived over the past three hundred years. But in many ways, the lives of their descendants mirrored their own. Samuel and Anne gambled on the unknown, forging their lives in a place far from home. They enjoyed great successes, grieved failure and loss, and labored to give their children a better life. Their descendants have scattered far and wide, moving on when they had to, moving up when they could, sometimes succeeding, and sometimes failing. The descendants of Samuel and Anne were westward-looking, valued education, believed in hard work, possessed determination and optimism, and had faith in themselves. Their story is little different from that of millions of America's families, past and present; one might say their saga is ordinary, mirroring the experience of so many others. But stories such as these represent what is uniquely American about us—those characteristics we celebrate and acknowledge as our collective spirit, and that compels the telling of this story.

     Questions about the life of Carter Cockayne abound. Although Carter was Samuel's senior by four years, Carter never married, and he never lived independently of his brother or his brother's family. Carter never appeared as the head of household on any census report, he was never listed as an independent taxable, and family stories about him are nonexistent. By the mid-1840s, Samuel and Carter appear to have had a disagreement, and Carter permanently moved out of Samuel's home. Carter boarded with various family members and friends, and Samuel paid his bills. A logical conclusion would be that Carter was somehow physically or mentally disabled and required a lot of help, although he lived a full eighty-seven years. We will probably never solve the mystery surrounding the life of Carter Cockayne, a life he lived in the shadow of his brother and his brother's family.

Confusion exists about Bennett Cockayne's name. He appears on at least five census records. In 1830 he is Bennett; in 1840 and 1860 he is Benj; in 1850 he is Benjamin; and in 1870 he is Bennet. The Iowa Cockaynes called him “Ben” and addressed their letters to him to Benjamin Cockayne. Several Cockaynes in subsequent generations were named Benjamin, and Bennett Cockayne himself had a grandson named Benjamin, possibly in his honor. In his business dealings in Glen Dale and Moundsville, he was primarily known as Bennett, but some documents refer to him as Benjamin. Samuel and Sarah may have named him Bennett Benjamin or Benjamin Bennett, but no official record exists to tell us. In the end, it is probably best to let Bennett Cockayne speak for himself. Upon making his will, Bennett Cockayne called himself simply Bennett Cockayne. Likewise, the name on his tombstone is Bennett Cockayne. Until there is evidence to the contrary, Bennett Cockayne has the final word in this document.

I wish to thank Linda Cunningham Fluharty and Edmund Grose for their kind help. Both have contributed greatly to my understanding of the Cockayne Family. I appreciate their generosity in sharing information and their patience and support of my efforts. Any errors that exist in this document are mine. JCW