John Wilcoxson (1720-1798): Daniel Boone’s Brother-in-law
John Wilcoxson was born about 1720 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His parents were George Wilcockson and Elizabeth Powell. The Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935 show on pages 24 and 25 that he married Sarah Boone (1724 – about 1815) in Pennsylvania in 1742. Other records show their date of marriage as May 29, 1742. Their children born in Pennsylvania are David (1742-1832), John (1743-after 1830), Nancy (1744-1790), George (before1751-after 1799), Isaac (before 1751- before 1783), and Elizabeth (before 1752 - died?). Their children born in North Carolina are Israel (before 1755-1781), Daniel (1755-1837), Samuel (about 1755-1825), William (after 1755-1828), Mary (about 1760 – died?), Sarah (1764 – died?), and Rachel (1770-1821).
His wife’s parents, Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone, and most of their family moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina in 1750. Most accounts indicate that John and Sarah Boone Wilcoxson didn’t migrate with the extended Boone family and delayed their move from Pennsylvania to Rowan County, North Carolina, and the exact date is unknown.
John Wilcoxson in Rowan County, North Carolina prior to the Revolution War is well documented. He shows up for the first time in the Rowan County Tax Lists during the years 1759, 1761, and 1768. Rowan County Records on January 9, 1765 show him listed as one of the overseers for a new road “from the South Yadkin to Israel Boon’s old place.” Later that same year on May 9, 1765, John Wilcoxson was a witness to a deed for a conveyance of land in Rowan County from David Jones to Edmond Dedman. He is also recorded as a Constable in 1765.
The Rowan County Tax List in 1768 shows under Morgan Bryan’s District John Wilcockson with David Wilcocks and “2 polls.” The Rowan County Court Records for the years 1768 and 1769 show a case of Samuel Hall versus George Willcocks (a weaver), and John Willcocks is shown giving security.
In March of 1772, the Rowan County Court ordered John Wilcocks along with John Luckey, Robert Johnson, Samuel Luckey, William, James, and Morgan Bryan, James Brown, Theops Morgan, Thomas and Will Wilson, and Luke Lee to lay off a road from the road leading from Salisbury to the shoals of the Yadkin River. They were also to do the same between Second and Third Creeks with the road running toward Renshaw’s Ford on the South Yadkin River. It was then to go along the dividing ridge between Rocky and Hunting Creek until it intersected Hunting Creek and then from the head of the creek to the ford above Widow Backis on the main Yadkin River to the area known as Samuel Bryant’s Bottom.
During the American Revolution, John Willcoxson appears in the Rowan County Tax Lists in 1776 in Capt. Lyon’s District next to John Willcoxson, Jun. John Wilcoxson and some of his sons left Rowan County before or early in 1778. The 1778 Rowan County Tax Lists show men whose property should be confiscated include George Wilcockson and John Wilcockson, although no records show that their property was taken. A 1778 Register also shows that people in Capt. Johnston’s District that neglected to appear before the Justice of their Districts and take the Oath of Affirmation of Allegiance to the State included David Wilcoxson and Isaac Wilcoxson.
Even though John Wilcoxson is shown to be in Rowan County, North Carolina long before he’s found in the land records, there’s a good reason for this delay. There was a sixty-mile strip of land across the northern half of the colony of North Carolina known as the Granville District. In 1663, it was first owned by John Carteret, Baron Carteret of Hawnes, who was one of the eight Lord Proprietors. The other seven Lords sold their land in the colonies back to the English Crown in 1729, but Carteret refused to do so. In 1744, John Carteret, 2nd Earl of Granville inherited the Granville District and continued to sell land. However, when he died in 1766, his land office was closed, and no new land could be surveyed nor sold in the Granville District. After the American Revolution began, the North Carolina assembly declared the new state as sovereign over all unsold land in the Granville District and began selling it. This explains the delay with John Wilcoxson being unable to purchase the land on which he settled in Rowan County.
John Wilcoxson was required to sign an Oath of Allegiance when making a North Carolina land entry request numbered 2328 on October 9, 1779, and was granted 640 acres on both sides of Bear Creek in Rowan (now Davie) County, North Carolina with a land entry numbered 2295 on January 9, 1780. This Oath of Allegiance was required by law, and it’s the service that qualifies him as a Patriot during the Revolutionary War.
Kathryn Weiss writes on page 8 of her booklet about Bryan Station that there is a dispute about which John Wilcoxson came to Kentucky in 1779, and a John Wilcoxson signed with his mark Morgan Bryan’s notebook in 1780. She adds that his children migrated to Kentucky, and “Son Israel Wilcoxson rode with the vanguard in spring 1779 and returned to NC in 1780.”
