Wiggins - Cooper

 

Two interesting family tree branches are the Wiggins and Coopers.  Below are some of the interesting names (not all) that have been noticed during research:

​

• James Elihu Wiggins (b: 22 Apr 1831 Pike County, AL; m: Susanah Watters 1851; d: 31 Aug 1906 Jamestown, LA) Participated in Civil War as a private in Company D, of 33rd Regiment Alabama Infantry

​

• William Wiggins (b: about 1755 Johnston, NC; m: Elizabeth Cooper 1755; d: 8 Jun 1819 Monroeville, AL) Born to William Wiggins Sr. and Priscilla Brown.  Served in the Revolutionary War in North Carolina's 10th Regiment of Foot commanded by Col. Abraham Sheppard.  He enlisted in Coleman’s Company of the North Carolina line for 12 months, and served in the militia of the District of Wilmington in Wilkerson’s Company in 1781-1782.  William married Elizabeth Cooper (born about 1759 to Fleet Cooper, Sr. and Margaret Coor) around 1775 in Sampson County, North Carolina and after the war raised eight sons and one daughter. In the fall of 1817, William and Elizabeth Wiggins and their four oldest sons and their families, joined with their extended families and neighbors in a wagon train that was formed in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  Slowly they made their way through South Carolina, garnered passport through the Indian country of Georgia, until they connected with the Old Federal Road that brought them into Southwest Alabama.  One of the four sons (Elisha) left the convoy at Greenville and settled in Butler County.  Another son, Elihu, departed when the group reached Burnt Corn and settled in Sparta in Conecuh County. The other two sons, (Stephen and Elijah) and their father (William) moved on and settled in the Mexia, Alabama area.  Later, Elijah moved his family to what is known as the Red Hills area in northern Monroe County, where he resided until his death.  The order of business for the newly arrived Wiggins families was to apply for a land grant, clear the land for crops, and found a church.  On Nov. 28, 1817, William Wiggins and his sons joined the founding of Old Salem Baptist Church and served among its first deacons. This is believed to have been the first Baptist Church established in all of Monroe County, which in 1817 was still a part of the Alabama Territory (Alabama did not become a state until 1819) and included all the former land area claimed by the Creek Indian Nation. William Wiggins died on June 6, 1819 and thus only enjoyed his frontier home less than two years. Since there was no established cemetery in the area at the time of his death, he was buried in an obscure plot of his land.  Six years later in 1825, William Wiggins' wife, the former Elizabeth Cooper died and was buried next to her husband. Throughout the following years, other family members were buried nearby on the same plot. Today, there are 68 marked graves and 44 unknown graves that are marked with large rocks located at present day 430 Thompson Drive in Mexia in the Wiggins cemetery that is managed by Wiggins descendant.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

​

​

• John W. Wiggins (b: about 1716 Surry, VA; m: Catherine Bray Baker about 1748; d: 15 Jul 1786 Martin, NC) Sources differ on where John W. Wiggins was born…either Surry, Virginia, while others say he was an Englishman who came over and settled on the Roanoke River in Martin County, North Carolina about 50 years before the Revolution.  John was a very land conscious landlord running from Enfield to Hamilton.  John first married in 1748 to Catherine Bray Baker, the daughter of Colonel Henry Baker. Henry Baker (1684-1739) was commissioned Colonel in the Colonial Militia of his district. He was the proprietor of the first ferry crossing Chowan River, between Mt. Gallant Fishery and the mouth of the Meherrin River. This ferry was in operation prior to 1722, and was known as the Henry Baker Ferry. John Wiggin’s second marriage was to Ruth Chancey in 1724 in North Carolina. John Wiggin’s wife, Catherine died in 1766 and after he married Elizabeth Bevins on Sept. 30, 1766 in Bertie County, North Carolina.  He was a planter whose crops included flax.

​

• Thomas Wiggin (b: 1640 Dover, NH; m: Sarah Barefoot 1759; d: 1700 Hampton, NH) Wife Sarah Barefoot had a brother, Captain Walter Barefoot, who fought with Thomas’ older brother, Andrew Wiggins, both in court and physically (bit face). The nature of the conflicts in court records stated molestation, stealing pistol, defamation, business takeovers, etc.

