My Mayflower Ancestry - Part 1

Introduction and the Connection to Sir Winston

My story of Mayflower heritage started 14 years ago when I decided to look into my own ancestry. My goal was to simply discover who my direct ancestors were since I wasn't even in possession of that information. I was quite pleased to make it back to my 3rd great grandparents since I had never known about anyone further back than great grandparents. But as I researched further, I discovered the parents of my 3rd great grandmother including the maiden name of her mother, Wilcox. It was intriguing since the name Wilcox was famously debated in Mayflower ancestry as I came to find out. It was involved in a tussle about a specific famous person, Sir Winston Churchill.

The debate revolves around the descendants of Francis Cooke and Richard Warren, both Mayflower passengers. Francis' son John, who was also a Mayflower passenger, married Sarah Warren, Richard's daughter. The daughter from their union, Elizabeth Cooke, married Daniel Wilcox, the person around whom the debate swirls. The assertion that created the turmoil was that Sir Winston was a Mayflower descendant. And the crux of the issue is that Elizabeth was Daniel's second wife. He had a son, Daniel Wilcox, Jr., by, who the General Society of Mayflower Descendants contends, is his son from his first wife. And Sir Winston descended from that bloodline, making him a step-descendant in the Mayflower line  (and in matters relating to the family lines of Mayflower descendants, the findings of "The Society" are the gold standard). All of the children resulting from the union of Daniel Wilcox and Elizabeth Cooke are Mayflower descendants. And it is from that line that my heritage descends. A nice discussion regarding this connection is documented on a website about Churchill written by his grandson, Winston S. Churchill.

Let the Research Begin

This ancestry is not a well-documented lineage all the way down to myself or my father or grandfather. The Society has documented five generations of Mayflower descendants which includes William Wilcox, the great-grandson of Daniel Wilcox. For any person who would like to join The Society, it is incumbent upon them to establish the lineage from themselves to the person known by The Society to be a Mayflower descendant.

After researching the ancestry extensively, I decided that I could not come to a conclusion on my own. There were just too many differing versions of who descended from whom. There is much speculation and undocumented optimism in genealogy and this results in many different family tree structures being generated by amateur genealogists, among whom, I count myself. I didn't want to add to the unsubstantiated confusion by coming up with my own speculative family tree structure. The best way to conclude this one way or the other was to contact The Society. Anyone can apply to The Society without absolute proof of a connection to a Mayflower passenger. If the case cannot be made, you're not a descendant. That's that.

The Society responded with the appropriate documentation, which included the known descendants from Francis Cooke and Richard Warren, all the way to William Wilcox, who married Mary (Molly) Stevens. A vertical pedigree chart for William Wilcox, based on the information provided to me, would look like this.

William Wilcox and  Mary Stevens had eight children. Of these eight, only one had been documented as a Mayflower descendant by The Society. That was William Wilcox, Jr. That documentation came in the form of the application for pension by his mother, the widow Wilcox, held by the National Archives, which includes a handwritten letter from William Jr. in which he described his recollection of his father, a soldier in The War for Independence. Within other documents contained in this dossier, William Jr. states that he was one of eight children but did not provide the names of any of his siblings. It's a fortunate thing for those who descended from William Jr. to apply to The Society as they only need prove their lineage to William Jr. And it's a straight-forward matter for The Society as well. Solid, well documented cases like this will result in a much expedited membership.

Collecting and Examining the Puzzle Pieces

So it was obvious that a quick membership is not what I was in for. Since I had traced my lineage back to my 4th great grandmother, Mary Wilcox, who married and became the wife of John Wyatt, this was the place for me to start. The Society does not have a documentation trail for every person that could be a Mayflower descendant. Only those who have taken the time to establish this paper trail. Documentation trails are the preferred mechanism of proof since things like records of birth, baptism, marriage and death often contain maiden names and the names of father and mother with the mother’s maiden name as well. It's simply a matter of following the links in the chain. It's certainly the way that I would prefer it to be. But it didn't work out that way. But I had something that I thought was very powerful that could provide a circumstantial case for lineage that would be a part of a proof that I could present to The Society. And they did accept circumstantial cases. But you had better come with good evidence.

Starting this journey would have been much more difficult if I had nothing of substance to drive me in the direction of a solution. But I did. It began with the pension application which Molly Wilcox started when she was 88 years old. At that time, she was living in Schuylerville, NY with one of her children. She had lived in Schuylerville since about 1800, so when her children moved out and moved around, she chose to stay at home. But at that old age, she could not take care of herself anymore. And the child that she stayed with her was not her son William Jr. He had moved away to Eagle, NY in Wyoming County, west of The Finger Lakes. He wrote his deposition for the pension committee and sent it back to the person handling the pension matter for his mother. That person was his sister and brother-in-law. Documentation such as pension applications from past wars are stored at the National Archives. Apparently, they save everything. Including the envelope that he used to mail his deposition.

And the letter that William Jr. wrote to the pension committee regarding his father did not contain any information about other members of his family. But it had something just as powerful. Since he was sending this correspondence to his family back in Schuylerville, he decided to include a personal note to them at the end of the deposition. He stated (transcribed just as it appears in the letter):

"a word to John and Mary my health is fine I had a fit of sickness last month I have not Recovered it being troubled with infection of the lungs -- I have Rarely been out this winter I hope these will find you and yours in health I wish to see my friends in Saratoga I proposed in my mind to come there next fall if the Lords willing -- tell Mother I am numbered with the Living -- pleas forward this to the man who is filing the pension"

So, he sent this deposition back to John Wyatt, the husband of Mary Wilcox Wyatt, since they were handling the pension application, and he refers specifically to "mother" in the letter, a personal reference to his mother and Mary Wyatt's mother, Molly Stevens Wilcox who in her infirmity was living with her daughter and son-in-law. All of this could just be speculation on my part as there are several different ways this could be interpreted. I will, however, go on to provide even more evidence that will close the case definitively.