It appears that John Wilcoxson moved to Kentucky between 1778 and 1782 and was noted living near Fort Boonesborough. However, there’s no record that he participated in the Siege of Boonesborough in September 1778.
John Wilcoxson is believed to have returned to North Carolina by 1783. The 1787 Rowan County Tax Lists shown in Capt. Pearson’s District of Rowan (now Davie) County John Wilcoxson’s household with three white males under age 21 or over age 50, one white male between ages 21 and 50, and three white females. The 1789 Rowan County Tax Lists show in Capt. Pearson’s District John Wilcockson with 200 acres. John Wilcoxson, Sr. is shown in the U.S. Census of 1790 in Rowan County, North Carolina with his wife and one male under age sixteen. In the Burgess’ history of the Wilcoxson family, they mention in the 1790 U.S. Census for Yadkin Valley, Rowan County, North Carolina on Bear Creek:
“…lives John Wilcoxson, Sr. next door is John Jr., then a neighbor, and widow, Rachel Miller. This is John’s daughter the widow Rachel (Wilcoxson) Mylar who lost her husband a year before. Rachel could not read or write her name therefore Mylar was pronounced Miller. In Rachael’s family are 2 males under 16 years & 2 females.”
There is a 1793 Rowan County Petition to partition the county, and John Willcockson, Sr. and William Willcockson are shown next to each other along with John Willcoxson, Jr. In 1795, there is a Rowan County Delinquent in Capt. Freeland’s Company a John Wilcockson with one poll.
John Wilcoxson’s last two recorded deeds dated February 26, 1798, are found in Rowan County Deed Book 19 and on pages 254 and 256. The former reads John Willcockson of Rowan County for 525 pounds a parcel of land containing 165 acres on both sides of Bear Creek…part of 640 acres granted unto Jacob Koller, conveyed by Koller to John Willcockson and William Willcockson. Witnesses were Samuel Willcockson and Squire Willcockson. The second deed reads John Willcockson of Rowan County to William Willcockson for 250 pounds, estimation of 160 acres on Bear Creek including John Rowland’s line, now Edward Parkers to Jacob Keller corner. Witnesses were Samuel Willcockson and Squire Willcockson.
It’s believed that John Wilcoxson died shortly after these land conveyances. There is no record of him leaving a Last Will and Testament. He was buried in Joppa Cemetery, also known as Burying Ground Ridge, near other family members and his in-laws Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone.
There are some claims that when John’s wife, Sarah, died in 1815, she was buried at Joppa Cemetery. However, most accounts show that she left Rowan County, when her husband died and moved to Kentucky where she died and is buried in an unmarked grave on one of her children’s farms. Jeremiah F. Willcoxson living in Canton, Illinois in 1861 wrote a letter to Lyman C. Draper (found in Draper Mss 23 CC 47) saying his father was the son of Samuel Willcoxson who was the son of John and Sarah Willcoxson. His letter added that John Willcoxson died in Rowan County, North Carolina, and after that, his wife Sarah “removed to Kentucky with her Grandson (Jesse Boon Willcoxen) with whom she lived till her death which took place in the year 1814 at the age of about 97 years.” The Burgess’ account of Wilcoxson family history says that after John Wilcoxson died, “Sarah went to live with her son Samuel Wilcoxson and died at the home of a grandson, Jesse Wilcoxson, in Estill County, Kentucky in 1814. There is also a genealogist’s account that she migrated to Missouri with the Boone family and is buried there in an unmarked grave. The records of both the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution indicate that Sarah Boone Wilcoxson died in 1815 in Madison County, Kentucky, and her burial location is unknown. Sarah Boone Wilcoxson was previously designated as a Patriot for Patriotic Service in Virginia by both the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution and assigned numbers P-341577 and A001440. However, both organizations now indicate that “Future applicants must prove correct service.”
An article dated August 3, 1975, and written by Gordon Tomlinson in the Salisbury Post on page 1B mentioned that the original log cabin built on the south end of Bear Creek by John and Sarah Wilcockson between 1752 and 1756 still survived in Davie (formerly Rowan) County. The author wrote that the original cabin was incorporated into newer sections of a larger, private home and that the original cabin was 17 feet by 33 feet with three-inch-thick floor planks that were over one foot wide and that there was a narrow staircase to the attic. The home is not open to the public, and the address of the house is 570 Daniel Road, Mocksville, North Carolina.
