We Are Also Wilcoxsons - Part I

by Glenn N. Holliman

From Nottingshire to North Carolina...

Sources for this posting from Pat Hagan, Wilcoxson scholar and the Willcockson Genealogy Library

One of my generation's 8th great grandfather was John Wilcoxson, born about 1666 in Cossal, Nottingshire, England. We do not have the name of his wife, but on March 10, 1691/92 when Pennsylvania was only a decade old, one George Wilcoxson, my generations' 7th great grandfather, was born. The home was in Haverford, Pennsylvania. (see maps below)

(If my math is correct one has the potential for 512 8th great grandparents, or 256 8th grand fathers. So above is one of 256!)

Below is a map of parts of Derbyshire and Nottingshire, England. The yellowed area is Cossal, now just off the M 1, the major north - south artery for automobile and lorry traffic from London to Scotland. The fabled Sherwood Forest (now a feeble recreation of the medieval woodlands of Robin Hood) is a few miles to the northeast of this map. London is approximately 90 miles to the south of this map.

Breadsall, the red circled area, is the location of a fabulous Marriott Hotel located in an old country house and priory. Breadsall Priory Hotel is highly recommended as my wife and I have stayed there numerous times. Ironically I had no idea we were only a few miles from the home of my generation's 8th great grandfather.

John Wilcoxson must have been a Quaker because George would marry one Elizabeth Powell, my generation's 7th great grandmother in a Quaker ceremony April 15, 1719. Elizabeth was the daughter of Rowland Powell (another 8th great grandfather!) of Haverford Township in Chester, County.

By 1730 and perhaps earlier, George and Elizabeth Wilcoxson settled in Uwchlan, PA, a Welsh settlement, now located on Highway 100, just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. George worked as a weaver and a farmer. Eventually, the family owned 95 acres.

Unfortunately, death came early to both George and Elizabeth (1739 and 1740). At least four children survived, Mary, age 5, who was taken in by a friend, and two sons, John and George, who went to live with Squire Boone and his wife Sarah Morgan Boone. Both George and Squire were weavers, and lived 15 to 20 miles apart. Another son, Isaac Wilcoxson (1724 - 1766) followed the extended family to North Carolina, as he is buried in the same cemetery as Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone.

Uwchland (spelled by the U.S. Post Office as Uwchland) means in Welch - upland. Ironically, for a Welsh Quaker settlement, the two places of worship in the township today are Jewish and Roman Catholic.

Below circled and yellowed are three locations of the Wilcoxson family in Pennsylvania from 1691 to 1750. The black circle, far right, is Haverford, now one of the most wealthy townships in America. Founded in 1691, the word in Welsh is reported to mean 'goat crossing'. Double click on the map and it will enlarge.


The center black circle is Uwchlan, the 95 acre farm of George and Elizabeth Powell Wilcoxson. The top left circle is the Squire Boone homestead. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, this area of Pennsylvania was very much the frontier line.

As we know, the Boones and Wilcoxsons will move together to North Carolina. In our next posting, we will follow the lives of John and Sarah Boone Wilcoxson, my generations 6th great grandparents....