The First Generation Of Hockers

NOTE: I obtained this data from someone who was researching the Hocker family. I do not know how accurate this data is. The First Generation Of Hockers
2a. John Hocker. (Source Codes – MW1, MW2, NMN1, VEP83.) According to Margaret Turner Higgins Keller (see Chapter 7c2a2h9), John Hocker was born about 1635 in Conwy, Wales. What we are sure of is John Hocker arrived in Northumberland Co, Virginia in 1647 in a ship whose name we do not know, and left the “old world” from somewhere in the British Isles. If you look at a map of Maryland and Virginia you will note that Northumberland Co, Va is exactly across (about 10 to 15 miles) the Potomac River from St Mary’s City, Md. According to the “Cavaliers and Pioneers” by Nell Marion Nugent, page 209, he shows patent book number 2, volume 1, page 300 that Thomas Orley was demanding 100 acres for the transport of John Hawkers and Henry Wickers the 1st of April 1651. Normally four years of servitude was the price paid for transport to the colonies. In return, after the servitude was rendered the person that paid the transport would receive 50 acres for each person transported to the colonies. Thomas Orley had been transported to Maryland in 1635 and lived in St. Mary’s Co. It is also believed that Thomas Orley was Catholic. The will of Thomas Diniard, dated the 1st of November 1659 and proved the 28th of December 1659 in St. Mary’s Co, Md, mentions John Hocker and his wife. Thomas Diniard was also a Catholic. We are sure from Thomas Diniard’s will that John Hocker was married before November 1659 and his first wife must have died on or before 1670. Then John Hocker married Elizabeth Wright in 1671 in Annapolis, Ann Arundel Co, Md. Elizabeth was at least fifteen years younger then John Hocker. According to members of the family line of Ambrose Cook Hocker, the son of Nicholas Hocker and his second wife who was the daughter of Ambrose Cook, Ambrose Cook Hocker left his grandfather John Hocker’s bible to his youngest son, William Hocker. Ambrose Cook Hocker and his wife Lydia Butts had thirteen children, the youngest son William Hocker receiving a part or all of the original bible of John Hocker. It was confirmed that pages of this bible apparently existed recently, but we are still trying to located any part of this bible. Of course, this was not like the bible which we know, but an earlier kind of document that contained biblical passages and prayers. According to recently learned family legend John Hocker was on the way to church with the family maid when he was kidnapped. He then was sold to the captain of a ship that was about to sail to the new world. So John Hocker arrived in Northumberland Co, Va in 1647 and was about twelve years old and had only his bible and the clothes he had on him when he was kidnapped. We can only imagine what a shocking and terrible experience that would be, and only 12 years old. The trip over to the colonies took several weeks, and was really something for adults, let alone a kidnapped youngster. We have knowledge that many young boys were kidnapped and sent to the colonies during this time period. We also know that the German population of England were disliked by the locals. The Germans that lived in the Cornwall area were rather well-off since we know they had many local servants working for them. This story about the kidnapping of John Hocker is very likely true since he was only twelve and being that he arrived in the colonies without any family coming with him or any family or relatives there to receive him. John was sold into servitude for at least four years, and maybe longer. Since arriving in 1647 the next we hear of him is in the will of Thomas Dinard, written in 1659, in which he mentions giving a roasting pig to John Hocker’s wife. It seems likely that John Hocker and his first wife, which is mentioned in Diniard’s will, had several children. It is very possible that John Hocker and his first wife had a son named John Hocker jr. John Hocker sr and his first wife more than likely had several daughters, but we have absolutely no proof. John Hocker sr’s second wife Elizabeth Wright was born between 1650 to 1654 in Scotland and arrived in Annapolis, Maryland in 1671 from Scotland along with her parents, John Wright and his wife Barbara, maiden name unknown. John Hocker may have paid her transport, along with the transport of John Wright and his wife Barbara in return for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage. It is likely that they married in Annapolis, Md in 1671. Elizabeth and John Hocker had four children we know of, Robert Hocker born about 1672, then William Hocker, born about 1682, then Nicholas Hocker born about 1684, and finally Margaret Hocker, born about 1686. When Robert Hocker’s daughter Elizabeth administrated the probate of her late husband Samuel Pruitt, she stated that Philip Hocker was her next of kin. Therefore, since Philip’s dad was Nicholas Hocker it validates that Robert Hocker and Nicholas Hocker were brothers. Margaret Turner Higgins Keller in her application for the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) states that John Hocker was born in