John and Sarah Boone Wilcoxson’s children who are also Revolutionary War Patriots are as follows:
Daniel Wilcoxson (1755-1825) enlisted as a Private in September 1778 under Captain John Holder in North Carolina. He also served as a Lieutenant under Captain William Hogan and Captain Robert Johnson and was engaged in the Siege of Bryan’s Station in Fayette County, Virginia and in General George Rogers Clark’s expedition. He also volunteered in Rowan County, North Carolina and was discharged in the fall of 1783. He is shown as appearing on January 10, 1780, before Col. Fleming and the Virginia Land Commissioners about his land claim at Bryan’s Station. He later moved to Shelby County, Kentucky. On December 17, 1832, Daniel Wilcoxson applied for a pension while a resident of Shelby County, Kentucky, and it was approved. His pension application shows his birth on March 13, 1755, in Rowan County, North Carolina and states that his name appears as Wilcoxen, Wilcoxon, and Wilcoxson. He died in Shelby County, Kentucky. His DAR Patriot number is A126453.
Israel Wilcoxson (1752-1781) is listed as a Virginia Soldier in “Revolutionary Soldiers of Virginia” by Hamilton Jones Eckenrode published in 1881 by the Virginia State Library., Archives Division. He moved with his parents from North Carolina to Virginia (now Kentucky) and owned land totaling 400 acres. There are a number of accounts about what happened to Israel Boone at Bryan’s Station. Basically, the story is that in 1781, Israel Wilcoxson was sitting on a fence just outside Bryan’s Station serving as a lookout for Indians. Another account says he was sitting on a log picking the flint of his gun while watching his brother Daniel Wilcoxson plowing his cornfield outside the Station’s fortification. Indians attacked and killed Israel, and Daniel was able to run and escape to the safety of the fort. He was then buried near the grave of William Bryan across the creek in the rude station graveyard. After his death, his land was conveyed to Levi Todd.
John Wilcoxson, Jr. (1743-1830) is listed is listed as a Revolutionary War Soldier in Alice Kinyoun Houts’ book Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried in Missouri. She says that he was born around 1744 in Pennsylvania and served in Kentucky. She adds that he died after 1830 in Howard County, Missouri and was buried on his family farm along with his wife Sarah Notson. Records show that their gravesites were lost to agricultural activity after burial.
Sources:
Burgess, Ray and Catherine, Boone – Wilcoxson Families, Self-published, Watsonville, California, 2006.
Draper, Lyman Copeland, Draper Manuscripts, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
Eckenrode, Hamilton Jones, Revolutionary Soldiers of Virginia, Archives Division, Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia, 1881.
Enoch, Harry G., Colonel John Holder: Boonesborough Defender & Kentucky Entrepreneur, Acclaim Press, Morley, Missouri, 2009, page 61.
Find-a-Grave Memorial #39781779, 39781990, 173385216, 91562414, and 61220959.
Houts, Alice Kinyoun, Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried in Missouri, Self-published, 1966.
Linn, Jo White, Rowan County, North Carolina Tax Lists 1757-1800, Annotated Transcriptions, Self-published, Salisbury, North Carolina, 1995.
National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution #A126458, #A001440, and #A126453, dar.org.
National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution #P-319904 and #P-341577, sar.org.
Niemiec, Vera M. Bennett, The Wilcoxson, Boone, Morgan & Allied Families, Self-published, Durant, Oklahoma.
Pruitt, Abstracts of Land Entries, Rowan County, page 35, (Took the Oath of Allegiance tho make a land entry on October 9, 1779).
Rowan County Deeds, Rowan County, North Carolina.
Spraker, Hazel Atterbury, The Boone Family, The Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont, 1922, pages 35 and 56 – 58.
Tomlinson, Gordon, Salisbury Post, Salisbury, North Carolina, August 3, 1975, page 1B.
Tudor, H. Thomas, Early Settlers at Fort Boonesborough, Richmond, Kentucky, 1975, Revised 2016, page 27.
U.S Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935, pages 24 and 25.
Weiss, Kathryn H., Bryan’s Station, Kentucky 1775-1780: The Founders and Builders and Some of Their Stories, and the Great Migration of 1779, Self-published, Forbestown, California, 2008.
Weiss, Kathryn H., Daniel Bryan, Nephew of Daniel Boone: His Narrative and Other Stories, Self-published, Forbestown, California, 2008.
Wulfeck, Dorothy Ford, Willcockson and Allied Families (Willcockson, Wilcoxen, Wilcox), Commercial Service, Printer, Waterbury, Connecticut, 1958.
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