My maternal 12th great-grandmother is Christian Cock. She was born about 1560 in Southwold, Suffolk, England, and died before 3 November 1612 in Somerleyton, Suffolk, England. She married about 1580 in Southwold, Suffolk, England, to Thomas Gentleman. After her husband’s death, she married secondly on 3 June 1600 in Somerleyton, Suffolk, England, to Thomas Harrison. She married twice and had six known children by her first husband and two more by her second husband.

Christian Cock and Thomas Gentleman are my direct ancestors. Thomas Gentleman was the son of William Gentleman and Margaret Balden. There is much more known about my Gentleman ancestors of Dunwich and Southwold, and we can take those lines back much further. I will write about my Gentleman ancestors in the future.

Christian Cock was the daughter of John Cock, who was born about 1540 in Suffolk, England, and died after 27 December 1598 in Southwold, Suffolk, England. Not much is known about her father, John Cock, but he was named in the will of her first husband, Thomas Gentleman, who left him a gold ring. So, we know that he had a cordial relationship with his son-in-law.

There was a will of John Cock of Southwold made on 22 May 1614, and it names all the children of Thomas Gentleman and Christian Cock. However, the wording of the will makes it more likely that this was the will of Christian Cock’s brother or another close relative, rather than that of her father. As well as the fact that her father had died some years before, this will was written, making it highly likely it was the will of her brother or other close kin.

In the 1600s, Southwold, England, was a fishing port town with Puritan emigrants and a history of radicalism. Many Puritans emigrated from Southwold to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s. In 1643/44, Puritanical vandals destroyed 130 pictures and four crosses in the church vestry. My ancestors in Southwold were not Puritans; they were members of the Church of England. Southwold’s economy was based on fishing in the 17th and 18th centuries. The town exported fish to London, Iceland, and the continent. In 1659, a fire destroyed almost the entire town in four hours. When the town was rebuilt, it included large green spaces to prevent future fires. 

Southwold was called Sudwolda in 1086 and Sudwald in 1227. From the Old English language, the name means the south woodland or forest.

Although there are no variations of the Cock surname in the few records available for my ancestors, the name can have variants of Cox, Cocke, and sometimes even Cook and Cooke. The origins of the surnames Cox and Cocke are the same as Cock. Whereas Cook(e) has a different meaning, deriving from a person with the occupation of cook, so it is not related to the surname Cock.

I do have Cox ancestors in my tree that were from England and settled in Colonial Maryland, and I will write about them at some time in the future.

The name has a few origins. First, it may have derived from a nickname given to someone proud or that strutted like a male chicken or an occupational name for someone who kept cocks. From the medieval nickname cok, meaning rooster, cock. The nickname was commonly added to given names to create diminutives such as Hancock or Alcock. It is also another term for a young lad. As cock became a common term for a boy, it may also have been used affectionately as a personal name. Another possibility is that it originated from the Anglo-Saxon word cocc, meaning haycock, heap, or hillock; dweller by the hill or hillock. It could also be from Middle English cok cok(k)e, meaning ship’s boat, and so perhaps used for a boatman. Lastly, in London, it could have been a name for someone who lived or worked at a house or inn known as The Cock from a sign depicting a haycock or mound, a boat, or a cock bird. (1, 2, 3, & 4)

I cannot be sure of the exact origins of the surname Cock in my family tree, but Southwold was a fishing village, and the Gentleman family were fishermen that owned fishing boats. It is possible that both the Cock and Gentleman families worked as fishermen, and that the Cock family’s name came from ship’s boat, and they were boatmen. But any of the above-mentioned origins of the surname could be possible.

My Cock and Gentleman ancestors are on my maternal side and are related to my Davidson and Gilman ancestors that I have written about prior.

My direct line:

1. Christian Cock and Thomas Gentleman.
2. Margaret Gentleman and Richard Ibrook, Jr. “Eyebrooke”
3. Ellen “Helen” Ibrook Eyebrooke and Capt. Joshua Hobart.
4. Deborah Hobart and Joshua Lincoln.
5. Deborah Lincoln and John Lazell.
6. John Lassell and Jael Cushing.
7. Jael Lassell and Christopher Davison.
8. Asa Davidson and Hopestill Hawley.
9. Asa Davidson, Jr. and Catherine Cunningham.
10. Mary Ann Davidson and Jacob (John Jacob) Doman.
11. Sarah Jane “Jennie” Doman and Daniel Prindle.
12. Anna Cora Prindle and Joseph Edward Cole (my maternal great-grandparents).

References:

1. Cock last name popularity, history, and meaning. Name Census.
2. Origin, popularity and meaning of the last name COCK. Geneanet.
3. Last name: Cock. The Internet Surname Database.
4. Cock Name Origin, Meaning and Family History. Your Family History: Surnames.

Further reading:

1. Suffolk Village Signs: Southwold.
2. Suffolk Heritage Explorer. Map of Southwold in the 16th century.
3. Battle of Solebay. Wikipedia. An important battle fought in 1672 near Southwold.
4. Doig, Sarah E., Battling the Elements: Southwold’s Changing Fortunes. A thousand years history.

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