​

• Thomas Wiggin (b: 1592 Douglas, Lancashire, England; m: Catherine Whiting; d: 22Mar 1666 Hampton, NH) Captain Thomas Wiggin first appears in colonial records as a signatory to the Wheelwright Deed in May 1629 which transferred land along the seacoast of present-day New Hampshire from the local Indians to a group of English colonists led by Reverend John Wheelwright.  He was a land owner and close ally of Governor John Winthorp of the neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony.  In 1632, he traveled to England, and returned the following year with expanded powers and 30 Puritan settlers acting as governor of the plantation until it’s inhabitants established a more formal government in 1637.  When Massachusetts’s authorities asserted territorial claims over the New Hampshire plantations in the early 1640s, Wiggin represented them in the colonial assembly, and eventually rose to become a member of the Massachusetts council of assistants.  Wiggin was a Puritan and extremely religious. He ascribed fervently to the belief that the Anglican Church had to be cleansed of Catholic theology and ritual. He was convinced that God would punish England for its heresy, and believed that English Puritans needed to create a New England in a new world.  (A book has been published about him titled Shadow Echo Me the Life and Times of Captain Thomas Wiggin 1601-1666, the Making of American Values, by Joyce Wiggin-Robbins.)

​

• Fleet Cooper (b: 1722 Philadelphia, PA; m: Margaret Coor 1747; d: 1795 Sampson, NC) Fleet Cooper, Sr. was born to Benjamin Cooper and Elizabeth Kelly in 1722 and moved with his family in 1725 to Isle of Wight County, Virginia, and then to Loudon County, Virginia.  He married in 1747 to Margaret (Marguerite) Coor of Loudon County, Virginia who was the daughter of Thomas Coor of Northampton County, North Carolina.  Margaret appears to have first married Fleets younger brother, Thomas, and then Fleet after Thomas’ death.  On January 21, 1764, Fleet was a resident of Dobbs County, North Carolina, when he bought 100 acres on Great Coharie, Duplin County, North Carolina.  Later he received grants for more than 1,000 acres of land located at Concord, six miles west of Clinton on Highway 24.  At the beginning of the American Revolution, Fleet Cooper, Sr. was the 17thof 21 signers of the “Oath of Allegiance and Abjuration” (November 1777) passed by the General Assembly at New Bern declaring his loyalty to North Carolina and not to Parliament or the King of Great Britain. Immediately after the surrender of the British Army at Yorktown, he was among those who worked to establish Sampson County and was appointed by the Governor as one of the 12 justices appointed to the Court of Please and Quarterly Sessions in 1784 and held that position until ill health forced him to retire.  After the Coopers arrived in what is now Sampson County, they were members of Coharie Baptist (Rowan) Church where Fleet was pastor from 1785 to 1787.  After his death in 1795, the Religious Herald (February 22, 1828, pg 27) said Fleet was an “advocate for the doctrines of the cross in the Baptist church for fifty years” and the Goshen Baptist Association Minutes, 1828 (North Carolina) said he “appeared somewhat blunt in his manners, on a superficial acquaintance; but was found to be essentially kind and polite on further intercourse...His public discourses, in the judgment of the worldling, were often a little rigid, but strictly scriptural in the opinion of the Church, generally doctrinal, though he chiefly excelled in practical and experimental preaching, the impressions of which will long remain on the hearts of many who have been refreshed and built up by his searching addresses.” Fleet Cooper Sr.'s son John (1748-1792) was a Captain in the North Carolina militia, his son William was a Lieutenant in the 5th Continental Line, and his son Fleet Jr (1750-1828) is said to have fought in the Revolutionary War, but no records have been found.

​

• Benjamin Cooper (b: 1691 Philadelphia, PA; m: Elizabeth Kelly; d: 1761 Granville, NC) Benjamin Cooper was born to parents James Benjamin Cooper and Hester Burrows.  He first married Sarah Ester Burton who was born about 1701 in England.  Later, he married Elizabeth Kelley November 28, 1720 in Christchurch, Philadelphia who was born 1699 in Philadelphia.  According to Murphy Rowe Cooper (The Cooper Family), "Benjamin Cooper was somewhat visionary. He imagined that if he could leave Philadelphia and get into the 'great out of doors' he could soon become a great county Gentleman. So, he left Philadelphia going to Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Loudon County, Virginia, and eventually Cape Fear River, North Carolina where he died in 1761.  Elizabeth died in 1780 in Loudon County, Virginia.