Conwy, Wales about 1635. Many of the items mentioned by Margaret have proved to be wrong, but the idea that John was born in Wales (or near Wales) is gaining firm acceptance since we have learned that many German miners migrated to Cornwall, England and possibly Wales from Augsburg, Bavaria in 1566. Mary Louise [Hocker] McIlwain (see Chapter 9e2d2f7e1), one our Hocker genealogists who has been researching our ancestors in Wales and England for the better part of thirty years, has found many records of Hocker marriages in Cornwall during this period. Margaret mentioned that John’s father was Nicholas Hocker, and his grandparents were William and Alice Hocker, as shown on the tombstone of Nicholas Hocker in Conwy, Wales. Since then Mary has found out that the tombstone has the name Nicholas Hookes on it. If Margaret went to Wales and found this tombstone, or she found this information in John Hocker’s will is not known. However, we are not certain that Nicholas did not change his name to Hookes, which is English, rather then continue to put up with the persecution of being of German stock and living in England or Wales. Hocker means peddler in German, and is not in anyway a Welsh, Irish, Scot, or English name. Also the fact that the Thirty Year War (1618 to 1648) called the “Counter-Reformation” kept any and all Germans from leaving Germany, Switzerland, or France. Since we know John Hocker migrated to the colonies in 1647, it seems very likely that he had to come from the British Isles rather then the mainland of Europe. So we are waiting further word from a researcher in England as to the father of John Hocker, and the history of our family line from the time they first arrived in England till John’s forced migration to the new world. Before they arrived in England in 1566, our ancestors lived in and around Augsburg, Bavaria, where the powerful industrialists Jakob Fugger II the Rich lived. It was the Fugger family that ran some of the mines in England, as a payback to money lent to the English throne, probably during the reign of Henry VIII. During the 16th century the Fugger family was one of the three richest and most powerful families in Europe. In William O. Wingeard’s, “A German-American Hacker - Hocker Genealogy” he mentions in the German Books of Heraldry (Siebmacher, Volume VII) the following is recorded for the name Hocker. An old German line from the 15th century, stemming from Bavaria. Ancestors of this family bravely took part in the crusades, the first crusade was about 1050, and the last in 1238. The above mentioned genealogy of Wingeard is about the Pennsylvania Hocker line which first migrated from Wruttemburg, Bavaria to our shores in 1740. This line of Hockers is related to our line of Hockers all the way back to Bavaria in the 14th century or earlier. Augsburg was named after the Roman Emperor Augustus in 15 bc. Augsburg became a free city in 1276. Is it possible that the name Hocker goes back to the time of Christ? Yes it is very possible that the Hocker line does go back that far. So the Hockers were from Baden-Wurttemburg in Bavaria in southwestern part of Germany and possibly the northern portion of Switzerland, and from there spread out to Silesia, Bohemia, along with other parts of Germany, as well as Spain, Italy, Wales, England, Peru, Chili, Poland, and of course the American colonies. John Hocker may have been Catholic, since the Fugger family of Augsburg, Bavaria were ardent supporters of the Pope and the Catholic faith. It may very well be that when the persons were picked to migrate to England it was a prerequisite to be Catholic. Then again it may have been just the opposite, since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of his church and officially broke with the Catholic church in 1517. In 1530 a basic statement of faith of the Lutheran church was drawn up in Augsburg. Either in 1552 or 1555 in Bavaria, which Augsburg was the major city, it became officially made Catholic and the Lutherans had to leave. So either John Hocker’s grandfather or great grandfather migrated between 1525 and 1570, and more then likely in 1566 to England and could have been either Protestant or Catholic. We also have to wonder why John Hocker ended up in a Catholic colony, Maryland. It may very well be that John was Catholic and joined the Church of England later after the Maryland/Puritan War when the St. Mary’s City courthouse was burned to the ground, and the Catholics routed from power. This hostility shown to the Catholics was based on the Thirty Year War, which caused one out of every three Germans to die. This problem in Maryland was the reason for our Bill of Rights which declares freedom of religion, and the separation of church and state. The Puritans in Maryland and Virginia vowed to keep any government in Maryland from becoming a Catholic state. To this day, the many Catholics of America do not understand this problem, but our ancestors did, and that is why we have no church controlled government. The Baptist ministers had the same problem with the Church of England, which was the state-church of England and the Colonies. The ministers of the Church of England got paid and