​

• James Benjamin Cooper (b: May 16, 1661 Stratford on Avon, England; d: Dec 4, 1732 Philadelphia, PA) James Benjamin Cooper of Stratford-on-Avon, England was born to George Ashley Cooper (twin of Anthony Ashley Cooper) and Elizabeth Oldfield in 1661.  James immigrated to America in 1682 aboard the ship Welcome with William Penn and was given land in Gloucester County, New Jersey.  Tradition says that James was a minister and signed a note with some of his parishioners. It was a bad crop year, and they were unable to pay, and the creditors looked to him. At that time in England, when one could not pay a debt, he was put in prison. Out of respect for him, the authorities gave him the choice of coming to America. Tradition further states that he was visiting an old friend, Edward Byllinge, who carried him around and showed him several sites, watching to see which one appealed to him most, then gave him the deed to it the next day. Whether that story be true or not, we do not know, but the deed, dated September 21, 1682, reads: “Edward Byllinge to James Cooper 50 acres, consideration out of good will and kindness for ye truth's sake he beareth unto you said property.''  In December 1684 James bought a lot on Chestnut St. between 4th and 5th Streets in Philadelphia, across from where the old marble customhouse would later be built.  He sold the New Jersey land on Oct. 20, 1685 and settled in Philadelphia, where he was a Petit Juror in 1686 and Foreman of the Grand Jury in Feb. 1701.  He married first Hester Burrows, but there is mention of a wife named Mary in his will.  James was a first cousin of Judge Cooper of Burlington, New Jersey who was father of the author James Fennimore Cooper.

​

• George Ashley Cooper (b: 22 Jul 1621 Wimbourne, England; m: Elizabeth Oldfield 1645; d: 28 Jan 1683 Stratford on Avon, England) Cooper was born to Sir John Cooper, 1st Baronet of Rockbourne in Hampshire, and his mother was former Anne Ashley, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Anthony Ashley, 1st Baronet. He was born on 22 July 1621, at the home of his maternal grandfather Sir Anthony Ashley in Wimborne St. Giles,  Dorset.  Twin brother Anthony Ashley Cooper (July 22, 1621 – Jan 21, 1683), also known as the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, was a PROMINENT English politician during the reign King Charles II, a founder of the Whig party. The history and life Anthony Ashley Cooper is well documented with stories of starting a riot at Exeter College, Oxford, serving as a Royalist, and illness with a hydatid cyst that left a tube inserted to drain fluid and being nicknamed "Tapski" from enemies.

​

• Sir John Cooper (b: 24 Oct 1597; m: Ann Elizabeth Ashley 1617; d: 23 Mar 1631 Rockburn, England) John Cooper married Ann Elizabeth Ashley, daughter of Baron Sir Anthony Ashley II (1551 - 1628) Secretary of Queen Elizabeth I's Council of War, and King James I's Privy Council and knighted for his services at the capture of Calais, Knight of Wimborne, Saint Giles, co. Dorset.  In 1623, John Cooper was living with his father-in-law in St. Giles-in-the-Fields and was probably recommended to the electors of Poole in 1625 by his wife’s uncle, Sir Francis Ashley. Despite his hostility to popery, Cooper displayed no obvious puritan leanings, being ‘of an easy and an affable nature’ and a compulsive gambler. Ann Ashley Cooper died of smallpox in 1628, shortly after succeeding the Ashley estate, and Cooper, who was reputedly ‘very lovely and graceful both in face and person’, married again to another wealthy widow. According to family tradition he kept three houses fully furnished and staffed, and exercised great hospitality at each of them.  He died of consumption in March 23, 1631 at Cassiobury, his wife’s jointure estate, and was buried at Wimborne St. Giles, leaving debts computed at £40,000 or more.  Sir John Cooper and Ann Ashley Cooper had two twin sons, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper (1621-1683), usually known as “Lord Ashley,” the 1st earl of Shaftesbury, who became one of the leading politicians of the Restoration era and George Ashley Cooper (1621 - 1682), who went to America in 1681, settling in Philadelphia, where he had eight children.

​

• Sir John Cooper (b: Dec 1558 Drew, England; m: Martha Skutt; d: 13 Jan 1627 Whitchurch, England) John Cooper married the daughter of Anthony Skutt, Esquire of Stanton Drew, in Somersetshire.  He received the honor of knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.  He was a soldier who sat for Whitchurch in 1584 and 1586 and died in 1627 a prosperous landowner, owning nearly 7,000 acres in Somerset and Hampshire, including the Rockbourne estate, in the county of Southampton, which he had only recently purchased.

​

• Richard Cooper (b: 8 Jan 1538 Rudgwick, England; m: June Kingsmill; d: 8 May 1566 Manor Paulette, South Hampton, England) Richard Cooper inherited large estates from his father (John Cooper, Esq. of co Hants.) and brother in Sussex and Southhampton. Richard married June Kingsmill, daughter of Sir John Kingsmill of Sydmonton (died 1509) and Joan Gifford.  He purchased the Manor of Paulette in 1532, the 23rd year of Henry VIII.