finanical help for their churches from the state, or colony, but the Baptist ministers got nothing. Thus when it was time for our independence, it would be made unmistakenly clear that government and church would always be separate. Another thing that Margaret Turner Higgins Keller stated was that John Hocker was an attorney. This may be true since we have found his name (looked like John Harker, rather then Hocker) as a witness to the Governor Greene’s will. Legend also has it that John Hocker spoke German as well as English, and that German was spoken in the home. This maybe true, but as stated it is just legend and must be considered as such. Especially considering that John Hocker’s second wife Elizabeth Wright was Scottish. It is possible that John Hocker did do legal work and helped with German-speaking families in the area. But there weren’t to many Germans in Maryland in the late 1600’s. Knowing German families as I do, it is possible that while his parents and grandparents lived in England and in John’s home in St. Mary’s Co, Md the German language was spoken to some degree. We do not know what nationality John Hocker’s first wife was, so that doesn’t help. We do know that John Hocker did not marry Mary Greene, the governor’s daughter, since according to the researcher hired by Vern Payne, who states that there was no daughter Mary Greene. For a long time I felt that John had married Mary Furby, which is still a possibility, but we have no proof of who John’s first wife was. Family legend has John’s first wife with a given name of Mary. Robert Hocker’s daughter Elizabeth was named after Robert’s mother, Elizabeth Wright. It is certain that John married twice, the second time to Elizabeth Wright in 1671 who was born and raised in Scotland. It is unlikely that Elizabeth learned to speak or understand German. More than likely John Hocker was a renter since we find no record of property in his name. Of course, this does not make it so, since as stated the courthouse was burned down and most of the records destroyed. Another thing is John Hocker may have received 50 acres of land for paying the transportation to America for his wife Elizabeth Wright, and also for her father John Wright and his wife Barbara, thus totalling 150 acres. We have no record of this happening, but it is very possible. We are certain that 1) Robert Hocker (see Chapter 3a) was born about 1672 in St Mary’s Co, Md and raised in St Mary’s Co and Prince George’s Co, Md. Robert Hocker married Amy Selby about 1698 in Prince George’s Co, Md. Amy was born in 1679 in Prince George’s Co, Md the daughter of William Selby and Mary, maiden name unknown of Prince George’s Co, Md. Amy and Robert Hocker had four children. For information about their children, see Chapter 3a. Amy [Selby] Hocker died before 1711 and Robert Hocker died sometime before his will, which was written the 20th of April 1711 and was proved, the 5th of May 1711 in Prince George’s Co, Md. (Source Codes – MW2, MW3.) 2) William Hocker (see Chapter 3b) was born about 1682 in St Mary’s Co, Md and raised in Prince George’s Co, Md. William Hocker married Sarah Price the 26th of January 1708 in All Hallows Parish, in Anne Arundel Co, Md. Sarah was the daugther of Thomas Price. (Source Code – RWB1.) 3) Nicholas Hocker (see Chapter 3c) was born about 1684 in St Mary’s Co, Md and raised in Prince George’s Co, Md. Nicholas Hocker married twice, first to Sophia Sim about 1710 and probably in Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co, Md. Sophia was christened the 6th of July 1684 in Burntisland, Scotland the daughter of Patrick Sim (born 1660 the son of Patrick Sim in Queensferry, Scotland) and Violet Straquhan. Sophia and Nicholas Hocker had three children we know of before Sophia died. Then Nicholas Hocker married the daughter of Ambrose Cook. At this time we do not know of Nicholas’s second wife’s given name. We do know that they had a son. For information about all of Nicholas Hocker’s children, see Chapter 3c. (Source Codes – VEP83, KMG1, JTS1, HL1.) 4) Margaret Hocker (see Chapter 3d) was born about 1686 in St Mary’s Co, Md and raised in St Mary’s Co and Prince George’s Co, Md. Margaret Hocker married James Hook about 1707 in Queen Anne’s Parish, Prince George’s Co, Md. James Hook was born about 1685 in St Mary’s Co, Md the son of Thomas Hook and Annaple [maiden name unknown] who married about 1681 in St Mary’s Co, Md. Margaret and James Hook had six children we know of, all born in Prince George’s Co, Md. For information about their children, see Chapter 3d. James Hook died the 21st of June 1837 in Prince George’s Co, Md. (Source Codes – MW2, Cd 206.) We have reason to believe that the children of John Hocker and his first wife could have had a son John Hocker jr and possibly several daughters who were born between 1660 and 1670 that were raised and married off in the Maryland Colony. John Hocker and his second wife, Elizabeth Wright may have had several more daughters born between 1673 and 1680 that we do not know about. Whether Benjamin Thrasher married once or twice, we know for certain that he married Nicholas Hocker’s first born, Mary Hocker in 1725 and had the following children: Thomas, James, William, Sarah, Mary, John, Margaret, and Benjamin Jr. Thomas Hook sr’s (who married Annaple, maiden name unknown) son James Hook married Margaret Hocker, the daughter of John Hocker and Elizabeth Wright. We know this for two reasons, first James Hook’s son John Hook had mentioned in his will that Thomas Thrasher, the son of Benjamin Thrasher and Mary Hocker was his next-of-kin. Along with that, we found the 1718 lease in which land was given to Margaret Hook and Elizabeth Hawkes (certainly Hawker, therefore Hocker) from John Maddin who finished this lease which was originally started by John Wright, Elizabeth Hocker’s father. This verifies another thing, and that is Margaret Hook, the wife of James Hook was the daughter of the widow Elizabeth Hocker. From the Prince George Co, Md probate of Benjamin Thrasher it lists James Lauzear and Mary Luzear as next of kin. It is very likely that the youngest orphaned daughter of Robert Hocker and Amy Selby, Amy Hocker married a Luzear. It has been proved that the early Hook, Thrasher, and Hocker families are related to each other by the marriages of Benjamin Thrasher to Mary Hocker and James Hook to Margaret Hocker. If there is something new found about John Hocker’s family, or his wife or wives, we will notify everyone we have made contact with along with all the members of the Hocker/Hook/Pruitt/Thrasher Website. 2b. Thomas Hocker/Hawker. (Source Code – MW1, GS1, Cd 354, Cd 206.) We first find Thomas Hawker as given in Gust Skordas “Early Settlers of Maryland” as being transported to the colony of Maryland in 1659. Apparently Thomas’s transport was paid by Henry Needham who died at sea before 1663. Thomas then married his Henry’s widow Patience [maiden name unknown] Needham. From her first marriage she had three daughters, Dorothy, Margaret, and Mary Needham. Some time after arriving it is believed that Patience died, and Thomas Hocker then married Patience’s eldest daughter Dorothy. We have the Cecil Co, Md will of Thomas Hawker dated the 5th of October 1683 which shows his wife as Dorothy, and son Thomas, and daughter Sarah. Thomas’s daughter Sarah married William Elms in 1692 and his son Thomas may not have married, or if he did, did not have any children. It is possible that Thomas was John Hocker’s brother, or cousin. Maybe one of these days we will known for sure. As of now, we do not know anymore about Thomas Hocker other than there was a Thomas Hooker (Hocker) who arrived about 1668 in Virginia as shown in the “Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants” by Nell Marion Nugent as shown in volume 2, page 110. His transport was paid by Colonel Augustine Warner. We do not know of anymore information about this second Thomas, except that it is very likely that he is Thomas Hooker who settled in the Baltimore, Md area and had many children. 2c. Isaac Hocker. (Source Codes – NMN2, Cd 354.) The only information we have about Isaac Hocker is he and his wife Mary and daughter Susanna arrived about 1670 and their transport was paid by John Kemp of Lower Norfolk Co, Va the 25th of September 1674 as shown in volume 2, page 154, of “Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants” by Nell Marion Nugent. Isaac Hocker owned his own land as shown in this same book, page 152, which references his land. This is all the information we have on Isaac and his family. 2d. Enoch Hocker/Hawker. (Source Codes – NMN1, NMN2.) Enoch Hocker and Anthony Doney were given 1000 acres of land in Lancaster Co, Va but by 1656 they apparently had deserted the land and others were granted it. We know no more information about Enoch Hocker. 2e. Ferdinand Hocker/Hawker. (Source Code – NMN2, Cd 354.) Ferdinand arrived in Virginia about 1667 or 1668 and his transport was paid by Lawrence Robinson of Northampton Co, Va. This is the only information we have about Ferdinand Hocker. 2f. Mr. Hocker. (Source Code – Cd 350.) We found a Mr. Hocker mention in 1635 in Marblehead, New England. This is the only time we had any reference to a Hocker in New England at this time. 2g. Dorothy Hocker/Hawker. (Source Code – Cd 354, Cd 350.) Dorothy migrated to Virginia in 1647, which means she may have arrived in 1643. In November of 1647 the will of Humphrey Hawker of St. Mary le Bow, London mentions his daughter Dorothy in Virginia. This is all we know of Dorothy. 2h. Edward Hocker/Hawker. (Source Code – Cd 354, Cd 350.) Edward migrated to Virginia in 1657 and may have arrived in 1653. We know of Edward’s brother in St. Martin Ludgate, London, George Hawker. There also was a Edward Hocker who migrated to New England the 17th of June 1696-9. These are two separate people. 2i. Richard Hocker/Hawker. (Source Code – Cd 354, Cd 350.) Richard arrived in Maryland in 1733 and was 16 at the time. He was from St. James Westminister. Apparently Richard was convicted of something, and shipped to Maryland and bound to Neal MacNeal and was to serve a sentence of 6 years in servitude. 2j. Timothy and Joseph Hocker/Hawker. (Source Code – Cd 354, Cd 350.) Timothy and Joseph were shipped to Barbados, after capture the 8th of July 1685. Timothy and Joseph were scottish rebels.